Halfpennies, Farthings, and Nobles: A Guide to England’s Medieval Coins

Andrea Cefalo is a Medieval fiction author and Medieval history blogger. Her debut novel, The Fairytale Keeper, was a quarter-finalist in Amazon’s 2013 Breakthrough Novel Contest. The next three books in The Fairytale Keeper series –The Countess’s Captive, The Baseborn Lady, and The Traitor’s Target—will debut early next year. She regularly posts about Medieval history on Facebook and Twitter.

The Coins of Medieval England

I began researching Medieval coinage of the Holy Roman Empire–especially in the area that would become Germany–for my Medieval fiction series. It was a far more complex topic than I anticipated. The coinage went from simple and organized in the ninth century–with Charlemagne’s declaration that a penny would be 1/240^th of a pound of silver—to complex by the thirteenth century. (I’ve written an article entitled Inventing the Penny: Charlemagne’s Lost Effort at a Standard Currency that delves into this.)

For my purposes, I wanted to know what German coins were worth and what a person living in thirteenth century Cologne could buy with them. I thought developing a better understanding of the English coins might help me since I would be using Hodge’s List of prices—a list of Medieval items and their prices along with dates of purchase—to determine this. Below is table containing England’s Medieval coins, the year they were established, and their value.

Image	Coin Name	Established	Value
English Medieval Farthing 1377-1399 Richard II	Farthing (1/4d)	1216	1/4 of a silver penny
English Medieval Halfpenny 1399-1412 Henry IV	Halfpenny (1/2d)	1100s	1/2 of a silver penny
English Medieval Penny 1199 – 1216 King John	Silver Penny (d)	800s	1/20 of a schilling or… 1/240^th of a pound of silver
English Medieval Groat 1327-1377 Edward III	Silver Groat (4d)	1200s	4 silver pennies or… 1/3 of a schilling
During the Middle Ages, the schilling was a unit of account. People didn’t carry schillings in their purses.	Schilling (s)	N/A	12 silver pennies
English Medieval Quarter Noble 1327-1377 Edward III	Quarter Noble (1s 8d)	Mid 1300s	20 pennies or… 1 schilling and 8 pennies
English Medieval Half Noble 1399-1412 Henry IV	Half Noble (3s 4d)	1351	40 pennies or… 3 schillings and 4 pennies or… 1/6 of a pound
English Medieval Noble 1354-1355 Edward III	Noble (6s 8d)	Mid 1300s	80 pennies or… 6 schillings and 8 pennies or… 1/3 of a pound
During the Middle Ages, the mark was a unit of account. The English didn’t carry marks in their purses.	Mark	N/A	160 pennies or… 1/2 of a pound
During the Middle Ages, the pound was a unit of account. People didn’t carry pounds in their purses.	Pound (£)	N/A	240 pennies 60 groats 20 schillings 6 Half Nobles 3 Nobles 2 Marks

Sources:

Banks and Money.” Currency and Banking in the Late Middle Ages. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Brooke, Christopher Nugent Lawrence. Europe in the Central Middle Ages: 962-1154. Harlow: Longman, 2000. Print.

Cavendish, Richard. “The Farthing’s Last Day.” History Today. History Today Volume: 60 Issue: 12, 2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

“Medieval Coin Denominations of Europe.” Medieval Coin Denominations of Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Print.

Images:

http://finds.org.uk/medievalcoins/types/type/id/2136

http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk/halfp.html

http://www.timelineauctions.com/lot/richard-ii-london-farthing/1977/

http://www.calgarycoin.com/medieval3.htm

https://www.yorkcoins.com/h1350_-_edward_iii_(1327-1377),_gold_quarter_noble.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_(English_coin)