History of Monetary Systems; A Record of Actual Experiments in Money Made by Various States of the Ancient and Modern World, as Drawn from Their Statu (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 Excerpt: ...the same. These coins, though struck in the royal mint, were not of royal issue, and could have had only a local and limited course within the domains of the noble for whom they were made. In the same year the sheriff of Worcestershire accounted for 40 13s. 6d. albata, or album, money, the balance of his ferm of the county. Of this sum he had paid 12 in album money to the archbishop of Canterbury, and owed 28 13s. 6d. in album money to the exchequer, besides enough more to make up the difference between 12 silver money and the like sum album money, paid to the aforesaid archbishop. In explaining the use of the term "blanc," Madox confuses blanc silver and blanc money. The former was silver bullion, the latter a white money, sometimes called album, made wholly or for the most part of tin. The meaning of album money is clearly indicated in several of the Exchequer Rolls, which he himself cites.2 In the same year (1196) the king granted a coinage license to the bishop of Durham. In 1198 William de Wroteham accounted at the exchequer for the yearly ferm and profits of the mines of Devonshire and Cornwall, partly in money and partly in tin bullion. This bullion appears to have been sold for tin marks, for in the 13th and 14th John, who succeeded Richard I, this same William de Wroteham accounted to the king both for his ferm and for the marks obtained from the tin (de marcui provenientibus de stanno). It may be safely inferred that in all cases these base coinages were issued by the nobles or ecclesiastics, and were of limited course.3 1 Madox, i, p. 775. J Ibid., i, p. 280. 3 The writers who allude to these corrupt coinages are Tindal (' Notes The albata money of Richard's time was either a composition of tin and silver--a good...