The collection of over 12,000 Byzantine coins at Dumbarton Oaks is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The majority of these specimens were catalogued in six print volumes: Catalogue of Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, edited by Alfred Bellinger (vol. 1), Philip Grierson (vols. 2–3, 5), and Michael Hendy (vol. 4), and Catalogue of Late Roman Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, edited by Philip Grierson and Melinda Mays.

With ongoing acquisitions of objects, many of the coins that have entered the collection after the release of the print catalogues have remained unpublished. This online catalogue first presents these specimens, and eventually will provide online access to the full collection. In addition to Byzantine coins, these acquisitions include specimens issued by Byzantium’s neighbors, including Arab-Byzantine and Persian imitations, Ostrogothic and Vandal coins, and others.

Search the Catalogue

Using the Catalogue

Search the Catalogue by keyword, authority, date, mint, metal, and denomination. In addition to high-resolution images and object metadata, each record includes a commentary and short-form bibliography (author, title, and page and/or catalogue number). For a full reference list, including abbreviations, see the Bibliography.

On the occasion of the launch of this online catalogue, Cécile Morrisson, advisor for Byzantine numismatics at Dumbarton Oaks from 1998 to 2018, has provided a History of the Collection and of the Unpublished Accessions. A list of Collectors, Dealers, and Donorssupplements this history.

Additional resources for coins include downloadable versions of the published coin catalogues and two online exhibits, one featuring Byzantine Emperors of Coins, and the other, Coinage of the Byzantine Empire, focusing on the history of the monetary system and its denominations and imperial and religious representations.