RENAISSANCE ENGLAND by EMERSON KATHY LYNN

Author:EMERSON, KATHY LYNN [EMERSON, KATHY LYNN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: WRITING
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2010-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

DOMESTIC COINS

angel: A gold coin worth 6s. 8d. until Henry VIII and then 10s. In 1565, England was flooded with Flemish-made counterfeit angels.

angelet or half angel: A gold coin worth 5s.

crown: A gold coin first issued in 1526. Worth 5s., it had the royal arms surmounted by a crown on one side. The value was raised to 5s. 6d. in 1611. In 1551 the first silver crowns (worth 5s.) were minted, meant to compete with the lion daaldre, a Dutch version of the thaler, which was the standard trade coin of central Europe. In 1601, silver crowns and half crowns were issued for the first time since 1553 and quickly became the primary coins in use.

dollar: There was no English dollar in the regular coinage, but the thistle dollar (a large silver Scots coin also called a sword dollar and worth 30s. under James VI) was in use in England. In 1600 a “portcullis dollar” was struck in London for the East India Company but was legal tender only in the East Indies. By 1610 the word dollar might refer to any silver coin of thaler size and was sometimes used to distinguish the silver crown from the gold crown. A dollar meant a silver crown while a crown generally meant a gold crown.

farthing: A silver coin worth 2s. 6d. under the early Tudors. No farthings were minted between 1553 and 1613, when an issue of copper “patent farthings” went into circulation. This coin was called a “Harington” because the patent to mint it had been granted to John, Lord Harington as a way to repay the debts he had incurred while supervising the education of the princess Elizabeth.

groat: A standard coin worth 4d. as far back as 1279, the groat was considered old-fashioned after the issue of the sixpence under Henry VIII and the shilling under Edward VI. In 1551 it was devalued to 3d. and later to 2d.

half crown: A gold or silver coin worth half as much as the crown of the same metal.

halfpenny: A silver coin. Production was restricted in 1553 but the coin was reintroduced in 1583.

half sovereign or double crown: A gold coin worth 10s. until 1611, when its new value became 11s. “Harry ten shillings” was the slang term for a half-sovereign coin minted in the reign of Henry VIII.

noble: This gold coin was worth 6s. 8d. until it was devalued in 1464. For the sixteenth century version, see under ryal.

penny: The most common silver coin, worth 1d., it was not minted from 1572 to 1583 but was reintroduced after the minting of three-quarter pence and one-and-a-half-pence coins (begun in 1561) was discontinued.

pound: (£) See sovereign.

quarter angel: A gold coin worth 2s. in 1542. It was abandoned for a time, then reissued in 1572 with a value of 2s. 6d.

ryal or rose noble: A gold coin worth 10s. until the reign of Henry VIII and then worth 15s. Under James I it was replaced by the spur ryal, angel, angelet, and quarter angel.

shilling: (s.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.