Mints and Money in Medieval England

Reviews / Votes

'This detailed and clearly-written history of English coinage from the Anglo-Saxon age through the Tudor period fills the longstanding need for a comprehensive and judicious synthesis of the numismatic and documentary evidence for all facets of monetary history from the acquisition of bullion, through the size of the circulating medium, to the role of mint profits in the fiscal organization of the state.' Alan Stahl, Princeton University, New Jersey 'The provision of coinage was a fundamental responsibility of a medieval king of England and Martin Allen here provides a book-length exploration and dissection of what this meant in practice, weaving together numismatic and documentary sources to make a complex subject clear and comprehensible. There is nothing on the English coinage to match it for the medieval period and there is no question it will be a standard work for a generation.' Barrie Cook, British Museum 'In 1953, Cambridge University Press published Sir John Craig's The Mint. Forty years later it published A New History of the Royal Mint, edited by Christopher Challis. Another twenty years of historical scholarship have passed in this field. Martin Allen has brought it together, and extended it, in this, the next landmark volume.' Peter Spufford, University of Cambridge 'This is a well-written and readable book that draws together an often complex array of documentary, statistical and archaeological material and presents it in a comprehensive and digestible format. In the history of English numismatics there are few authors that can claim to have succeeded in delivering such a comprehensive overview of their subject area; indeed the volume is unmatched in European medieval numismatics. This will be a mainstay for students of English medieval currency for a generation.' The Society for Medieval Archaeology