The Company Ecorcheur Medieval Society

ower denomination coins regularly had a cross on the reverse to serve as a guide when cutting them. A farthing could literally be a quarter cut out of a full penny coin, resulting in a small triangular piece of silver alloy. Hence the name Farthing which is a corruption of "four things". Archeological digs often reveal coins with chunks cut from them, or even halves or quarters of coins. By our period of the late C15th, this sort of activity was considered piffling small change and was not common, but the practice was still used by the lower social classes.

This is only intended as a guide for the period we are most interested in (the later part of Edward IV's reign, and the short reign of Richard, approximately 1465 - 1485). It is not intended as an accurate scholarly study, but as a "rule of thumb" guide for Wars of the Roses re-enactors (and Yorkists, at that). Henry VII introduced new coinage, but as we're all dead or out of a job after Bosworth, it isn't covered here!

y modern guesstimate:
Taking an average manual labourers wage as £10k per annum, here are some speculative values to help you understand the values of coins in slightly more modern terms:

If a billman was expected to work 313 days per year (he probably wouldn't work Sundays, remember), and he gets paid four pennies a day, then we can take four pennies as about £32. Therefore, a penny would be a speculative £8.

An Angel, using this approximation, would be worth £160. A Pound would be £1,920.

Here are some prices for goods in medieval times, from various documented sources, to give you an idea of the value of your Groat. Again, this is no accurate study, as prices are bound to have fluctuated wildly (both by location and by availability) and as bartering was still popular, bargains could be struck, and prices haggled.

Prices are written using the contemporary notation, as they were up until about 1970! The "L - s - d" is taken from Latin librae, solidi and denarii - names borrowed from Roman currency notation.

1 Penny = 1d
1 Shilling = 1s
1 Pound = 1L

emember that livestock aren't just "meat value" - they are living farm stock! An Ox, for instance, is a medieval equivalent of a tractor as well as breeding stock and ultimately, food. Some things, with a rarity value, seem incredibly expensive by today's standards - for instance a book could cost around £1500! When you remember that a copy of the Bible might take 15 months to write out by hand, you begin to see why.

Another example is beer - it's about £2 a pint. Not bad - about right for today's prices. However, most households would brew their own beer in huge quantities - remember it was drunk all day, every day, by all of the family, and they often used the same ingredients several times to make successively weaker brews. This £2 a pint is probably, therefore, for a posh "going out" beer down at the local tavern with the Lads! Similarly, bread would rarely have been bought, because most households made their own (perhaps hiring part of a community oven), so the price of flour would have been more important.

Approximate Prices of goods in medieval times:
Type of product:	Medieval value:	My modern guesstimate:
Livestock
A Hen	1d	£8
A Goose	3d	£24
A Lamb	10d	£80
A Piglet, fattened for bacon	2s	£192
A full-grown Pig	5s	£480
A Cow	10s	£960
An Ox	12s	£1,152
Household goods
A mattress	2d	£16
A small woodcutting axe	3d	£24
Tallow candles per lb (smelly)	1½d	£12
Wax candles per lb (posh)	6½d	£52
A feather pillow	4d	£32
A spinning wheel	10d	£80
A copied book	45 Groats	£1,440
Food & drink
20 eggs	1d	£8
Pint (or nearest equivalent) of good ale	¼d (1 farthing)	£2
A gallon of ale (8 pints)	1½d	£12
Gallon of reasonable wine (0.75l - modern bottle size today)	6d (1d)	£48 (£8)
Cheese, per lb	½d	£4
Remember, many foodstuffs were seasonal - you wouldn't be able to get fresh vegetables through winter & early spring, and cheese would generally be a winter food.
Personal Belongings
Decent pair of shoes	4d	£32
Decent pair of boots	6d	£48
A quality purse or pouch	1½d	£12
A mass-produced sword	1s	£96
A good quality soldiers helmet	2s 2d	£208
Full suit of Milanese munition plate armour	9L	£17,280
Full suit of custom made armour (approx.)	250L	£480,000
Full suit of nobleman's quality armour	500L	£960,000
Outgoings for your "average person":
Annual rent on a small cottage	7s	£672
Annual Church Tithe (effectively rates) on above cottage	18d	£144
Monthly rent on a good, large, merchants house	15 Groats	£480
Speculating back to our average billman, earning 313 Groats per year. About 26 Groats goes on his rent & tithe, leaving him a monthly wage of just below 24 Groats (£768) to provide for his family. Not bad!

This information is provided in good faith as a rough guide for UK re-enactors (the price equivalents are in Pounds Sterling (GBP). If you've got evidence to suggest these prices are wildly inaccurate, do please let me know! Any amendments or contrary information relating to this article will be published here.