Letter 5

Mike

Mike Adams wrote:

My son Dominic is carrying out a project about 1066. He is trying to find out what the English coinage was in 1066? Thanks for the site very informative - maybe we missed the section on coins!

Many thanks

Mike Adams

Dear Mike,

Sorry for the delay in answering your question, I try to do them in some form of order.

One of the things William admired after the invasion was the administrative setup in England.

There was nothing like it in Normandy. Despite the near holocaust following his arrival, the one thing he appreciated was the countries organisation, land distribution, law and tax system. One thing he was particularly keen to retain was the mints or pressing houses that were set up around the country. Whereas today, we generally think of the Mint as one place, this was not so around 1066. quite a number existed. they were however, under the control of the king and his laws and were controlled by his sheriffs who were also responsible for taking some of it back via taxes. There are so many designs that it is impossible to go through them. Any Anglo Saxon book should have some photographs of them. It is interesting to note that the word "penny" was in use then. If you are old enough to remember the halfpenny, this came about because of the Saxon practice of cutting a whole one in half. Earliest form of change I suppose.

Hope this helps your son.