This one had been in one of my retail watchlists for a year or so. With a little stimulus money to splurge, I said "why not?" and finally pulled the trigger. Quite a nice big medieval for under $100, not including shipping from Europe. It features St. Stephen and the manus dei ("hand of God") motif. See that spidery-looking thing above Saint Steve's head? That's the Almighty, reaching down from Heaven to give him some pointers ... or maybe finger-flick his forehead. Duck, Steve! Beware the Divine Thumping! (See "smote", "smiting".) Anyway, it just charms me, for some reason. Ever notice how everyone in medieval art had those reeeallly long fingers? But I digress. France (Metz): silver gros, civic issue, ca. 14th-16th century.
How big is it? What was its value (I know you said it's a gros, but what was its purchasing power? Can you relate that to some other denomination I might be more familiar with?)
That is a beautiful coin. Mostly I collect ancients, but this turned my head. I have one coin from Metz. It is ugly, but it has a countermark applied about 70 years after its issue: Metz AR Bugne Robert de Leoncourt 1551-1555 (cm 1621) S. TEPH - .PROTH. M., St. Stephen kneeling / [M]ON[E]TA - MET-[ENS] P (?), Long cross with stars in angles. Rob.8930. Fl. p765.30. Countermark: Eagle in 5 mm circle reverse. (0.85 grams / 17 mm) Countermark Notes: "By decree of January 14, 1621, Henry, Duke of Lorraine decided to countermark with a crowned alerion, in his Mint of Nancy, the double money of Charles III, duke of Lorraine. There are also rare Metz (bugnes)." Google trans. of Alde Public Auction Oct. 2015
These are a tiny bit bigger than a US quarter but not as big as a half dollar, as I recall. As the "gros" name indicates (it literally means "large"), they're a bit larger in diameter than the typical medieval penny-sized stuff (and other even smaller bits of hammered silver) that circulated at the time. I'll have to measure It when I get It. It has been a few years since I owned the last one, and this new one won't be here for some time. Transatlantic Customs in a time of quarantine? Yikes. I fully expect to be waiting a while. As to comparable denominations, I believe the English groats of the same time period were roughly equivalent. I couldn't tell you what kind of buying power they had in their time. That's an intriguing question worthy of some research. At a wild guess, I would imagine one coin might have been a daily wage for some common folk? I'll have to try to find out about that.
Here's my one Bishopric of Metz Robert de Lenoncourt Bugne (or tiercelle) n.d. (1552-53) 18.25 mm 1.32 g Vic-sur-Seille mint Anonymous imitation of City of Metz bugnes (Wendling II/F/f/4, KM.MB 18,Schult.2189). Wendling II/E/z/14. Schulten 2177. Boud.1652. de Saulcy Metz Fig.192v Obv.: MON_EPI_MET_ENS Rev.: STEPH_METENS Trying to translate the value of a gros into a modern wage is fraught with risk. The original gros created by Louis IX, St Louis (1214-70) weighed about 4.52 g of nearly pure silver, and was valued at one sou or 12 deniers or 1/20 of a livre tournois. However, as you can see from my miserable little Metz gros, the size and silver value was greatly reduced over the next couple of centuries. I found in a paragraph from a book on the internet that in 1467-72 reapers in a certain area of Poitou earned 19 deniers (1 sou 7 deniers) plus food per day. The price of wheat was 8 sous per hl. so it took them 5 days to be able to buy a hectoliter (2.84 bushels) of wheat. In 1578 they were paid 4 sous per day - but the price of wheat had risen to 55-60 sous per hl. so it would take him 2 weeks to earn enough to buy a hectoliter. The current price of a bushel of as of May 11, 2020 is $5.1725 , which would mean $14.48 for a hl. I hope that physics-fan 3.14, whom I am sure has much greater mathematical skills than myself, can work out some general approximation of gros purchasing power from all this. The French Peasantry, 1450-1660 - Page 71 books.google.com › books books.google.com › books Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie - 1987
@talerman , I'm fully aware that values varied throughout ages and such. However, your excellent post gave me at least an idea of what these pieces were really worth. That's the sort of historical context that I love to have! For example - I showed my mom the Moroccan money tree that I recently posted, and one of her first questions was "well, what was each of these coins really worth?" I didn't have a good answer and felt silly - so that's now going to be one of my questions on each of these ancient/medieval coin posts!
You could end up writing another book if you go far enough down the research rabbit hole! I often think of coins in more aesthetic terms- as little pieces of public art- but have less often considered how they functioned as actual money in their own time. I mean sure, one does give it some thought, but I always spend more of that in imagining what the people were wearing and doing and the environment they lived in than how much buying power their money had. But when you stop to think about it, it does get pretty interesting. I do like to think of all the stuff they must have bought.
That is very interesting! If it took 8 sous for a hl, today that would make 1 sous as roughly $1.80 according to the wheat story. If there wasn’t much devaluation between 1270 and 1470 then the 4.52g pure silver coin today is worth roughly $2.25 in silver value at the moment - so not much as changed!
