Dear all, I was wondering if any of you might be able to help an out-of-depth political historian to begin a new piece of research. I am currently research aspects of the British republic (1649-1653), including the new coinage it introduced. Much has been made of the potential impact (or lack of impact) of the non-monarchical symbolism; however, I am intrigued to see whether it might be possible to quantify this impact in some way. Anyway, to cut the waffle, I was wondering whether anybody might be able to point me towards resources where I could search for records of coin hoards from the period. I know that this is something of a longshot, but it might at least be one very physical indication of the geographical extent of the circulation of this coinage. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Cheers, Alex Craven
Howdy Alex - Welcome to the Forum !! If I understand your request correctly you are wanting to know where and when coin hoards of British coinage from the Cromwell period have been found - yes ? Well I might be able to help you with that. But may I ask - what is it you are trying to learn from this ?
I have no idea if this will help, but the topic is interesting. There is a book that I believe is out of print, "Silver Bonanza," by James U. Blanchard III. The copyright is 1993 by Simon & Schuster. The book itself is probably of no value to your research, but the bibliography at the end of the book might help. It lists sources such as "An Account of English Gold & Silver Money, The Price of Corn, and other Commodities and of Stipends, Salaries, Wages, Jointures, Portions, Day-Labour, etc. in England for Six Hundred Years Last Past," by William Fleetwood, Bishop of Ely. Published as a reprint by August M Kelly, New York, 1969. You just have to love the title. There are also a number of books listed that were written by Alexander Del Mar on various aspects of the history of money. Something there might help. Or maybe not.
Alex - you may wish to start with this book - Coins Hoards of Gt Britain + Ireland 1500-1967 by Brown/Dolley 1971. Or this book - English Civil War coin hoards Author: Besly, Edward Class: 737.4942 You may also wish to research the British Numismatic Journal - Click Here
This is the one field of British coinage i have yet to do anything on. There are several reasons firstly because Charles I's coinage is extensive (too much for my liking as i favour studying and collecting shorter runs) so because i've never attempted to colled Charles I and Civil War coinage it means i haven't done the reading for it. With regards to the English Republic this is another area i've no knowledge of, i have briefly studied the history of the period in a limited fashion and it was a great period of turmoil and strife. It truely was a period when England lost it's way. It became a religious despot's chessboard. And as usual Ireland had to pay the price once again when Cromwell went on a massacre rampage. Nasty man, obne of history's villans.
Dear all, Thanks for the spirited responses! >>>>> If I understand your request correctly you are wanting to know where and when coin hoards of British coinage from the Cromwell period have been found - yes ? Well I might be able to help you with that. But may I ask - what is it you are trying to learn from this ? <<<<< I guess I was a little brief in my first post. I'm a part-time lecturer in Manchester. I have just finished my PhD, researching various aspects of local government (in Lancashire) during the Commonwealth. I'm now casting about for new research, and I was drawn to the new currency. I mentioned in my thesis the potential political/cultural impact of imagery on the new coinage. I'm obviously not the first to discuss the coinage in these terms. However, it occurred to me that a discussion of the impact of the currency's imagery is redundent if we have no concept of just how common those images would have been. Therefore, I thought I might try and look into circulation during the 1650s. So far, I have only managed to spare a couple of days in the PRO. I started working through the Mint's records, but so far it is the post-Restoration material that has been most useful. The melting books indicate that there must have been a hell of a lot of "cross and harp" coins about. I've started flicking through Challis as well, so I have some figures for production. I thought that coin hoards - though obviously an incredibly problematic source - might be one way in which I could get some physical indication of the extent of the coins' circulation. Ultimately, I'm still at the very early stages of working on this, but it's really got me interested. Unfortunately, I'm also trying to prepare two articles for publication, and teaching begins in 10 days, so this is just taking up what's left of my "free time". I was hoping that their might be some kind of archaeological database, where finds are recorded, which would save a lot of travel/donkey work. Anyway, since my first post I have found the portable antiquities scheme, which has given me references for 100+ coins found in various parts of the UK, and also the archaeological data service, which was less useful. Anyway, thanks for the references. I had alaready found a citation for the Besly pamphlet; our library doesn't have a copy, so that will have to wait until I can get down to the British Library next. I've also tried to work through the BNJ; unfortunately, the library has put most of them into store. I did try to order up the index that the BNJ website reckoned had been published a few years back, but the library staff produced the wrong volume, and I haven't yet had time to go back. The same is true for the Numismatic Chronicle. I hadn't come across the Brown and Dolley book, before, though, and Rylands does have a copy of that, so I shall rush there tonight; thanks. Hopefully this will save me having to travel to each county to consult their SMRs. I won't be drawn into a discussion about Cromwell, as it's clearly off-topic. However, I would counsel against attributing too much to him. Most of what he is credited and blamed for wasn't actually done by him. Cromwell has become "the Parliamentarian", blamed for everything that they did collectively. Don't be fooled by propoganda and nationalist myth, either - most of the "Irish" he killed in Ireland were actually English Protestant soldiers. Anyway!... Thanks for all the help, and any further suggestions would be gratefully received. Cheers, Alex
Not to put too fine a point on it my biggest problem with the whole deal (1530s+) was the iconoclasm, so much history lost, just wasted. As someone who's just spent a year studying medieval Catholicism and the imagery, devotional images etc. i have my bias. Anyway good luck on your Commonwealth research whatever you do find out i would be interested in reading it, as both a numismatist and as a history buff. Sorry i can't be of more help in this instance. I'm afraid my area of specialisation is in the other English civil war.
I should also have said that, should any of this lead to something worth publishing, I will of course acknowledge any help that I receive from anybody on this list. Cheers, Alex
This might be helpful, ND site talks about some of the info needed? http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/UnattributedCount.intro.html or here, same site from the menu: http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinContents/Contents03.html
Alex, Good luck with your research, and I hope you uncover something truly significant. It is the original researcher such as you who adds to the sum total of human knowledge.
I think there are some excellent resources closer to home. All silver and gold discovered in the UK is "treasure trove" and the property of the Crown. As far as I recall, The British Museum on Great Russell St. in London has first crack at all such hoards. If they want it, they pay the finder the value. If they don't, they give it back to them. So, officially anyway, I think they are the experts on all reported hoards. (Not sure if they HAVE to pay or return coins, but this has been the tradition in recent decades).
