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Then: Anglo-Saxon Money

Then: Anglo-Saxon Money. Dr Rory Naismith Clare College, University of Cambridge rn242@cam.ac.uk. Anglo-Saxon Digital Money?. - Units of account vs units of currency, and the development of a ‘monetary mentality’ Limitations of the currency system

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Then: Anglo-Saxon Money

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  1. Then: Anglo-Saxon Money Dr Rory Naismith Clare College, University of Cambridge rn242@cam.ac.uk

  2. Anglo-Saxon Digital Money? • - Units of account vs units of currency, and the development of a ‘monetary mentality’ • Limitations of the currency system • Currency as commodity: precious metal and money

  3. Early medieval monetary units: • Scilling/shilling: gold coins in the period c. 600–75. Thereafter only a unit of account of 4, 5 or 12 pennies in different times and places. • Pund/pound: weight or unit of account. 240 pennies. Not coined. • Sceat: 20 to the shilling. Weight of gold or silver. Probably not actually coined. • Pæning/penny: silver coin/unit of account from c. 675. • Mancus: Arabic term borrowed into medieval Latin, initially to refer to gold coins or weights. Equated to 30 pennies.

  4. Cnut cyning gret his arcebiscopas and his leodbiscopas and Þurcyl eorl and ealle his eorlas and ealne his þeodscype, twelfhynde and twyhynde, gehadode and læwede, on Englalande freondlice. King Cnut sends friendly greetings to his archbishops and his bishops, to Earl Thorkell and all his earls, and all his people in England, those of a twelve-hundred wergild and those of a two-hundred wergild, clergy and laymen. - Opening of a letter from Cnut to his people, 1019–20 King Cnut on the beach, ordering the waves to retreat.

  5. All that Glitters is Gold (or Silver): Building a Stairway to Heaven? Colophon to the Lindisfarne Gospels: London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D.iv, fol. 259r aldred p[res]b[yte]r … ofgloesade on englisc … mid ðæm ðrym dælvm . Mathevs dæl gode [and] s[an]c[t]e cvðberhti . Marc[us] dæl ðæm bisc[ope] . [and] lvcas dæl ðæm hiorode [and]æht ora seolfres mid to inlade[and] s[an]c[t]i ioh[annes] dæl f[or] hine seolfre ([id est] f[or]e his saule) [and]feover ora seolfres mid gode [and] s[an]c[t]i cvðberti Aldred the priest … glossed [this book] in English … for the three [following] causes: he glossed Matthew for God and for St Cuthbert; he glossed Mark for the bishop; and he glossed Luke for the community and for eight oras of silver for his entry [into the community]; while the gospel of John he glossed for himself (that is, for his soul) and for four oras of silver to God and St Cuthbert

  6. Insuper atque placabili pecunia ab eo suscepta pro amore cælestis patriæ et pro stabilitate regni mei . hanc donationis terram concedens donabo ad æcclesiam sæpe nominatam beatæ Mariæ matris domini And so, having also received satisfactory payment from him, for love of the heavenly realm and for the security of my kingdom, I permit and grant this donation of land to the church. - Charter of Uhtred, sub-king of the Hwicce (764×774)

  7. Four Phases of Anglo-Saxon Coinage • c.450-600: Little or no coinage • c.600-675: Gold shillings • c.675-750: Silver pennies/sceattas (small thick flan) • c.750/60-1279 Silver pennies (broad thin flan)

  8. Early Medieval Prices 30 pence = compensation for an ox, 920s/30s 20 pence = compensation for a cow, 920s/30s 10 pence = compensation for a pig, 920s/30s 5 pennies = compensation for a sheep, 920s/30s 4 denarii = maximum price for a modius of wheat, 794 (=c. 40kg) 3 denarii = maximum price for a modius of rye 794 2 denarii = maximum price for a modius of oats, 794 4 denarii = wine for a group of women in Dorestad, c. 870

  9. Big Money A crowd of peasants had come to pray at the holy tomb, and having finished their devotions, wanted to go home. One man from the crowd went into a tavern to buy himself some wine. At that time, unless I am mistaken, a sester (c. 550 ml) of wine cost one denarius. The buyer just wanted half a sester, but only had a whole denarius, not a half. He and the barkeep agreed that the seller would accept the denarius and give in return a half denarius and the half sester of wine. But the seller was not paying much attention, and gave back a full sester of wine and half a denarius. The buyer noticed this, and did not want to tell the seller; instead, he set off for lunch and drank his wine with his friends. But the one who had lost out came to his senses and realised he had given more wine than he should, and also the change. He waited a little, and then the same man came back with his half denarius, asking to be given the same amount of wine again. Then the man who had been cheated in the last transaction said, ‘You must be having a laugh, mate: what you bring is mine, not yours, since you took both my wine and my money’. But the latter came out with an oath that he had not stolen the other man’s property; without any compulsion, he cemented it to the fullest degree with this vow: ‘Let it be displeasing to the most blessed Philibert if what you say about me is true – that I stole this wine that I drank’. Immediately – almost as soon as he could say this – he ignominiously vomited up in front of everyonewhat he had unjustly consumed. Emptied of drink, he gave back the half denarius and left in disgrace. Ermentarius, Miracula sancti Philiberti, c. 72 (written c. 838)

  10. Small Money? Cut halfpenny, Æthelred II (978–1016) Edgar (959–75): silver halfpenny, London mint Silver penny, Harold II (January–October 1066) Copper-alloy ‘styca’, Redwulf of Northumbria (c. 844)

  11. Charter of Godwine to Leofwine the Red; Canterbury, 1013×1020 (Sawyer 1220) [Godwine gives a swine pasture to Leofwine the Red] æt þon sceatte ðe Leofsunu him geldan scolde . þ[æt] is feowertig penega [and] twa pund [and] eahta ambra cornes (‘for the payment which Leofsunu was required to pay him; that is, 40 pence, two pounds and eight ambers of corn’)

  12. Prayerbook printed in Iceland 1748 Price: 48 fish

  13. Apud Hergan quinque pauperes . apud Otteford ; quinque . apud Clive . ii . apud Gravenea . ii . apud Oesuualun . vii . in civitate Dorobernia . sex . unicuique detur cotidie ad manducandum quod convenienter sit satis . et per annum cuique pauperi ad vestitum . xxvi . denarii . Cotidie quoque præcepit missam celebrari pro anima sua . 7 pro animabus supra memoratorum . in anniversario suo precepit dari mille . cc . pauperibus ad manducandum . cuique panem . unum . 7 caseum aut . lardum . et denarium unum To five paupers at Harrow, five at Otford, two at Cliffe, two at Graveney, seven at Easole and six in the city of Canterbury let enough to eat be given each day as is convenient, and over the year let each pauper be given 26 pence for clothing. [Werhard] also commanded that a mass be celebrated for his soul every day, and for the souls of those mentioned above he commanded that on his anniversary 1200 paupers should each be given for food a loaf of bread, some cheese or butter and one penny. The will of Werhard (Canterbury, c. 830): P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters (London, 1968), no. 1414

  14. Bigger Money Gold dinar, imitating Arabic issue of AH 147/AD 773–4, Offa of Mercia (757–96) Crucible melt of at least 12 silver dirhams (one dated 782/3) and two pieces of hacksilver. Found at Kaupang, Norway; probably made c. 850–900

  15. Gregory of Tours, Historiae vii.24 Ille vero cum se ab his cerneret coartatum, effracto unum de sacris ministeriis calicem aureum et in numisma redactum, se populumque redemit When [the bishop] saw that he was surrounded, he broke up into coin a chalice from among his holy vessels and had it melted down into coin, and thus ransomed himself and the people Merovingian gold chalice, c. 500 (Gourdon hoard, Bibliothètheque nationale)

  16. Post hoc uero honorabilis abbas Hedda atque pater monasterii Bredun aliam .xv. manentes habentem terram, cui nomen est Cedenan ac, huiusmodi ratione optinuit a rege Ædilredo, ut ei quingentos solidos, id est .xii. lectorum stramenta utpote culcita plumacia ornata, capitalia simul cum sindonibus et lenis quemadmodum in Brittannia habere mos est, necnon seruum cum ancilla, fibulam auream cum .iiii. ex auro massiunciulis arte aurificis compositis, et duos caballos cum cannis duabus, pro prefata terra pretium dedit After this Hedda, honourable abbot and father of the monastery of Bredon, succeded in obtaining 15 hides of land from King Æthelred at Cedenan ac; he did so by offering for the aforementioned land the price of 500 shillings, that is, twelve beds (namely feather mattresses and elaborate pillows together with muslin and linen sheets, as is customary in Britain), also a slave with a slave girl, a gold brooch with four gold mountings made by a goldsmith, and two horses with two wagons. - Charter of Æthelred, king of the Mercians (675×691)

  17. Anglo-Saxon money … • Gold shillings (before c. 675) and silver pennies (after c. 675) were the only coins in regular production. • All coins in regular use were relatively valuable (c. £20+ each in modern terms). • Most coins theoretically contained close to their face value in gold or silver. • Coinage probably changed hands in <50% of all transactions. • Low-value exchanges used cut fractions, commodities or barter. • High-value exchanges used a higher proportion of precious metal objects and gold than silver pennies. The End

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