+ DAVE'S : RARE : COINS

III. Moneyers, mints, abuse and the Law.

From the very introduction of the penny in the mid eighth century, the kings official known as the moneyer was always responsible for its production according to the law. He alone was answerable if the weight was incorrect or the silver debased.....and his name was struck on the reverse of each coin, sometimes with  the mint of issue, so that it could be traced back to him. Privvy marks were also added on most coins so that individual batches of coins could be identified with some certainty.

Moneyers in Anglo-Saxon and Norman times were at the very top of their social class, they were burgessess representing their town or city and held the royal warrant of the king himself. Often trained jewellers, they had an intricate knowledge of the workings and special skills of the mint and could therefore afford to remain administrators and hire blacksmiths to actually make the coins on their behalf. Their names are often found as witnesses on royal charters. They were successful experienced exchangers, with high standards....and very prosperous.

The mint was [and still is] the place that the coins were made. They were generally [in later times by law] within busy towns, cities and ports. It had to be "within the walls" to be sanctioned. Those without the walls were illegal mints beyond the law. This practice was punishable by death. Each mint had access to its own supply of raw silver for the pennies, and was based around a smithy. The dies used in the hammering process were usually made at regional centres like London, York and Canterbury. Each reverse die was engraved with the moneyers name and often the name of the mint, along with the design [the class or type] chosen for the latest issue of coinage. The dies were then sent out to the provincial mints for the coining process. Types were changed periodically [every two or three years on average in later times] and this created a profit for the king, as the populace had to exchange its old coin for the new type at the mint of issue. In the 10th/11th century there were an estimated five million pennies in circulation in England.

Abuses of the coinage were always rife, but hit epidemic proportions around the reign of Henry I. Despite the harshest laws coins were clipped, shaved and shaken in bags [to produce silver dust]. Some of the worst abuses centered on the moneyers themselves. Underweight coins were produced and debased silver was commonly substituted, with the excess skimmed off the top and into the moneyers pocket. This was in fact treason of a kind. The common punishment for this offence was amputation of the right hand. Henry I [1100-1135], in responce to the public outcry concerning the state of his coinage [people were bending and breaking the pennies to see if they were genuine or plated forgeries], called an assize of moneyers at Christmas 1124 in Winchester. All 150 moneyers were called to account. All but three honest men were found guilty. 94 were mutilated according to law, each losing their right hand and one testicle. The rest paid huge fines to escape this punishment, although many were banished. The abuses of course did not stop. In an attempt to curb the excesses Henry introduced the first [short-lived] issue of round halfpence and farthings [literally forthings, named for the practice of halving and quartering coins at the mint to provide small change] They did not catch on and it was not until the reign of Henry III [1216-1272] that this was attempted again. These coins [about a dozen or so are known] are excessively rare today.

Monarchs have always been closely associated with their coinage, and have issued strict laws governing every area of its production and useage. The loss of the moneyers right hand [it would then be nailed above the money-smithy] for infringement was common to most Saxon and Norman kings. We have evidence of it in writing [from as early as the time of the Visigoths] in the law codes of Aethelstan, Eadgar and Aethelred II [later in reign increased to death]. St. Dunstan in the reign of king Eadgar once refused to celebrate Mass until three guilty moneyers had been dealt with according to law and lost their hands. Most kings accepted payment from the guilty to avoid the terrible punishments. We know that Aethelred II accepted WER [a payment for how much a mans life was worth according to his status] from guilty criminals, including foreigners who introduced chipped or false money into the country. Henry I accepted these payments but later passed a law stating that a man could not redeem himself with money but should lose his eyes and members. Henry, concerned more than most monarchs for the national coinage, also ordered [bizarrely], in about 1108 that all new coins from the mints of issue should have an official edge snick. This was to counter those who would only accept perfect coins and not those [even though official] that had been defaced in some way. This order was made law and by law everyone had to accept all genuine coins. Earlier, in 1101, Henry I gave the archbishop of York jurastiction over his own moneyers [of the York moneyers, most would work for the king and one or two for the archbishops profit, this in common with other ecclesiastical mints] with the power to enforce the  statutes against false coiners.

Sources :  Norman coins of Britain. Ken Elks website. British History Online. York as Centre of Administration and The Tower Mint websites. Fitzwilliam Museum. Coins and Medals. Normans website. Economists View. History of Thought website. Geocities. Farthegn moneyers website. Grunal Moneta. Coinage in Tenth Century England. Blunt, Stewart, Lyon. Spink. Coins of England.

• Posted by dragonbloodaxe on 17/10/2006.
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