Ritratti di sovrane nella monetazione medioevale europea

The contribution focuses on female representations on medieval coinage. In particular, it examines the coin portraits of three queens: Queen Cynethryth of Mercia, Queen Urraca of Castile, and Maria of Aragon, Queen of Sicily, who ascended the throne either through marriage or succession. As such, they were able to issue coins, granted by royal or imperial privilege, creating the only known coins with female portraits from the medieval period. Breaking with the tradition where portrait types were an exclusive privilege of male rulers, the coinage of these queens, through their innovation, had a profound influence on the coinage of the centuries following their time.