Close Topic Options

Medieval Money

Medieval Money

What was used for money during Medieval times?

Money Medieval

Aside from precious metals livestock and anything that could be used as food was often bartered or traded.

Medieval Money History & Civil Business Politics

Yes the barter system would have been a large venue but you taxes take real coins so it would have been the preferred venue for commercial trade in the markets.

Money Medieval

The idea of barter was the most pronounced way of gaining food or other supplies. Often a royal family or even a duke received grain, chickens, and other produce to add the their stores from their subjects instead of coin.

Money Medieval

Although all the above is generally considered accurate (mostly), if you're talking about coins...

From my research, money, when in the form of coins, was intimately tied to weight.

Although Charlemagne, who established the elite order of knights known as Paladins, eventually unified the different money and weight systems into one under his rule, many different systems existed, but in general, weight for valuables was measured in what we know now as Troy - Tower and other types of somewhat standardized measure persisted but eventually gave way to the Troy measurement, bringing in the money system based on Lsd: Pounds (L), shillings (s), pence (d for the ancient denari coin).

Although a modern day Imperial pound weighs 454 (or 500 for some people that round it off for ease) grams, in the Middle Ages in Europe, the "pound" had a different weight and was a combination of weight and value, which is why it still has the dual meaning today.

There were 12 Troy ounces to a Troy pound, and 16 avoirdupois (Imperial or "normal") ounces to a normal Imperial pound, with Troy ounces weighing 31 grams and avoirdupois ounces weighing 28, which is the basis of the difference between the total weights of Imperial and Troy pounds.

Originally a pound was a Troy pound of pure silver, approx. 373 grams, known as a pound sterling. This was then literally broken up into twenty smaller pieces, known as shillings, so 20 silver shillings make a pound - this would make shillings generally weigh 1/20 of 373 or about 19 grams. The pound was also originally divided into 240 pence (penny as singular form), also all silver, as they were usually silver shavings rather than coins, each weighing probably 1.5 grams - this also meant that a shilling was worth 12 pence, which were sometimes divided into farthings, which were a fourth of a penny. The coin known as a "Crown" was also struck out of a silver pound, and was worth 5 shillings, which made 4 crowns worth a pound sterling.

There was originally no such thing as a coin that represented a pound - it was simply a handy accounting measurement and symbol when dealing with large amounts of money. Eventually the silver Noble, worth generally the same as a Mark of Note, and the electrum Lion came into infrequent use, being worth about 10 silver shillings, or half a pound sterling.

Finally the Sovereign, Guinea, Lira or Florin, depending on where you were, worth a full pound sterling, began to be somewhat common among people with need for larger physical "liquid" assets. Prolific merchants and businessmen, nobles and royalty were generally the only people that ever saw a silver Crown, let alone a gold coin, as a pound or gold Sovereign. Not only was it easier to lose or steal a full pound from someone by taking one coin, they could not be "broken" down into smaller pieces like silver coins, which was regularly done to pay for items or services less than a full shilling or pence, etc. In all, gold coins were used, rarely by anyone but people with high personal income and coin traffic, but otherwise just weren't practical for anyone else to use, as things just weren't that expensive - even weapons like a standard sword could be had for 12 shillings, a bushel of applies or night at an inn, complete with food and drink, was a pence at most.

According to an article, the Real Price of Gold, by Brook Larmer, on the National Geographic website:

I recall there being a well-known assertion in gaming circles that in any one group's tabletop RPG fantasy campaign lasting a year, they would encounter and maybe even amass something like 10x the real world historical total of all gold ever mined, silver and copper and such probably following this trend. Maybe dragon hoards are from that aforementioned gold from the earth's crust they mine themselves.

Medieval Money

Yes precious metal was commonly pounded into coins and the weight of the coin and the purity of the metal was the determining factor in its value. I think this was true for many country for many centuries.

An interesting point in modern Canadian money is that every paper dollar printed used to be back by a lump of gold in the national bank to ensure a reliable dollar. It has only been since my life time that a dollar bill is no longer back by a dollar of gold and that the coin minted is not made out of enough copper silver ect to make it worth its face value. Hmmm and the dollar keeps falling go figure.