Stamp & Coin Mart - April 2016_

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the ‘ecu’. These coins would be readily

seen in London as they were part of the

international currency of Europe.

Dutch coinage

Dutch coins, both silver and copper,

are referred to in Shakespeare’s plays.

In his day, Holland issued rijksdaaler

which were similar to the dalers already

mentioned. The guilder described in

some of the plays arrived much later,

towards the end of the 17th century, so

they may well have been inserted into

Shakespeare’s plays by later editors.

Doits are also given a mention.

The name ‘doit’ is Dutch slang for a

small coin, but again this term was

not used for a specific coin during

Shakespeare’s time. Again, doits tend

to be referred to more frequently in

Scotland where there was a traditional

shortage of small copper coins

meaning foreign copper coins were

often in circulation.

References are also made to

Portuguese coins such as the moidore

and the cruzado. The word ‘moidore’ is

a mixture of several Portuguese words

and means ‘golden money’. The term

‘cruzado’ referred specifically to the

cross which was an important feature

on many Portuguese coins.

The pistole mentioned by

Shakespeare was a Spanish coin. Apart

from trade they came to England

through the warlike activities of sea

captains such as Sir Francis Drake and

Walter Raleigh and to a lesser extent

the Spanish Armada. The pistole was a

gold coin, also called an escudo, which

gained the name ‘pistole’ from the

Chinese and other Far Eastern traders.

English coins

In Shakespeare’s time there were a wide

variety of English coins in circulation,

varying from countermarked Edward

VI shillings, marked down to four

pence halfpenny or two pence

farthing, to the new testerns released

for the East Indian trade. The size and

weight of the testerns matched the

lower value Spanish reales. Testerns are

also referred to as ‘portcullis money’

because of their design.

Shakespeare refers to the gold

pound and the gold angel in his plays.

The angel with its St Michael design

was equivalent to 10 shillings. He also

refers to crowns in the plays but these

were more likely to have been the new

silver crowns specifically produced to

be the equal of the continental thaler.

Producing these new silver crowns

marked a major departure for British

coinage as the crown had been struck

in gold at the start of Elizabeth’s

reign. The coins of James closely

mirrored the Elizabethan values so

Shakespeare could have been referring

to either version.

Most of the silver coins which belong

to these two reigns get a mention

with the notable exception of the

threepence, the threehalfpence and the

threefarthings. The threefarthings was

introduced by Elizabeth to cut out the

need for a tiny silver farthing.

Shakespeare does not mention the

half groat instead referring to it as the

two pence. The halfpenny gets into

Shakespeare’s plays but it was not in

general use until the reign of James I.

Considering the act of Union of

the Crowns in 1603, one might have

SHAKESPEARE’S COINS

November 1558 Elizabeth I crowned

as Queen of England

and Ireland

April 1 564 Shakespeare born

July 1567 James IV is crowned

as King of Scotland

1582 Shakespeare marries

Anne Hathaway

1585 Shakespeare moves

to London

1589 He writes his first play

Henry VI, Part One

c.1596 The Merchant of

Venice first performed

March 1603 Elizabeth I dies

July 1 603 James I (James IV in

Scotland) is crowned

in England

April 1616 Shakespeare dies

March 1625 James I dies

Ti me li n e

thought that Scottish coins would

be featured. However, at this period

Scottish coins were not very highly

regarded as the lack of precious metals

did not allow the Scottish government

to emulate the fine coins of their

continental trading partners. Indeed,

plenty of foreign coins of this period

were used in Scotland to provide high

quality coinage. The only coins that

seem to come south in large numbers

were the copper turners, 2d Scots but

a halfpence English. Not even in ‘the

Scottish play’ Macbeth are Scottish

coins given a mention; character Sueno,

for example, pays his men in dollars!

Certainly as a playwright of great

distinction and a wealthy landowner,

Shakespeare would have handled all

types of coinage of the period and

would have had a broad knowledge of

the many different coins coming his

way. No wonder the subject of money

was often reflected upon on the Bard’s

impressive canon of work.

‘He that wants money, means, and

content is without three good friends.’

As You Like It

Above: a daler/thaler

of Augustus Elector of

Saxony (1553-1586)

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