8. Pennies from Hull

After buying Hull from Meaux Abbey, Edward I set about some home improvements.  Building began on houses for royal officials and a much needed additional quay.  Plans were made for improved roads into the town.  The existing chapel was deemed insufficiently impressive so Edward brought in his own architect to design a replacement and work started on what now forms the east end of Holy Trinity church.  Finally in 1300 a mint was opened.

Edward I needed to produce extra coins to pay for his war with Scotland.  So he set up temporary mints in towns across the country including Hull, Newcastle and York.  These were in addition to his two permanent mints in London and Canterbury.  When merchants from overseas bought goods in Hull with foreign coins, these were normally sent down south to be melted down and reminted.

The highest value coin in circulation was the penny.  Pennies were made of silver and about the size of a current 5p coin.  The familiar ideas of shillings and pounds did exist, but were used only as terms in accounting.  Coins for these larger amounts were not actually minted, which was rather inconvenient.  Wealthy lords travelling between their estates had to carry the money they needed in large barrels full of thousands of pennies.  Presumably thieves just had to skulk by the wayside listening out for any barrels loudly jangling along on the rough medieval roads.

Common folk didn’t find the penny practical either, as it was really quite valuable.  A labourer earned a single penny for a full day’s work.   If you had a spare two pennies you could buy a sheep.  Not unsurprisingly most ordinary people still used barter to acquire everyday goods.  They did however also clip pennies into halves and quarters, or ‘fourthings’, which could then be used to buy cheaper items.  The tiny pieces of silver thus created must have been so easy to lose though whilst moving around Hull’s dusty streets, dimly lit buildings and bustling dockside.  Thanks to this public demand for more useful coins, actual halfpennies and farthings began to be minted in 1270.

Since Hull’s mint was just temporary, the only coin it produced was the penny.  Pennies minted in Hull had on one side the king’s head and the inscription, naturally in Latin, ‘EDW R ANGL DNS HYB’ (Edwardus Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae - Edward, King of England, Lord of Ireland).  On the reverse was the inscription ‘VILL KYN GES TON’ (Villa Kingston – Place, Kingston).  During the year it was open Hull’s mint produced around 1 million penny coins in total.

Photo: Silver penny of Edward I, minted at Kingston Upon Hull. From: The Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum (https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/221992).