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Archery, medieval style. |
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© Companions of the Longbow |
“A Brief Guide to 14th Century English Coins & Costs” by Mark Tustian |
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What has traditional archery got to do with 14th Century English coins? Well, as part of the 4th Companions retinue competition certain archers were designated as mercenaries who ‘sold’ their archery skills to other teams during the competition. To keep in with the 14th century theme the currency used was pre-decimal and as such handled in pounds, shillings and pence. As a guide price the retinues were told that the average wage for an archer was 6 pence and that a top class crossbow man could expect to get paid a shilling per day (12 pence). So, on the back of this, what follows is a brief guide to the coinage of that century in England, where some of the names for different coins came from and how much they could buy. |
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Pounds, Shillings & Pence or LSD
No, not that type of LSD. Right up until 1971 when the United Kingdom changed it’s monetary system to decimal, the currency was divided into pounds, shilling and pence which in tern was abbreviated to £, s and d. Why? Well it comes from Librae Solidi Denarii. The hatched L or £ symbol comes from the basic Roman weight the librum. The librum was in turn derived from the Latin word for scales or balance and was eleven and a half ounces (or 326 grams). This was set as the value of 1 pound Tower Weight of pure silver and hence the set value of the original “one pound”. |
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The penny took the symbol “d” from the Latin word denarius, which is the Roman 'penny'. The “s” for shillings? Well they just used the same letter as the solidi which was also a Roman coin (and as it was used to pay soldiers it’s supposedly where the word “soldier” comes from).
Right, so anyone in the UK who had the opportunity of watching the moon landings live will already know that a pound was divided into 240 pence or 20 shillings. That means that there were 12 pence in a shilling (12d x 20s =240d). This basic division had been unchanged in 1971 since the 14th century, but unlike 1971 when the country went decimal, back then it was the King who decided, when, where and how much currency was to be struck. |
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The English Kings of the 14th Century & Early Coins
As a reminder there were four English kings who reigned from during the 14th century – that is 1300 until 1399. They were, in order, Edward I (died 1307), Edward II (died 1327), Edward III (died 1377) and Richard II (died 1400). During Edward I’s reign and coincidentally his son too (that’s Edward II in case you’ve missed the clues) the coinage was pretty simple to remember as there were only officially three in circulation. They were silver coins and were the penny, the half penny a.k.a. ha’penny and the quarter penny which was called a farthing. If you get a chance to see either a genuine or replica coin from the period the first thing you’ll notice in comparison to our modern coinage is that they’re pretty small and thin. This is because the actual metal in the coin had to contain a certain amount of silver and the actual design that was struck onto the coin was a sort of guarantee that the currency had the correct amount of the precious metal.
It was therefore not unknown to “make change” by cutting a coin in half or quarters as the value would literally be the silver in the coin. (“Pieces of eight” known to generations as the ubiquitous pirate currency was quite literally Spanish dollars cut into eight pieces.) |
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If you take a look at a modern pound coin you will sometimes see the text “Decus Et Tutamen” written around on the edge. This is the original Latin inscription that appeared on the first 17th century minted coins in England and it means “An ornament and a safeguard". If you could read the inscription you knew the coin had not been clipped. But let’s get back to the 14th century.
During both Edward I’s and Edward II’s reign there were officially only three types of native coin in circulation and they were all silver (or silver alloy). The coins were if you remember the penny, ha’penny and farthing. This made carrying around and doing business with large sums of money a bit tricky. You might get asked to pay for example £1 1s and 6d and this could mean counting out a minimum of 262 coins! In reality French gold coins and Italian gold Florins were used by the nobility and merchants when dealing with large sums. |
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Reflecting Edward III’s growing ambitions in Europe and to exercise more domestic control, in 1344 he decided to issue a series of English minted gold coins. These coins were based on the Italian florin (a coin that gets it’s name from Florence – the place in Italy where the coins originated) and, thanks to a startling lack of copyright lawyers in 1344 the first one was called a Florin too. To Top Trump the original his English Florin was worth 6 shillings which was double the value of the Italian florin which had an official value of 3 shillings (although that was a bit of a mistake as you’re about to find out).
The other two gold coins introduced were a coin called the Leopard, which was worth 3 shillings, and the Helm, which was worth 1 shilling 6 pence. If you’ve not already done the maths a Leopard was worth half of a Florin and the Helm was worth half of a Leopard. A Florin was also called a Double Leopard (possibly to distinguish it from the original 3s ‘Italian’ florin) as one Leopard equalled 3s, 3s times two equalled 6s which was the value of the English Florin. The Helm was also called the Half Leopard as one Leopard equalled 3d, remember 1s contained 12d, therefore half of one Leopard is 1s 6d which was the value of the Helm. The Helm was also called the Quarter Florin. One Florin was worth 6s, one Helm was worth 1s 6d, therefore divide 6s by 1s 6s you get four, so there were four Helms in a Florin. Easy eh? |
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Thankfully for everyone who is now furrowing their brow at the last paragraph someone messed up and the gold content in these coins were overvalued. As a result the coins were officially withdrawn from circulation in the same year and most were melted down so that their gold could be reused in a much simpler coin; the Noble. The gold Noble, introduced later in 1344, was worth 6 shillings and 8 pence and thankfully smaller denominations were called the Half Noble (3 shillings and 4 pence) and the Quarter Noble (1 shilling 8 pence).
The Black Death and Making Things Easier for the Little People
With the introduction of these new gold coins (the Noble, Half Noble & Quarter Noble), the nobility and merchants had a series of higher value domestic coins which could make transactions a lot easier. |
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In 1348 the Black Death while on it’s European tour came to England which eventually resulted in the estimated death of a third of the population. Which was obviously at the time deemed very, very bad. But as a result, those peasants who survived inherited great big chunks of land and found they could demand higher wages because of the labour shortage. This was deemed very, very good. For the peasants that is, the nobles less so (see the Statute of Labourers 1351& Peasants Revolt). One knock on effect was that now even the less advantaged began to find dealing with the three low value silver coins in circulation (penny, ha’penny and farthing) a bit difficult and so two new silver coins were introduced. Or probably more accurately, they were in part re-introduced. |
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The Scriptwriter’s Favourite – the Groat
A hot favourite with modern script writers who need an old fashioned sounding coin that the general audience won’t recognise is the Groat. Introduced but then discontinued in by Edward I in the 13th century, the 14th century version, brought back in 1351, was worth the same as the original—4d. Thankfully learning from the Florin/Leopard/Helm disaster they kept things simple and named the 2d version of the Groat, the Half Groat.
Almost Finally …
One other monetary term from the period is the “Mark”. This was not a coin, but a set value of 2/3 of a pound. It was often used in commercial transactions and for valuing income from property. One Mark was therefore worth 13s and 4d or 160d. |
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Coins of the 14th Century
* Issued 1344—lasted 6 months before being recalled. |
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1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pence
1 shilling = 12 pence
1 Mark = 2/3 of a pound = 13 shillings and 4 pence = 160 pence |