MONEY in middle earth?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Given Tolkien's medieval calquing, and the Englishness of the Shire, by silver pennies he almost certainly was thinking of the only silver coin minted in England from the Anglo-Saxons through most of the medieval period, and which was only replaced by the copper 'cartwheel' in Victorian times. The silver penny (denarius) was originally defined as 1/240 of a pound (troy) of sterling silver. Of course, since that time a "pound sterling" has become worth a heckuva lot less than an actual one-lb lump of the stuff .925 fine.

The typical Old English silver penny weighed 1.3 to 1.5 grams, or about 1/4 of the later shilling. The shilling itself was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent- so 12 silver pennies would have been the going rate for three cows, pretty steep for a broken-down pony.

On the other hand Tolkien may have figured 12 pennies = one shilling.

[Rumil]

Hi all.

William CH, I see your point, English silver pennies, nice pics of them here Silver Pennies, (rather Tolkienesque to my thinking). Hmm, so 4 silver pennies per cow? That sort of fits, the same as Bill's recommended retail price!

In a flash of mental arithmetic, Butterbur in fact paid 6 silver pence per pony to Merry in compensation for their theft (ie 18 pence direct plus 12 for Bill the Pony for the 5 ponies; Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swish-tail and Bumpkin, White-socks my little lad, but not Old Fatty Lumpkin). This is 50% more than Bill was supposed to be worth, but the hobbits' ponies were surely in good condition.

I think the mirian/castar must have been gold surely?

Was there small change? Well, I don't think there's any specific mention, but Bilbo does give some pennies to the Hobbit children I guess its most likely these were coppers of some sort? (Though I wouldn't put it past Bilbo to scatter a few weeks' wages to the local kids!).

When the Man in the Moon Came Down too Soon he paid 21 pearls and unspecifid amounts of silver for cold porridge, but that was a complete ripoff!