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How Many Groats Are in a Noble?

By: Graham Iddon


November 30, 2020

The curious system of old British money

For daily users of modern money, getting an understanding of the old British system of currency can be an act of confusion and wonder. But it’s also a peep into 13 centuries of European numismatic history.

A pile of 13 coins of many materials, eras, sizes and designs.

A beautiful heap of 13 denominations covering 700 years of the British economy, from King Edward III to Queen Elizabeth II.

A great idea

Historians probably disagree on what made Russian Tsar Peter the Great great. But for numismatists, it was likely his 1704 introduction of a decimal currency—one like ours, with a base unit divisible by 100. When he adopted decimal currency, he really did his people a favour: he freed them from the mathematical tyranny of the old Carolingian currency system, one with a base unit divisible by 240! A thousand years old by then, that system was not abandoned by the United Kingdom until 1971.

Grey, vertical paper with Chinese characters and an image of stacks of coins.

Russia was the first European nation to decimalize its currency, but China was way ahead. This 14th-century Chinese note was worth 1,000 qián and features an image of 1,000 coins bound together in strings of 100.
Source: 1 guan, China 1368–1399 NCC 1963.48.39

Two sides of a coin showing a buffalo with tall, curving horns and a flower.

Currently there are two nations that have not adopted decimal currency: Mauritania and Madagascar. One Madagascar ariary equals 5 iraimbilanja or roughly US$.000055.
Source: 1 ariary, Madagascar, 2004 NCC 2009.1.302

Old English money has its roots in old French money

The first king of the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, Pepin the Short, reformed his currency around 755. His new, Carolingian system was based on a silver coin, 240 of which could be minted from a pound of silver. Back then, a pound was lighter than it is today, being composed of 12 “troy” ounces. Today’s pound is 16 ounces, but a troy ounce is 3 grams heavier than a modern ounce. To this day, silver and gold are measured in troy ounces.

Pepin’s son Charlemagne expanded the Frankish empire, spreading this currency system over much of Europe. The Saxon kings of England adopted the Carolingian system in the late eighth century, issuing silver pennies of the same weight as the Frankish denier. While this simplified European trade, it also doomed English money to be increasingly confounding—though charmingly eccentric—for the next 1,200 years.

Two sides of a coin with a cross in the centre and lettering around the rim.

When this coin was minted, the Frankish empire covered most of western and central Europe. A Frankish denier was a sort of medieval euro.
Source: Denier, France, 768–814 NCC 1976.91.1

A medieval penny was nothing to sneeze at

The penny hasn’t always been a low-budget coin. For many hundreds of years, a penny was a coin of solid silver with real buying power.

According to some historic sources, in Anglo-Saxon England, you might have taken home 15 chickens for a penny. If you were feeling rich, four pennies could have bought you a “hive swarm after August.” Wow! Used bees aside, many things would have cost far less than a penny.

So, just like today, the British economy required a variety of denominations.

Two sides of a crudely struck coin with an image of a clean shaven king.

The powerful King Offa created the most widely unified England of the Anglo-Saxon period. He also arranged a trade treaty with Charlemagne—made simpler by their identical currency systems.
Source: Penny, Kingdom of Mercia, England, 757–796, NCC 2017.7.3

The revenge of the Romans?

The history of the British peoples is an accumulation of conquerors’ influences, and Roman coins were the currency of England for more than 400 years. The Romans left their mark in the seemingly nonsensical symbols of British denominations. The age-old plural form of penny is “pence.” And its symbol is “d.” D?! It stands for “denarius,” a Roman denomination. The pound is denoted as “£,” which makes a bit more sense when you understand that it is short for the Latin word “libra,” a Roman measure of weight (also seen in our abbreviation for pound: “lb.”). The shilling is denoted as “s.” OK, that seems rational. Nope. It’s short for the Latin denomination of “solidus.”

A thick coin with a bearded emperor on one side and a goddess on the other.

Allectus was a Roman naval treasurer who illegally seized power in Britain and northern Gaul in 286. He set up a mint in Londinium (London) and issued coins that promoted him as emperor.
Source: Antoninianus, Ancient Rome, Britain, 293–296, NCC 1967.83.1098

OK, so what’s with “pound sterling”?

The Anglo-Saxon era ended rather suddenly in 1066 with the successful, if bloody, conquest of England by Prince William of Normandy. Despite the cataclysmic changes he brought to the island, he saw no reason to change the monetary system—it was identical to the French. In that era, the penny began to be known as the “sterling.” And 240 pennies were one pound of sterlings or “one pound sterling.” Sound familiar?

For much of its history, British money was expressed in pounds, shillings and pence. Not to make it at all simple, a shilling was worth 12 pence, and a pound was worth 20 shillings.

A coin with an image of a king wearing a moustache and holding a sceptre.

Appearing on this penny from William the Conqueror’s reign is the word “PAX,” Latin for “peace.” It was the propaganda of a colonizer who forcibly replaced Anglo-Saxon with Norman society in England.
Source: Penny, England, 1066–1087, NCC 1966.98.103

Some very curious coins indeed

Surrounding those three basic denominations is a whole slew of coins spread over more than a millennium of regulated coinage. They didn’t all exist at the same time—they came and went to suit the demands of the economy, politics, and the capricious values of precious metals. To make things mildly rational, these denominations could all be expressed in pence or shillings but continued the British numismatic tradition of being awkwardly divisible and a little bit odd.

Copper coin with a profile of a king wearing a laurel wreath in his hair. Coin with an image of a seated Britannia with a trident. Roughly struck silver coin with a cross over a shield. Roughly struck silver coin with the profile of a crowned Queen Elizabeth I. Silver coin with a crown over an English rose, Scottish thistle and Irish clover leaf. Silver coin with an image of a warrior angel killing a dragon. Roughly struck gold coin with a crowned and armed king aboard a ship. A pierced, gold coin with a warrior angel killing a dragon. Gold-coloured coin featuring the UK coat of arms with a lion and a unicorn. Shiny gold coin featuring a warrior angel slaying a dragon. Gold coin with a crowned shield of Scottish, English and Irish symbols. Gold coin featuring a crowned king wearing a laurel wreath in his hair. Dull, gold coin with a British coat of arms topped by a crown.

Most of these denominations were issued in both fractional and multiple forms. At various times, one could pay with a half angel, tuppence (two pence), thruppence (three pence), sixpence, a half-penny, a quarter-guinea, a half-laurel, a half-crown, a double-florin and, best of all, a three-half-pence piece! The currency was also rich in nicknames like “copper,” “ha’penny,” “mag,” “bob,” “tanner” and “quid.”

A monetary system that overstayed its welcome

The perennial drawback of the Carolingian system was the fluctuating value of a pound of silver. The buying power of a coin in your pocket would vary depending upon the market value of the metal it was made from. It even depended upon how worn the coin was. Occasionally, values of precious metals would change too quickly and the currency would need to be reformed. A denomination such as a gold unite would disappear, to be replaced by a coin worth the same value in pence but smaller in size. This currency reform was not unusual for much of Europe’s numismatic history, but very unusual in any economy after the First World War.

It would all come to a halt on February 15, 1971, the day the United Kingdom officially introduced the decimal coin system into the public economy. For two years, there had been advertising campaigns and most prices were listed in both systems. Still, confusion reigned supreme, as harried merchants had to use decimal currency as change for payments made with the old money system. Shillings, florins and crowns disappeared, giving way to coins based on a pound divided into 100 pence.

Very rational. Very simple. But not nearly so charming.

Folder open to show five various coins on the left and their story on the right.

When the United Kingdom’s new decimal coins were introduced, you could buy a full set in a folder as a keepsake. These folders are still widely available from coin dealers and online.
Source: ½ pence; 1 penny; 5 pence; 10 pence; 20 pence, United Kingdom, 1971

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