Leovigild's monetary reform of the late sixth century was one of the most deliberate acts of political currency manipulation in post-Roman Europe. He systematically debased and then restruck coinage to assert independent Visigothic authority, breaking from the convention of striking tremisses in the name of the reigning Byzantine emperor — a practice his predecessors had maintained as a form of nominal deference to Constantinople. This particular emission, attributed to the Amasio mint, dates to the years of his campaign against his own son Hermenegild, who had converted to Catholicism and led a revolt backed by Byzantine support.
Amasio has been tentatively identified with modern Amaya in Castile. The localization remains contested.
Leovigild's monetary reform of the late sixth century was one of the most deliberate acts of political currency manipulation in post-Roman Europe. He systematically debased and then restruck coinage to assert independent Visigothic authority, breaking from the convention of striking tremisses in the name of the reigning Byzantine emperor — a practice his predecessors had maintained as a form of nominal deference to Constantinople. This particular emission, attributed to the Amasio mint, dates to the years of his campaign against his own son Hermenegild, who had converted to Catholicism and led a revolt backed by Byzantine support.
Amasio has been tentatively identified with modern Amaya in Castile. The localization remains contested.