Coinage and State Formation in Early Modern English Literature

Purse of Medieval Silver Coins from Royal Shipwreck Revealed by X-Ray Microscale Computed Tomography (Μct) Scanning

“…Renewal and debasement of coins was an economic instrument often used throughout medieval Europe in times of war or unrest to secure a sufficient supply of coins, often to finance military expenditures. Replacing high silver content coins with debased substitutes would increase the amount of money in circulation without requiring fresh inputs of silver (Deng 2011;Naismith, 2018a;Spufford, 1988). In contrast, the Gribshunden purse reveals that older coins were common and fully accepted for general circulation even in the highest echelons of Danish society.…”

Restoration commerce and the instruments of trust

“…7 The local motivation for much of this reflection was to comprehend and correct for the long-term consequences of the ‘Great Debasement’ initiated by Henry VIII in the 1540s (cf. Chown, 1994; Caffentzis, 2003; Deng, 2011). One of the fundamental puzzles that needed to be resolved going forward was whether a coin’s value should be conceived as an intrinsic or extrinsic property.…”