Making Money in the Early Middle Ages. By Rory Naismith. 240mm. Pp 544, 41 figs. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2023. <scp>isbn</scp> 9780691177403. £38 (hbk).

MakingMoney in the Early Middle Ages is an imposing, -page volume that covers a large spectrum of topics related to medieval numismatics.Recently published by Princeton University Press, the book offers an accurate inquiry into the production of coins, their distribution and their use in the aftermath of the Roman age and onwards.Naismith's approach to such an elaborate and wide-ranging subject is certainly broad-minded; in fact, the author does not limit his focus to a specific and narrow area or region, but rather discusses all topics, benefitting from wide geographical perspectives.Nonetheless, as seen later, there are some targeted and more specific case studies that the author pinpoints separately at the end of some chapters.Undoubtedly, assessing a masterpiece like Making Money in the Early Middle Ages in a book review is not an easy task.Considering the substantial amount of information provided by the author, I will mostly outline the main structure of the volume, the major topics discussed in each chapter and, last but not least, all the good and exceptional qualitiesand some (light) defects/lacksthat I noticed when examining the book.Excluding the initial short sections, namely 'Illustrations', 'Preface' and 'Acknowledgements and Note on Values', Naismith's volume includes ten chapters that he has grouped as Part I (chs -) and Part II (chs -), excluding Chapters and , which act as the book's introduction and conclusion.This division can be easily explained as follows.Part I mostly focuses on several aspects of theory and methods and outlines medieval coin production, guiding and preparing the reader for the more substantial Part II.This part