The study of Byzantine coins is essentially the study of Byzantine routes and communications within and outside Byzantium's borders, of the empire's political and socio-economic development and of its cultural relations with its eastern and western neighbours. This highly illustrated and accessible publication explores through 70 masterpeices of Byzantine, eastern and western art important aspects of medieval encounters.: Byzantium's influence on the economic practices and political ideology of medieval Europe; the complexity of religious, cultural and political relations between Byzantium and its eastern neighbours, Georgians, Armenians and the Islamic world; and the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea as routes of trade and war.