Architetture su monete medievali e moderne

Throughout history, architecture has been used as a vehicle of political propaganda by ruling authorities. Yet, what role did it play in comparison to another important tool for conveying symbols and ideological messages, such as money? While representations of buildings were uncommon on ancient Greek coins, they appeared much more frequently on coins from ancient and imperial Rome. How were monuments and architectural spaces represented on medieval and early modern coins issued by Italian authorities? This paper makes an initial attempt to gather these coin types in a single contribution, categorising them and explaining, where possible, the historical and cultural context behind their choice. A diatopic and diachronic analysis highlights that, apart from cases where an architectural element became the defining symbol of a city, the representation of buildings on Italian coins has generally been inconsistent and closely tied to specific moments in the buildings’ history.