Guaifer ruled Salerno during a period of acute Lombard political fragmentation, when the old principality of Benevento had already split and southern Italy was contested between Lombard lords, Byzantine catepans, and Arab raiders pressing inland from their bases in Sicily and along the Campanian coast. That Salerno maintained a functioning silver coinage at all during this period reflects less monetary ambition than the practical necessity of paying troops and conducting trade with a hostile Mediterranean.
The catalog references place this firmly among the earliest documented issues of the Salernitan mint.
Guaifer ruled Salerno during a period of acute Lombard political fragmentation, when the old principality of Benevento had already split and southern Italy was contested between Lombard lords, Byzantine catepans, and Arab raiders pressing inland from their bases in Sicily and along the Campanian coast. That Salerno maintained a functioning silver coinage at all during this period reflects less monetary ambition than the practical necessity of paying troops and conducting trade with a hostile Mediterranean.
The catalog references place this firmly among the earliest documented issues of the Salernitan mint.