The miliaresion was a name used for a number of Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 silver coins. In its most specific sense, it refers to a type of silver coin struck in the 8th–11th centuries.

Originally, the name was given to a series of silver coins

Miliarense

A miliarense was the only fairly regularly minted silver coin issued by the late Roman and Byzantine Empires. It was struck with variable fineness, generally with a weight between 3.8 and 6.0 grams. The miliarense was struck from the beginning of the 4th century under Constantine I with a...

 issued in the 4th century that were struck 72 to the pound and were the equivalent of 1,000 nummi

Nummus

Nummus , plural nummi is a Latin term meaning "coin", but used technically for a range of low-value copper coins issued by the Roman and Byzantine empires during late Antiquity....

. Thereafter and until the 7th century the Byzantines did not use silver coins. In the 7th century, miliaresion was the name given to the hexagram

Hexagram (currency)

The hexagram was a large silver coin of the Byzantine Empire issued primarily during the 7th century AD.With the exception of a few 6th-century ceremonial issues, silver coins were not used in late Roman/early Byzantine monetary system , chiefly because of the great fluctuation of its price...

-type coins, and from ca. 720 on for a new type, broader and thinner than the hexagram, instituted by the Emperor Leo III the Isaurian

Leo III the Isaurian

Leo III the Isaurian or the Syrian , was Byzantine emperor from 717 until his death in 741...

 (r. 717–741).

This latter type, for which the term miliaresion is usually preserved among numismatists, were apparently struck 144 to the pound, with an initial weight of ca. 2.27 gram

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s, although in the Macedonian period

Byzantium under the Macedonians

The Byzantine Empire reached its height under the Macedonian emperors of the late 9th, 10th, and early 11th centuries, when it gained control over the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy, and all of the territory of the tsar Samuel....

 that increased to 3.03 grams (i.e. 108 coins to the pound). In the first century of its issue, it appears to have been issued solely as a ceremonial coin on the occasion of the appointment of a co-emperor, and hence always features the names of two emperors. Only from the reign of Emperor Theophilos

Theophilos (emperor)

Theophilos was the Byzantine emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Phrygian dynasty, and the last emperor supporting iconoclasm...

 (r. 829–842) did the coin become regular issue, struck throughout an emperor's reign. The coins were inspired by the contemporary silver Islamic dirham

Dirham

Dirham or dirhem is a unit of currency in several Arab or Berber nations, and formerly the related unit of mass in the Ottoman Empire and Persian states...

, and in common with it (and unlike the Empire's gold and copper coinage, or the earlier hexagram) featured initially no human representations, sporting instead the names and titles of the emperor or emperors on the reverse and a cross on steps on the obverse. In the 10th century, Emperor Alexander (r. 912–913) introduced a bust of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

 on the obverse, and Romanos I

Romanos I

Romanos I Lekapenos was Byzantine Emperor from 920 until his deposition on December 16, 944.-Origin:...

 (r. 920–944) added an imperial bust to the center of the cross. This process culminated in the 11th century, when images of emperors, Christ, and the Virgin Mary began to appear.

In the 11th century, ²⁄₃ and ¹⁄₃ fractions of the miliaresion also began to be minted, but the military and financial collapse of the 1070s–1080s affected its quality. It was discontinued after 1092, except as a money of account equal to ¹⁄₁₂ of the nomisma

Nomisma

Nomisma was the ancient Greek word for "money" and is derived from nomos "anything assigned, a usage, custom, law, ordinance"....

. Under the Komnenian emperors, it was initially replaced by a very low-grade billon

Billon (alloy)

Billon is an alloy of a precious metal with a majority base metal content . It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins.The word comes from the French bille....

 trachy coin, initially worth a quarter of a miliaresion but later much devalued. The miliaresion was essentially revived in the form of the basilikon

Basilikon

The basilikon , commonly also referred to as the doukaton , was a widely circulated Byzantine silver coin of the first half of the 14th century...

issued from ca. 1300 onwards.

The name also passed into Western European languages, where milliarès is a term used to denote various kinds of Muslim silver coins.