![Sample our Arts journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110799/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Arts.jpg"})
Abstract
Using the large collection of crusader coins at the Museum of the Order of St. John as a starting point, this paper explores some of the non-monetary roles that coins played in the crusading world. A significant number show evidence of secondary use, with some being pierced for suspension to be used as items of jewelry. Through this transformation such coins would have lost their monetary value but would have gained new values that were just as powerful. These coins were probably worn as amulets, their effectiveness and power being aided by the materiality, function, and iconography of the coins themselves. This paper argues that in being worn, held, and touched, these repurposed coins were used by individuals in their everyday experience and expression of belief within the changing sociopolitical landscape of the Latin East.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Rosie Weetch
Rosie Weetch is a curator and researcher with a broad interest in the material culture of the early and late medieval period. She has published on aspects of medieval dress and co-edited (with Toby Martin) Dress and Society: Contributions from Archaeology (Oxbow, 2017). Rosie has co-curated two projects at the British Museum, the major exhibition Celts: Art and Identity (2015–2016) and the BBC Radio 4 series and exhibition Living with Gods: Peoples, Places and Worlds Beyond (2017–2018). Prior to this, she was part of the curatorial team for the redevelopment of the British Museum’s permanent early medieval galleries (2014). Between 2015 and 2016 she was a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, working on the “Bearers of the Cross” project with the Museum of the Order of St. John to catalogue and publish their medieval collection online (https://www.bearersofthecross.org.uk).