134 APRIL 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukShakespeare’s coins
Coins in the age of
Shakespeare
As we mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s
death, Ed Archer provides a guide to the coins mentioned in the
Bard’s famous plays and the money in use during his lifetimein particular the Venetian ducat which,
at that time, was silver and similar in
size to a crown or dollar. In the early
16th century the ducat was a gold coin,
before being rebranded as the ‘sequin’
or ‘zecchino’, a name derived from the
Zecca Mint in Venice.
In The Merchant of Venice the much
maligned Jewish moneylender Shylock
exclaims: ‘My daughter! O my ducats!
O my daughter, Fled with a Christian!
O my Christian ducats! Justice, the law,
my ducats, and my daughter!’
Other coins from Italy areoccasionally mentioned including
the ‘cavallo’ from Naples. This
copper coin was called a cavallo as it
included a depiction of a horseman. In
Shakespeare’s time, a double cavallo was
traded, but it was quite rare to see one
in London as the double cavallos were
not struck between c.1520 and 1620
and so were not in general circulation
during the writer’s lifetime.
The ‘daler’, or ‘thaler’, also gets a
mention in Shakespeare’s plays. The
European equivalent of an English crown,
the coin was produced in substantial
numbers in those parts of Europe under
the control of the Holy Roman Emperor
by various electors and princes. Not only
did Shakespeare mention the dalers but
he also refers to their French equivalentW
illiam
Shakespeare’s
illustrious writing
career is said to
have followed
a stint as an actor, but it was not long
before he focussed on writing the plays
rather than appearing in them. As his
writing began to pay off in London,
he became co-owner of a company
called The Chamberlain’s Men, which
would later, under the reign of James I,
become known as the King’s Men. He
remained with the company until 1613
when he retired to Stratford.
Living as he did in London for
much of his life, Shakespeare would
be familiar with a wide range of coins
from all over Europe, since the capital
was one of the major centres of trade.
He refers to a wide and diverse range
of currencies in his plays; interestingly
in an era of struggles between Catholic
and Protestant Europe, there was still a
great deal of trade between all European
countries, the majority seemingly
putting finance before faith.
The currency of the Italian states is
often mentioned in Shakespeare’s work,Above: an 8 Testern
piece, the size of a
crown and the exact
equivalent of a Spanish
8 reales coinRight: both sides of
James I penny, note the
Scottish thistle to
symbolise the union
of the crowns.
Shakespeare is said
to have liked James I
as he became a Royal
patron, something that
Elizabeth I never didElizabeth I crown issued
in 1601 to match the
dalers and dollars
circulating in Europe.
The coin was Britain’s
first silver crown‘If money go
before, all
ways do lie open.
The Merry
Wives of Windsor
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