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The coinage of the medieval period was the foundation of the monetary system that supported the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages. The silver penny was the principal unit of currency in most of Europe, and the pound (originally a pound of silver) was the unit of account in the major kingdoms. The coinage was largely in the hands of kings and lords, who exercised the right of coinage as a royal prerogative. The medieval coinage system was vulnerable to debasement and inflation, and the kings of Europe were constantly tempted to debase the coinage to finance their expenditures. The medieval coinage system was a major feature of the medieval economy, and it played a central role in the commercial revolution of the period.
The standard English-language treatment is Peter Spufford, “Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe” (1988). The surviving coins (in the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Bibliothèque nationale de France) and the mint records (the English Mint Accounts) are the primary sources. The English reform of 1279 (the “Edwardian” recoinage) and the Italian gold coinages of 1252 (the florin of Florence, the genovino of Genoa) are the two anchor points.
The Silver Penny
The silver penny was the principal unit of currency in most of medieval Europe, and it was the basis of the monetary system of the major kingdoms. The penny was derived from the Roman denarius and from the Carolingian denarius, and it remained the standard silver coin throughout the medieval period. The pound (originally a pound of silver, the libra or livre) was the unit of account, and the shilling (originally a unit of twelve pence, the solidus or sou) was a derived unit. The mark (a unit of two-thirds of a pound, or 160 pence) was used as a unit of account in some regions, particularly in the German lands.
The English silver penny was the most widely studied and most durable of the great medieval silver coinages. Introduced by Offa of Mercia in the late eighth century, it survived in continuous use into the modern era. The English penny was not perfectly stable: it was debased during the reigns of Henry I and Stephen in the twelfth century and again under Henry III, before being thoroughly reformed in 1279 by Edward I’s so-called Edwardian recoinage (described further below). The English pound sterling — the unit of account of which the penny was the base coin — has been continuously defined since the twelfth century, although its role in the modern international monetary system is far smaller than that of the dollar, the euro, or the yen.
The French denier and the German Pfennig were also major coinages of the medieval period, and they circulated widely in the kingdoms of France and Germany. The French denier was a major currency in France and in the Mediterranean, and the German Pfennig was a major currency in Germany and in the German lands. The coinages of the medieval kingdoms were often debased by the kings of Europe in times of financial difficulty, and the debasement of the coinage was a major source of inflation and economic instability.
The Minting Process
The mints of the medieval kingdoms were major institutions that produced the coinage of the realm. The mints were typically located in the major cities of the realm — London, Paris, Toledo, Milan, Cologne, and others — and they were operated by skilled craftsmen under the supervision of royal officials. The mints were major sources of revenue for the kings of Europe, who derived a profit from the seigniorage — the difference between the face value of the coins and the value of the metal contained in them.
The minting process was a complex operation that required skilled craftsmen and sophisticated equipment. The process began with the production of silver bullion — silver that had been refined and purified of impurities. The silver bullion was melted in a crucible and poured into molds to produce bars or rods. The bars or rods were then cut into strips of the correct thickness for the coins, and the strips were cut into square or round blanks of the correct weight. The blanks were then annealed (heated and cooled) to soften them, and they were struck between two dies to produce the coins. The dies were engraved with the image of the king and the arms of the realm, and they were used to strike thousands of coins before they were worn out and replaced.
The minting process was closely regulated by the kings of Europe, who appointed the masters of the mints and who set the standards of weight and purity for the coins. The masters of the mints were typically wealthy merchants or goldsmiths who had the capital and the skills to operate the mints, and they were paid a fee for each coin they produced. The mints were inspected regularly by royal officials to ensure that the coins met the standards of weight and purity, and the masters of the mints who failed to meet the standards were subject to fines and penalties.
The Gold Coinage
The gold coinage of the medieval period was largely in the hands of the Byzantine Empire and the Italian maritime republics. The Byzantine solidus (also known as the bezant) was a gold coin that was introduced by Constantine the Great in the fourth century, and it remained a major international currency throughout the medieval period. The solidus was renowned for its purity and uniformity, and it circulated across Europe and the Mediterranean as a major medium of exchange in the long-distance trade of the period.
The gold coinage of the Italian cities — the florin of Florence (first struck in 1252), the ducat of Venice (first struck in 1284), and the genovino of Genoa (first struck in 1252) — became major international currencies in the late medieval period, and they circulated across Europe and the Mediterranean. The gold florin of Florence was particularly important, and it remained a major international currency until the sixteenth century. The gold coinage of the Italian cities was a major factor in the commercial revolution of the period, and it contributed to the integration of the European economy.
The gold coinage of the medieval kingdoms was more limited than the gold coinage of the Italian cities and the Byzantine Empire. The kings of France struck gold coins in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the masse d’or and the écu), and the kings of England struck gold coins in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (the gold penny of Henry III and the florin of Edward III). The gold coinage of the medieval kingdoms was less stable than the gold coinage of the Italian cities, however, and the kings of Europe often struck gold coins in times of financial difficulty and recalled them in times of financial recovery.
The Debasement of the Coinage
The debasement of the coinage was a recurring problem in the medieval period, and it was a major source of inflation and economic instability. The kings of Europe were constantly tempted to debase the coinage to finance their expenditures, and they often did so by reducing the silver or gold content of the coins without reducing the face value. The debasement of the coinage was a form of hidden taxation that allowed the kings to finance their expenditures without levying explicit taxes, and it was a major source of royal revenue in medieval Europe.
The debasement of the coinage had serious consequences for the medieval economy. The debasement led to inflation, as the reduced metal content of the coins caused prices to rise relative to the value of the coins. The debasement also undermined confidence in the coinage, as merchants and consumers became suspicious of the coins and were reluctant to accept them at face value. The debasement was a major factor in the economic crises of the late medieval period, and it contributed to the decline of the commercial revolution of the period.
The English currency reform of 1279 was a major attempt to stabilize the coinage and to prevent debasement. King Edward I of England introduced a new coinage — the Edwardian penny — that was designed to be a stable currency for long periods. The Edwardian penny was renowned for its purity and uniformity, and it was adopted as the standard of the English currency for centuries. The English reform was a major factor in the stability of the English currency in the late medieval and early modern periods, and it was a model for other currency reforms in medieval Europe.
The Legacy of Medieval Coinage
The legacy of medieval coinage is significant. The medieval coinage system provided the monetary foundation for the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages, and it contributed to the integration of the European economy. The medieval coinage system also provided the institutional foundation for the modern monetary system, and the mints, the coinage standards, and the monetary policies of the medieval period anticipated the modern monetary system in many ways.
The medieval coinage is a major subject of modern historical and economic study, and the scholarship on medieval coinage has illuminated the complex monetary history of the period. The medieval coins themselves are a major source of historical information, and they provide evidence about the monetary history, the political history, and the economic history of the medieval world. The study of medieval coinage is a major field of numismatics, and it is a subject of ongoing research in the modern era.
Sources
Principal sources used in this article:
- Peter Spufford, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988).
Further reading:
- John H. Munro, “The Medieval Origins of the Financial Revolution,” International Journal of Accounting (2003).
For a recent single-volume synthesis with full scholarly apparatus, see the relevant chapter of Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short History of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 2014).