Economic History Review, LIV, 4 (2001), pp. 595–611
The volume of the English
currency, 1158-14701
By MARTIN ALLEN
oney supply is one of the fundamental variables in the economic
history of medieval Europe, comparable in importance with popuM
lation, agricultural production, trade, and urban commerce. Increasing
availability of money had a crucial role in the commercial revolution of
the thirteenth century,2 and the possible recessionary effects of monetary
contraction in late medieval Europe have been a fertile source of debate
and controversy.3 The investigation of the contribution of money supply
to economic change in medieval England has been principally concerned
with the period from the late twelfth century to the late fifteenth, and a
brief review of the historiography will help to place the new estimates of
the volume of the currency presented in this article in their broader
context.4 Harvey has argued that an increase in money supply was a
principal cause of inflation between 1180 and 1220, which can be
associated with changes in estate management and royal finance.5 Mayhew
has quantified the postulated increase in the size of the English currency,6
and Spufford has placed the influx of foreign silver assumed by Harvey
in the context of new supplies of mined silver from the 1160s.7 Bolton
has challenged Harvey’s hypothesis, suggesting that the inflationary effects
of the increase in money supply have been overstated, and that King
John’s temporary accumulation of large stocks of money had deflationary
results between 1204 and 1214.8 Bolton has also proposed that increases
in the size of the currency after 1220 had more significant economic and
political consequences than any increase before 1220, culminating in the
unprecedented levels of taxation and expenditure of Edward I in the
1290s.9 Prestwich has argued that there was a deflationary fall in money
1
Dr Mark Blackburn, Prof. T. V. Buttrey, Dr Nicholas Mayhew, Prof. John Munro, Dr Gary
Oddie, and Dr Elina Screen have read drafts of this article and provided much useful advice. Dr
Oddie’s assistance with the calculation and interpretation of statistics has been invaluable.
2
Spufford, Money and its use, chs. 5-11, provides a magisterial survey of the commercial revolution
of the thirteenth century and its monetary context.
3
The silver bullion famine from the late fourteenth century to c.1415, and the more general
bullion famine from the late 1430s or early 1440s to the 1460s, are discussed by Day, ‘Great bullion
famine’; Spufford, Money and its use, ch. 15.
4
Latimer, ‘Quantity of money in England’, will propose estimates of the size of the currency in
1158, 1180, 1247, and 1279. Mayhew, ‘Population, money supply, and velocity of circulation’, pp.
245-8, discusses estimates of the currency between 1526 and the late seventeenth century.
5
Harvey, ‘English inflation’. See now Latimer, ‘English inflation’.
6
Mayhew, ‘Frappes de monnaies et hausse des prix’.
7
Spufford, Money and its use, pp. 109-13, 139-40.
8
Bolton, ‘Inflation, economics and politics’, pp. 2-6; idem, ‘English economy’.
9
Idem, ‘Inflation, economics and politics’, pp. 6-12.
 Economic History Society 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden,
MA 02148, USA.
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supply in the 1290s, partly caused by Edward I’s war expenditure,
followed by an inflationary increase in the currency after 1300.10 Mate
has investigated the high mint outputs of 1304-9, principally derived
from exceptional imports of foreign silver, and the inflationary effects of
the consequent increase in money supply. She has suggested that a fall
in mint output and the currency caused deflation from the 1320s, which
became acute in the late 1330s.11 Mate has also assessed the influence
of money supply on levels of prices and wages during the rest of the
fourteenth century.12 The scarcity of money and deflation of the late
1330s and early 1340s has been a subject of great interest to other
historians.13 A seminal article by Mayhew developed estimates of the
currency from 1311 to 1351, to explain falling prices,14 and Mayhew
subsequently extended his analysis of the relation between prices and
money supply to the period from 1158 to 1351.15
In 1964 Miskimin argued that a decline in money supply was a
principal cause of economic recession in late fourteenth- and fifteenthcentury England.16 More recent debate about monetary causes of
recession in late medieval England has focused upon the depression of
the mid-fifteenth century. Nightingale has argued that monetary contraction was the only significant cause of the fifteenth-century depression,
adversely affecting trade, agriculture, and the availability of credit.17
Hatcher has proposed a more complex analysis of the causes of the
depression, acknowledging the importance of both monetary and nonmonetary factors.18 Historians have had to infer changes in fifteenthcentury English money supply from mint output trends, although estimates of the volume of the currency in 1417 and 1470 have been
produced.19 More generally, Mayhew has constructed models of the
English economy incorporating the size of the money supply,20 and
Britnell’s analysis of the commercialization of medieval England has
made effective use of estimates of the currency.21 However, the available
estimates, on which so much has been based, have been developed
piecemeal, using very diverse methods and data, and they are inevitably
10
Prestwich, ‘Edward I’s monetary policies’, pp. 409-16.
Mate, ‘High prices’.
12
Eadem, ‘Role of gold coinage’.
13
Fryde, ‘Parliament and the French war, 1336-40’, pp. 263-5, 267; idem, ‘Financial policies of
royal governments’, pp. 839-40; Maddicott, English peasantry, p. 50; Lloyd, ‘Overseas trade’, pp.
108-10; Prestwich, ‘Currency and the economy’, pp. 46-53; idem, ‘Crown and currency’, pp. 51-4;
Mate, ‘Role of gold coinage’, pp. 126-8.
14
Mayhew, ‘Numismatic evidence and falling prices’.
15
Idem, ‘Money and prices’.
16
Miskimin, ‘Monetary movements and market structure’.
17
Nightingale, ‘England and European depression’, pp. 634-47, 650-1; eadem, ‘Monetary contraction and mercantile credit’.
18
Hatcher, ‘Great Slump’.
19
Spufford, Money and its use, p. 420; Britnell, Commercialisation of English society, p. 67; Mayhew,
‘Yorkist recoinage’, pp. 63-8; idem, ‘Population, money supply, and velocity of circulation’, pp. 2435; see below, pp. 604-5.
20
Mayhew, ‘Modelling medieval monetisation’; idem, ‘Population, money supply, and velocity
of circulation’.
21
Britnell, Commercialisation of English society, pp. 29, 102-3, 179-85, 229-30.
11
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capable of improvement. A new series of estimates is needed, working
from first principles to apply a more consistent methodology to the best
data now available.
I
There are three sources of data for estimates of the volume of the
currency: recorded mint outputs, coin hoards, and the number of dies
used to produce the coins. The English mint accounts, in pipe rolls and
other exchequer records, record the quantities of bullion minted from
the 1220s, with a few breaks.22 These accounts relate to the mints of
London, Canterbury, and Calais, together with more minor royal mints
from 1300. Consequently, they do not supply a complete record of
English mint output, as they exclude many royal mints before 1300 and
the entire output of the ecclesiastical mints in Bury St Edmunds, Durham,
and York. The unrecorded outputs can be estimated from the recorded
figures by examining the representation of mints in hoards, on the
assumption that these constitute samples of the currency. Hoards may
indicate the proportions of coins of different mint output periods in the
currency at a particular time, allowing the extrapolation of estimates of
the English currency from estimates of the mint output in one period.
Before the 1220s, when there are no recorded mint outputs, estimates
of the currency can be based upon the dies used to produce the coinage.
English medieval coins were made by first placing a blank between a
lower die for the obverse of the coin and an upper die for the reverse,
and then hammering the reverse die to strike the coin. Dies can be
individually identified from their coins, allowing the number of dies used
to produce a coinage to be counted or estimated, and estimates of the
average output of the dies can be used to estimate the volume of the
coinage. Reverse dies were usually less productive than obverse dies, as
they took the full force of the hammer blows in the striking of coins,
and the average outputs of obverse and reverse dies also varied from
coinage to coinage. The known average outputs of obverse dies for the
silver penny (the principal English silver coin until 1351) are generally
between 20,000 and 50,000 coins,23 and these two figures can be used
to estimate the volume of the English coinage.24
The English silver currency was completely recycled by recoinages in
22
Challis, Royal Mint, app. 1, provides an authoritative summary of outputs recorded in English
mint accounts.
23
Brand, ‘Shrewsbury mint’, pp. 135, 139-40, reports an average output of approx. 46,500 pence
per obverse die and approx. 20,000 per reverse die. Mate, ‘Coin dies’, pp. 209-12, calculates that
the average output of London and Canterbury obverse dies was 39,031 in 1281-1307, and 28,187
in 1307-27. Mate’s calculated average outputs of obverse dies at six other mints in 1300 range from
21,750 to 34,606. Tatler, ‘Bury coinage’, p. 73, estimates an output of 64,000 coins per obverse
die at the Bury St Edmunds mint in 1280-7, and suggests that this exceptionally high output may
indicate that dies were used beyond the point at which they would normally be replaced at
other mints.
24
A devastating critique of the use of single estimates of the average output of dies to calculate
the volumes of ancient coinages is provided by Buttrey, ‘Calculating ancient coin production’; idem,
‘Calculating ancient coin production II’.
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1158-c.1160, 1180-2, 1247-50, and 1279-81, which replaced the existing
coinage with coins of a new design on each occasion.25 The silver penny
was the only coin minted in the recoinages before 1279, but the mint
output of 1279-81 included groats, halfpence, and farthings. During the
recoinages temporary mints were opened, and the aggregate output of
the English mints increased substantially. An estimate of mint output in
the recoinage of 1158-c.1160 can form the basis of an estimate of the
size of the silver currency in 1158, and the same principle can be applied
to the other recoinages. Metcalf has estimated that the Cross-and-Crosslets
(Tealby) coinage of 1158-80 was produced from about 1,044 obverse
dies and 1,344 reverse dies.26 These are estimates of ‘equivalent’ dies,
calculated by assuming that dies identified from coins and dies not
recorded had equivalent average outputs. Metcalf’s estimate of 447 equivalent obverse dies in the recoinage phase (class A) of the Cross-andCrosslets coinage can provide an estimate of the dies needed to recycle
the English currency in 1158-c.1160, deducting an allowance for the use
of dies to mint normal supplies of silver not connected with this recoinage.27 The Metcalf estimates indicate an average consumption of about
30 equivalent obverse dies per annum between c.1160 and the end of
the Cross-and-Crosslets coinage in 1180,28 and a deduction of about two
years’ consumption of dies at this rate from the class A estimate leaves
approximately 400 equivalent obverse dies for the recoinage. Such an
estimate implies a recoinage output—and hence a range of estimates for
the size of the English silver currency in 1158—of approximately £30,000£80,000, at about 20,000-50,000 coins per die.29 Cook has shown that
the English silver coinage was augmented by a small, unquantifiable
element of foreign gold coins from no later than the 1150s.30 Silver
ingots may also have had a limited monetary function in twelfth- and
thirteenth-century England, but they will have to be excluded from
estimates of the currency, defined as minted silver and gold.31
25
There is no documentary evidence for the duration of the recoinage begun in 1158, but the
other recoinages lasted about two years each.
26
Metcalf, ‘Survey of numismatic research’, pp. 6-7, 26-31.
27
Thirty recoinage mints produced class A, and eight of these mints have not been recorded in
any later class of the Cross-and-Crosslets coinage, indicating that the recoinage did not extend beyond
class A. I am indebted to Mr Alan Dawson for the information that class A coins formerly attributed
to a recoinage mint at Newark should be attributed to Norwich.
28
The total of Metcalf’s estimates of obverse dies in classes B-F is 597.
29
Spufford, Money and its use, p. 196, used Metcalf’s estimates to suggest that the recoinage may
have consisted of about 10 million pence (approx. £40,000). The English silver currency may have
been of about the same size in the 1080s as in 1158. Metcalf, ‘Continuity and change’, pp. 56, 845, estimated that the Paxs coinage of the 1080s was produced from 550-1100 equivalent reverse
dies, or 880 as a best guess; idem, Anglo-Saxon and Norman coin finds, pp. 188-9, modifies this
estimate to 600-880 dies. The estimate of about 400 equivalent obverse dies used for the recoinage
of the currency in circulation in 1158 probably indicates the use of a greater number of reverse
dies, as these were less durable than obverse dies (see p. 597).
30
Cook, ‘Bezant in Angevin England’, discusses the use of foreign gold coins in England between
1154 and 1259.
31
Spufford, Money and its use, pp. 209-24, discusses evidence for the monetary use of silver ingots
in various parts of Europe. N. J. Mayhew, review of this work, Numismatic Chron., 149 (1989), pp.
267-8, notes the apparent absence of finds of such objects west of the Weser after the Viking period,
which may indicate that they did not have a significant role in the currency of western Europe in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
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Metcalf’s estimates of total output in the Cross-and-Crosslets coinage of
1158-80 are equivalent to about £80,000-£110,000, and Mayhew has
suggested that the output was £125,000.32 These estimates are more
precise than the available evidence will justify. Metcalf’s estimate of 1,044
equivalent obverse dies in the coinage of 1158-80 would have been
sufficient for approximately £90,000-£220,000, at about 20,000-50,000
coins per die. The English currency included a small percentage of
Scottish and continental coins by 1180,33 but some wastage of English
coins from circulation (by hoarding, loss, export, and other means) may
be assumed between 1158 and 1180, and it is unlikely that the silver
currency exceeded £200,000 in 1180.34 The Cross-and-Crosslets coinage
was replaced by the Short Cross coinage of 1180-1247 in 1180-2, and
an estimate of the volume of the currency in 1180 can be derived from
an estimate of output in this recoinage. The recoinage output of 1180-2
consisted of Short Cross pence of classes Ia1-Ib1. A study of the earliest
coins of the recoinage (classes Ia1-Ia4) by Mass recorded 103 obverse
dies,35 and the method employed by Metcalf provides an estimate of 120
equivalent obverse dies used in classes Ia1-Ia4. The Wainfleet hoard had
162 coins of classes Ia1-Ib1, including 19 (12 per cent) of classes Ia1Ia4,36 indicating a total estimate of about 1,000 equivalent obverse dies
for classes Ia1-Ib1. This is more than twice the gross estimate for
the recoinage of 1158-c.1160 (447 equivalent obverse dies), apparently
indicating a substantial increase in mint output and in the currency. The
recoinage of old money in 1180-2 may have used approximately 800900 equivalent obverse dies, assuming that the annual consumption of
obverse dies not connected with recoinage may have been higher than
the figure of about 30 dies per annum suggested in 1158-c.1160. Recoinage output and the volume of the English silver currency in 1180 may
be estimated to have been about £70,000-£190,000, at approximately
20,000-50,000 coins per obverse die.
The recoinage of 1180-2 eliminated foreign silver coins from circulation, and English hoards deposited between 1180 and c.1210 consist
of English coins only.37 Mayhew has suggested that the mint output of
1180-1205, which he tentatively estimated to have been approximately
£500,000, may have provided a currency of about £250,000 in 1205,
32
Metcalf, ‘Survey of numismatic research’, p. 27, estimating an output of 19 million pence at
14,000 coins per reverse die, or 27 million pence at 20,000 coins per die; Mayhew, ‘Money and
prices’, p. 125.
33
Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’, pp. 238-41, reviews hoard and single-find evidence
for the coinage of 1158-80. Scottish coins made a significant contribution to the currency in the
Borders of northern England, and they occur in small numbers in some southern English hoards.
One hoard (Lark Hill, deposited c.1175) included foreign deniers.
34
Bolton, ‘English economy’, pp. 27, 31, suggested an estimate of £100,000 or less in 1180,
based upon Mayhew’s estimate of £125,000 for the whole coinage of 1158-80.
35
Mass, ‘Of dies, design changes, and square lettering’, records 278 coins from obverse dies of
classes Ia1-Ia4.
36
Information from the late Prof. Jeffrey Mass.
37
Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’, pp. 242-3.
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after heavy losses by export in 1190-1204.38 He has also used an estimate
of the output of the Lincoln mint in the partial recoinage of 1205-7 to
suggest that total mint output in Short Cross class V (1204/5-c.1210)
may have been about £240,000. Mayhew admitted that this estimate was
particularly insecure, as the contribution of the Lincoln mint to Short
Cross class V was relatively small and of uncertain size.39 Mayhew’s data
could indicate an estimate as low as about £120,000 or as high as about
£480,000.40 My analysis of the dies of all of the mints of class V indicates
the use of 1,082-1,471 equivalent obverse dies and 1,825-2,751 equivalent
reverse dies, within 95 per cent confidence limits.41 If an output of about
20,000-50,000 coins per obverse die is assumed, this would imply an
output of approximately £100,000-£300,000 during the production of
class V from 1204/5 to c.1210.42 The total volume of the silver currency
c.1210 may be estimated to have been about £200,000-£500,000, as
hoards seem to indicate that coins of class V constituted about 60 per
cent of the currency at the end of the production of that class.43 Mayhew’s
tentative estimate of the currency in 1218 (about £300,000) is within
the range of the estimate for c.1210, although it has no supporting data.44
The volume of the English silver currency in 1247 can be estimated
by calculating the output of the English mints in the Long Cross recoinage
of 1247-50. Archibald has used the recorded outputs of the London and
Canterbury mints in 1247-50, and estimates of the combined output of
the other mints, to calculate that the total output in the recoinage was
between £552,827 and £574,940.45 Calculations of the outputs of each
of the recoinage mints, based upon documentary and hoard evidence,
have provided a figure of approximately £585,000 as a revised estimate
38
Mayhew, ‘Frappes de monnaies et hausse des prix’, pp. 163-5; idem, ‘Money and prices’, p.
125. Bolton, ‘English economy’, pp. 31-2, questions the £250,000 estimate of 1205, as it is not
based upon documented mint outputs.
39
Mayhew, ‘Frappes de monnaies et hausse des prix’, pp. 163, 165; idem, ‘Money and prices’,
p. 125. Mayhew assumed that class V Lincoln reverse dies produced an average of 20,000 coins
each, and extrapolated the result to estimate a total class V output of £241,650.
40
Mayhew estimated that the Lincoln mint produced £4,833 in the recoinage. He noted that
coins of Lincoln constituted 1-4% of Short Cross class V pence in hoards, and chose 2% as a basis
of calculation.
41
Allen, ‘Short Cross class V dies’, pp. 56-9.
42
Ibid., p. 60, suggests an output of £150,000-£230,000, assuming an average output of 20,000
coins per reverse die.
43
Dumas and Brand, ‘British coins’, records a hoard with 124 coins of class V, equivalent to
59% of the total for classes I-V. The representativeness of the Gisors hoard seems to be confirmed
by the largest recorded hoard of Short Cross coins: the 1902 Colchester hoard, published by
Grueber, ‘Silver coins at Colchester’. The Colchester hoard coins of Evans classes I-II, equivalent
to classes I-IV in the current Lawrence classification, formed 27% of the total for Evans classes IIV, approximately equivalent to Lawrence classes I-VI. The coins of Lawrence classes I-IV in the
Gisors hoard similarly constituted 28% of the coins of Lawrence classes I-IV. Other hoards show
evidence of the selective exclusion of the relatively worn and light coins of classes I-IV. An extreme
example of the exclusion of Lawrence classes I-IV is provided by the Eccles hoard, reconstructed
by Stewartby, ‘English Short-Cross coins’, with only 8% of its coins of Evans classes I-IV attributed
to Evans classes I-II.
44
Mayhew, ‘Money and prices’, p. 125. Mayhew estimated a total mint output of £940,000 in
1180-1218, and speculatively suggested that losses by export may have reduced this to £300,000
by 1218.
45
Archibald, ‘Wastage from currency’, pp. 168-72, 174.
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46
of total recoinage output. Mayhew suggested that £400,000 of the
recoinage output was provided by the coins in circulation at the beginning
of the recoinage in 1247, deducting about £150,000 from Archibald’s
lower estimate (£552,827) to take account of normal output not connected with the recoinage.47 The new estimate of recoinage output (about
£585,000), combined with a revised estimate of the normal output to be
deducted (approximately £135,000-£160,000), indicates that the English
silver currency available for recoinage in 1247 provided bullion for
approximately £425,000-£450,000 in new Long Cross coins.48 The currency also included foreign gold coins, probably equivalent to no more
than a few thousand pounds.49
II
The Long Cross coinage of 1247-78 was removed from circulation by
the recoinage of 1279-81. The mint accounts of London and Canterbury
may provide some indication of the quantity of Long Cross coins
reminted, as the accounts of 1279-1343 record total purchases of old
money or English silver, separating them from purchases of foreign
silver.50 Mayhew suggested that the £606,000 of English silver purchased
in London and Canterbury between 1279 and 1290 could be equated
with the Long Cross coinage reminted, disregarding the unrecorded
purchases of silver at other mints.51 Archibald estimated that the total
output of all of the English mints from the silver of old Long Cross
coins in 1279-90 was £674,053, if the recoinage lasted until 1290, and
Mayhew has used this as a revised estimate of the size of the currency in
1278.52 However, Archibald has shown that the recoinage was effectively
completed by Michaelmas (29 September) 1281.53 The purchases of
English silver in London and Canterbury until Michaelmas 1281 totalled
£323,068 7s. 8d.54 Mints other than London and Canterbury supplied
35 per cent of the coins of Fox classes 1-3 (1279-c.1282) in an aggregate
46
Allen, ‘Mint output’, p. 209.
Mayhew, ‘Money and prices’, p. 125.
48
Allen, ‘Mint output’, p. 209. The value of the old money recoined was probably slightly more
than the value of the new coinage it provided, as the weight of silver in the old coins had been
reduced by wear and clipping. Dumas and Brand, ‘British coins’, p. 30, reported that the average
weight of the English pence in the Gisors hoard, deposited in the mid-1240s, was 1.38 g., which is
no more than about 5% below the official weight of new coins.
49
Carpenter, ‘Gold and gold coins’; Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’, pp. 247-50;
idem, ‘Bezant in Angevin England’, p. 273. Henry III’s treasury is known to have received more
than £19,000 worth of gold between 1243 and 1253, but most of it was not in coins.
50
Crump and Johnson, ‘Tables of bullion’, pp. 204-17, 226-33, summarizes the London and
Canterbury purchases and mint outputs of silver between 1279 and 1343. The two categories of
bullion were recorded separately because they incurred different minting charges, tabulated by
Mayhew, ‘From regional to central minting’, p. 134.
51
Mayhew, ‘Numismatic evidence’, p. 4.
52
Archibald, ‘Wastage from currency’, pp. 182-3; Mayhew, ‘Money and prices’, p. 125.
53
Archibald, ‘Wastage from currency’, pp. 175-6; Mate, ‘Monetary policies’, pp. 53-4.
54
Mate, ‘Monetary policies’, pp. 75, 78, tabulates the London and Canterbury purchases of silver.
The purchases were recorded by weight, equating £1 with a pound of silver, but £1 in new coins
weighed slightly less than a pound.
47
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of 77 hoards, which might indicate that the total purchases of English
silver in the recoinage came to about £500,000. This estimate may be
too low, as production of class 3 continued after the closure of recoinage
mints in 1281, causing underrepresentation of those mints in the hoard
data.56 It is also possible that the output of the recoinage mints included
a greater proportion of English silver than the London and Canterbury
mints, which had access to foreign silver from cross-Channel trade and
London’s commerce.57 The total face value of the English silver currency
at the start of the recoinage in 1279 may be tentatively estimated to have
been about £500,000-£600,000, providing bullion for a smaller amount
of new money, as the weight of silver in the old coins had probably been
significantly reduced by wear and clipping.58
Mayhew has estimated the size of the coinage in 1311, 1324, and
1351 (approximately £1,100,000 in 1311 and 1324, and about £500,000
in 1351), using the London and Canterbury mint outputs, and data from
11 hoards.59 He has also proposed an estimate of £900,000 for 1300,
based upon the assumption that the currency increased between 1300
and 1311.60 Mayhew extrapolated his estimates of 1311, 1324, and 1351
from aggregates of the London and Canterbury mint outputs in 130210, 1311-24, and 1344-51, in proportion to the contribution of coins of
those periods to hoards. He warned that these estimates were only
intended to be a basis for comparison, indicating the relative size of the
currency, as the calculations had two serious limitations: the exclusion
of mints other than London and Canterbury, and the distortion of the
hoard data caused by the wastage of new coins from circulation during
a mint output period. I have analysed data from 77 hoards to address
the problems identified by Mayhew and estimate the size of the English
silver currency in 1282, 1290, 1299, 1310, 1319, 1331, and 1351.61
The hoard data and the outputs of the London and Canterbury mints
were used to estimate the output of pence from all of the English
mints in seven periods (1279-82, 1282-90, 1290-9, 1299-1310, 131019, 1319-31, and 1344-51), and the total volume of English pence in
circulation at the end of each period, reduced by 5-20 per cent to
take account of wastage. The volume of halfpence and farthings in
the currency was estimated to be 5 per cent of the total value of
pence in 1282-1331, and 10 per cent in 1351. 62 The allowance for
foreign coins, based upon their representation in hoards, was 10-15
55
Allen, ‘Volume and composition’.
Comparison of a hoard aggregate of 947 Canterbury coins of classes 2-7 with the corresponding
mint outputs of 1280-96 indicates that class 3 probably ended in 1282.
57
Foreign silver constituted 20% of the London purchases and 46% of the Canterbury purchases
from the beginning of the recoinage to Michaelmas 1281.
58
Mate, ‘Monetary policies’, pp. 37-44, discusses the epidemic of coin clipping in the 1270s,
which culminated in the recoinage of 1279-81.
59
Mayhew, ‘Numismatic evidence’, pp. 5-8.
60
Idem, ‘Modelling medieval monetisation’, pp. 65, 67, 72; idem, ‘Population, money supply, and
velocity of circulation’, pp. 243-4.
61
Allen, ‘Volume and composition’.
62
The recoinage of 1279-81 introduced the regular minting of halfpence and farthings, which
had formerly been produced by cutting pence into fractions.
56
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per cent of the value of English pence in 1290-1310, and 5-10 per
cent in 1319-51, with the addition of about £300,000-£350,000 for
the exceptional quantities of imitative sterlings (pollards and crockards)
in 1299.63 The output of groats, probably restricted to 1279-81, was
estimated from data provided by a die-study of surviving coins. The
results are summarized in table 1.
Table 1. Estimates of the English silver currency, 1282-1351 (£ million)
Date
English pence
or sterlings
Other
sterlings
1282
1290
1299
1310
1319
1331
1351
0.76-0.8
0.9-1.1
0.7-0.84
1.3-1.6
1.7-2.0
1.4-1.7
0.6-0.72
0.09-0.17
0.37-0.48
0.13-0.24
0.09-0.20
0.07-0.17
0.03-0.07
Groats
Halfpence
and farthings
Total silver
currency
0.02-0.05
0.04
0.05-0.06
0.04
0.07-0.08
0.09-0.1
0.07-0.09
0.06-0.07
0.8-0.9
1.0-1.3
1.1-1.4
1.5-1.9
1.9-2.3
1.5-2.0
0.7-0.9
Note: All figures are approximate.
Source: Allen, ‘Volume and composition’, tab. 5.
The English silver currency was supplemented by foreign gold coins
throughout the late thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. Florins and French gold coins made a rapidly increasing contribution to the currency from the 1320s, declining after the introduction
of the English gold coinage in 1344.64 The output of the English gold
noble and its divisions in 1344-51 (£154,454) may provide some
indication of the size of the English gold coinage in 1351, as foreign
gold coins were being eliminated from circulation by that date. 65 Some
foreign gold remained, compensating for the export of English gold,
and the gold currency may have been about £100,000-£200,000 in
1351.
III
The weights of English silver and gold coins were reduced in 1351 and
1412, making it profitable to take old heavier coins to the mints for
recoinage into larger numbers of light coins. It might be hoped that mint
63
The allowances for foreign coins include sterlings of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which are copies of
the English coinage from dies produced locally.
64
Mate, ‘Role of gold coinage’, pp. 127-35; Spufford, Money and its use, pp. 281-2; Mayhew,
‘From regional to central minting’, pp. 148, 157; Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’, pp.
255-60.
65
Challis, Royal Mint, pp. 679-80, summarizes the mint outputs of 1344-51. The total for those
years excludes the unsuccessful gold coinage from 20 January to 10 July 1344, which was demonetized
on 20 August 1344.
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outputs after the weight reductions of 1351 and 1412 would provide
estimates of the volume of the currency, if there were complete recoinages of coins minted before the reductions. Spufford has equated the
recorded mint outputs of 1351-6 and 1411-17 with the volume of the
currency: gold and silver equivalent to 198.6 tonnes of silver in the
first period and 133.9 tonnes in the second. 66 Spufford’s estimates
have been expressed in monetary terms as £788,000 in 1356 and
£639,000 in 1417.67 These figures do not include either the outputs
of the ecclesiastical mints of Durham and York68 or the coins that
survived the weight reductions of 1351 and 1412. The reduction of
1351 seems to have almost completely eliminated gold coins minted
before 1351, 69 but substantial numbers of silver coins survived. Coins
of 1279-1351 provided 37 per cent of the English silver coins in the
1930 Durham hoard, deposited c.1360, and 32 per cent in the 1967
Coventry hoard, deposited c.1363-5.70 The light coinage of 1412 did
not entirely eliminate earlier gold coins: the Fishpool hoard, deposited
c.1464, had 40 gold coins of 1351-1412, equivalent to 13 per cent of
the 303 coins of 1412-22. 71 The recoinage of silver from 1412 was
much less complete, and coins minted before the weight reduction
constituted about two-thirds of the silver coinage in 1422. 72 It is
possible to suggest tentative estimates of the gold and silver currency
at the end of the reign of Henry V in 1422, to provide a point of
comparison in the early fifteenth century. The total output of gold in
1411-22 was £791,762,73 indicating an estimate of about £800,000
for the gold currency in 1422, if it is assumed that the contribution
of the coins of 1351-1412 shown by the Fishpool hoard approximately
compensated for the wastage of coins minted since 1412. 74 London’s
silver output in 1411-22 was £45,150, which might indicate a total
silver coinage of about £150,000-£200,000 in 1422, including the
66
Spufford, Money and its use, p. 420.
Britnell, Commercialisation of English society, p. 180. The mint outputs summarized by Challis,
Royal Mint, p. 680, provide totals of £804,827 in 1351-6 and £638,650 in 1411-17.
68
Allen, ‘Durham mint’, pp. 109-11, discusses evidence for the size of the output of the Durham
mint in 1351-77. See below, n. 75, for the fifteenth-century output of the Durham and York mints.
69
Two fourteenth-century hoards of English gold coins contained no coins minted before 1351,
and a third (Bredgar) had only one pre-1351 coin: Brooke, ‘Find of nobles’; Allen and Whitton,
‘Bredgar find’; Cook, ‘Pinchbeck treasure trove’.
70
Lawrence, ‘Durham hoard’; Archibald, ‘Coventry hoard’.
71
Archibald, ‘Fishpool, 1966 hoard’.
72
Coins of 1279-1412 provided 64% of the English silver coins of 1279-1422 in the Terrington
St Clement and 1972 Reigate hoards, and 67% in the Wyre Piddle hoard: Carson, ‘Terrington St
Clement’; Archibald, ‘Wyre Piddle 1967 hoard’; eadem, ‘Reigate hoard’. Archibald, ‘Attenborough,
1966 hoard’, pp. 59-64, discusses the survival of silver pence of 1279-1412 in a hoard of c.1420,
reduced to approximately the same weight as new coins by wear and clipping of the edges to collect
excess silver for private profit.
73
Challis, Royal Mint, p. 682, lists the gold and silver output figures of 29 November 141131 March 1422, which may include negligible amounts minted before Easter 1412, when the weight
reductions came into effect.
74
Spufford, ‘Continental coins’, p. 132, notes Commons petitions of 1423 and 1429 complaining
that too many English gold nobles were circulating in Flanders.
67
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the volume of the english currency, 1158-1470
605
75
output of the ecclesiastical mints, the two-thirds of the silver currency
that had survived from 1279-1412, and foreign coins. 76
Mayhew has used mint outputs after the weight reductions of 1464
and 1465 to estimate that the currency was £900,000 in 1470.77 The
output of the London mint in 1464-70, including Mayhew’s estimates of
output in 1466-8, consisted of approximately £488,787 in gold and
approximately £171,653 in silver.78 Mayhew’s estimate of the total currency includes an allowance for the outputs of the Bristol and York royal
mints, but an estimate of the contribution of the York archiepiscopal,
Canterbury, Coventry, Durham, and Norwich mints was not attempted.79
Mints other than London probably supplied approximately 40-50 per
cent of the silver output of 1464-70,80 and the total output of silver in
1464-70 may have been about £300,000-£350,000. Silver coins minted
before the light coinage of 1464 may have provided about 10-20 per
cent of the silver coinage in 1470,81 which might indicate a total silver
currency of approximately £350,000-£450,000 in 1470.82 Hoards show
that the recoinage of gold was almost complete.83 The contribution of
Bristol, Coventry, Norwich, and York to the gold coinage was probably
75
Allen, ‘Ecclesiastical mints’, p. 259 discusses the outputs of the Durham and York mints. The
known annual outputs of the Durham mint in 1412-22 are between £116 8s. 0d. in 1418/19 and
approx. £800 c.1412, and the normal output of the York mint from 1412 to the 1430s may have
been a few thousand pounds a year.
76
Spufford, ‘Continental coins’, pp. 128, 138-9, notes the survival of small numbers of imitative
sterlings in English hoards until the 1430s, and the limited circulation of other foreign coins called
Blankes in a Commons petition and a statute in 1423-4. Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’,
pp. 262-3, discusses the foreign silver coins that circulated in England in the early fifteenth century.
77
Mayhew, ‘Population, money supply, and velocity of circulation’, pp. 243-5. Idem, ‘Yorkist
recoinage’, pp. 63-8, estimated a currency of approx. £1 million, assuming that the recoinage
continued until 1475.
78
The recorded mint outputs of 1464-70 are tabulated by Challis, Royal Mint, pp. 193-4, 197,
684. There are no surviving records of output in 1466-8.
79
Mayhew, ‘Yorkist recoinage’, p. 68, n. 3, suggests that a possible overestimation of the
contribution to the currency of the Bristol and York mints may compensate for the absence of an
estimate for the other mints.
80
Mints other than London provided 69 (39%) of the 178 silver coins of 1464-70 in the Hartford
hoard, and 121 (53%) of the 230 silver coins of that period in the Ryther hoard: Archibald and
Kent, ‘1964 hoard’; Barclay, ‘Ryther treasure trove’. The higher percentage in the Ryther hoard is
partly attributable to its inclusion of pence, not represented in the Hartford hoard (the Ryther
percentage without pence is 45%).
81
Mayhew, ‘Yorkist recoinage’, p. 68, suggests that 5% of the silver coinage in circulation in
1475 had been minted before the recoinage. Groats minted before the recoinage constituted 6% of
the groats no later than 1470 in the Ryther hoard, and 11% in the Hartford hoard. Groats seem
to have dominated silver output in London and the recoinage mints, and the contribution of
halfgroats, pence, halfpence, and farthings to the total value of the silver currency may have been
relatively small. The recoinage of halfgroats and pence was not as complete as the recoinage of
groats: in the Ryther hoard 48% of the halfgroats no later than 1470, and 92% of the pence
attributed to a period up to 1470, were minted before the recoinage.
82
Cook, ‘Foreign coins in medieval England’, pp. 264-6, discusses the apparent absence of foreign
coins in the English silver currency from the 1430s to the 1460s, apart from small numbers of
Scottish groats and halfgroats, and the widespread use of Burgundian double patards as groats no
earlier than 1469. Spufford, ‘Burgundian double patards’, describes the monetary convention negotiated between England and Burgundy in 1469, and the subsequent circulation of double patards
in England, which may have begun in 1471.
83
Mayhew, ‘Yorkist recoinage’, pp. 65-7.
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relatively insignificant, and the volume of the gold currency in 1470 may
have been about £400,000-£500,000, after losses by export.84
IV
The estimates in table 2 and figure 1 indicate that the English silver
currency may have doubled between 1158 and 1180, with a further
significant increase by c.1210. The currency reached nearly £0.5 million
in 1247, and the increase continued in the second half of the thirteenth
century. The new coinage of 1279, which attracted large amounts of
foreign silver during the recoinage of 1279-81 and later in the 1280s,
was associated with an accelerated increase in the silver currency. The
currency exceeded £1 million for the first time by 1290, and imports of
foreign coins seem to have compensated for losses of English coins by
export in the 1290s.85 The recoinage of foreign coins in 1300 eliminated
coins worth about £300,000-£350,000 in 1299,86 but the recoinage
output restored most of this loss.87 High mint outputs in the first decade
of the fourteenth century raised the currency to between about £1.5
million and about £2 million by 1310, and it remained at about that
level for the next two decades.88 There was a sharp decline in the silver
currency after 1331, which can be associated with the exceptional exports
of silver in the 1330s and 1340s,89 and the import and minting of gold
coins did not prevent a fall in the total value of the currency to about
£1 million in 1351. The decline in population resulting from the demographic crisis of the first half of the fourteenth century and the Black
Death in 1348-9 may have caused an increase in the per caput stock of
currency, from perhaps about 4s.-7s. in 1300 to about 5s.-9s. in 1351.90
The estimate of the total value of the currency in 1422 is similar to
the estimate of 1351, at about £1 million, but gold replaced silver as
84
Symonds, ‘Mint accounts and documents of Edward IV’, pp. 110-11, discusses documentary
evidence indicating that the recoinage mints of Coventry and Norwich were open for a few months
only in 1465, and their outputs of gold seem to have been negligible. The gold outputs of Bristol
and York in 1469-70 are only 9% of total recorded gold output in that period.
85
Prestwich, ‘Edward I’s monetary policies’, p. 411, estimated that about £350,000 was exported
in 1294-8 for war expenditure.
86
Pollards and crockards were devalued to a halfpenny at Christmas 1299, and they were
demonetized from 10 April 1300.
87
Allen, ‘Volume and composition’, estimates that the mint output from the silver provided by
pollards and crockards was about £240,000.
88
Nicholas Mayhew has suggested that the currency increased to only about £1.5 million
(pers. comm.).
89
Prestwich, ‘Currency and the economy’, pp. 46-7; idem, ‘Early fourteenth-century exchange
rates’, pp. 481-2; Mate, ‘Role of gold coinage’, pp. 127-8.
90
The calculations of per caput money supply in 1300 and 1351 are based upon my estimates
of the currency in 1299 and 1351, and an estimated English population of some 4-6 million in
1300 and some 2.5-3 million in 1351. Smith, ‘Demographic developments’, pp. 48-9, suggests that
the population in 1300 was probably between 3 million and 7 million or more. Miller and Hatcher,
Medieval England, p. 393, proposes an estimate of 6 million c.1300. Nightingale, ‘Growth of London’,
pp. 89-90, 95-8, discusses estimates of population c.1300, including a national estimate of 4 million.
Estimates of population after the Black Death are cited below, n. 92.
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Table 2. Estimates of the English currency, 1158-1470 (£ million)
Date
Previous estimatesa
New estimates
Silver
1158
1180
1205
c. 1210
1218
1247
1278
1279
1282
1290
1299
1300
1310
1311
1319
1324
1331
1351
1356
1417
1422
1470
0.1 or less
0.25
Gold
(negligible
until 1331)
Total
0.03-0.08
0.07-0.19
0.2-0.5
0.3
0.4
0.606 and 0.674
0.425-0.45
0.5-0.6
0.8-0.9
1.0-1.3
1.1-1.4
0.9
1.5-1.9
1.1
1.9-2.3
1.1
0.5
0.788
0.639
0.9 and 1.0
1.5-2.0
0.7-0.9
0.1-0.2
1.5-2.0 ⫹ gold
0.8-1.1
0.15-0.2
0.35-0.45
0.8
0.4-0.5
0.95-1.0
0.75-0.95
Note: a All figures are approximate, except those for 1278, 1356, and 1417
Sources of previous estimates:
1180: Bolton, ‘English economy’, pp. 27, 31.
1205: Mayhew, ‘Frappes de monnaies et hausse des prix’, pp. 163-5; idem, ‘Money and prices’,
p. 125.
1218 and 1247: Mayhew, ‘Money and prices’, p. 125.
1278: Mayhew, ‘Numismatic evidence’, p. 4 (£606,000); Archibald, ‘Wastage from currency’, pp.
182-3; Mayhew, ‘Money and prices’, p. 125 (£674,053).
1300: Mayhew, ‘Modelling medieval monetisation’, pp. 65, 67, 72; idem, ‘Population, money
supply, and velocity of circulation’, pp. 243-4.
1311, 1324, and 1351: Mayhew, ‘Numismatic evidence’, pp. 5-8.
1356 and 1417: Spufford, Money and its use, p. 420; Britnell, Commercialisation of English society,
p. 180.
1470: Mayhew, ‘Population, money supply, and velocity of circulation’, pp. 243-5 (£900,000);
idem, ‘Yorkist recoinage’, pp. 63-8 (£1 million).
the major contributor to the aggregate. The fall in the estimate of the
silver currency from about £700,000-£900,000 in 1351 to about
£150,000-£200,000 in 1422 provides evidence of the effects of the silver
bullion famine of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, made
more acute by mint prices for bullion that encouraged the minting of
gold instead of silver in England until 1425.91 The English stock of silver
coins per caput may have declined from about 5s.-7s. in 1351 to only
about 1s.-2s. in 1422, with a partial recovery to approximately 3s.-5s. in
1470.92 The scarcity of small change caused by the shrinking of the
English silver coinage inhibited various forms of economic activity.93 The
estimates for 1470 suggest that there had been a decline in the gold
currency since 1422, not entirely counterbalanced by an increase in the
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2.5
Amount (£m)
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
1150
1200
1250
1300
Date
1350
1400
1450
1500
Figure 1. Estimates of the English currency, 1158-1470, including gold from
1351
Source: see tab. 2
silver coinage, and the total value of the currency was probably less than
£1 million in 1470.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
91
The changing ratios between the mint prices of gold and silver, in England and Flanders, and
their influence on mint outputs, are discussed by Spufford, ‘Continental coins’, pp. 131-2; idem,
Monetary problems in the Burgundian Netherlands, pp. 96-7; Munro, Wool, cloth and gold, pp. 76, 812; idem, ‘Mint policies, ratios, and outputs’; idem, ‘Bullion flows and monetary contraction’, pp.
123-5.
92
These calculations assume a population of approx. 2.5-3 million in 1351 and of some 2-2.5
million in 1422 and 1470. Russell, British medieval population, pp. 143-6 calculates a population of
2,232,373 from the poll tax returns of 1377. Cornwall, ‘English population’, pp. 40-1, 43-4 suggests
2.2 million in 1377 (following Russell), 2.1 million in 1430, and 2.3 million in 1522-5. Hatcher,
Plague, population and English economy, pp. 13-20, 68-9, proposes revised estimates of 2.5-3 million
or 2.75-3 million in 1377 and 2.25-2.75 million in 1522-5. Wrigley and Schofield, Population history,
pp. 566-9, calculates an estimate of 2.259 million in the 1520s; Campbell, ‘Population of early
Tudor England’, pp. 153-4, suggests 1.8 million.
93
Mayhew, ‘Yorkist recoinage’, pp. 69-73, discusses the effects of the shortage of silver coinage
on retail trade and the payment of rents and debts in late medieval England.
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