Byzantine Nomisma

About Byzantine Nomisma

The Byzantine name for the gold solidus. The nomisma was the standard gold coin of the Byzantine Empire for centuries. The term hyperpyron nomisma was used for the redesigned coin of Alexius I Comnenus in 1092. The nomisma per metallon referred to the purity standard of the coin. The decline of the nomisma from pure gold to electrum to billon traces the economic decline of Byzantium from the height of its power to its final centuries.