English Medieval Coin Hoards

In 1351 England’s coinage was transformed with the establishment of a multi-denominational currency in both gold and silver. This change to the coinage standard marked the start of a new chapter in England’s monetary history, culminating in the Great Debasement in 1560 – probably the most traumatic event in English numismatic history. This book creates a picture of this monetary history by looking at hoards from across the period against the backdrop of some of the era’s most eventful episodes, including the Black Death, Hundred Years War and Wars of the Roses. These events all impacted on how currency functioned in these centuries and need to be taken into account when studying these hoards. While the hoards will be seen in their national context, they will also be placed firmly in their very local context through the use of contemporary documentation, identifying relevant local economic and social forces and activities. This will illuminate the place of money in the lives of the majority of England’s inhabitants. The particular emphasis will be that the vast majority of hoards, with only a handful of exceptions, represent money held by the lower levels of society, above all agricultural workers, whether of free or villein status: this is money in the world of the manor, the village and the parish, not the city, court or government.

Barrie Cook was formerly the Curator of Medieval and Modern Collections in the Department of Money and Medals at the British Museum, with particular responsibility for the coinage of Britain, Europe and their colonies and dependencies c. 600−c. 1800. His role included responsibility for new English coin hoards in his area of specialism under the terms of the Treasure system. He has curated 15 numismatic exhibitions at the British Museum and contributed to a range of other major exhibitions and galleries. He acted as series curator for the BM/BBC Radio 4 collaborations A history of the world in 100 objects, Shakespeare’s restless world, Germany: memories of a nation and Living with the Gods and was lead curator for the exhibition Germany: memories of a nation, at the British Museum (2014), Berlin (2016) and Copenhagen (2019).