FOREIGN COINS IN TUDOR ENGLAND

Throughout the medieval period English kings presided over an unusually pure currency. On paper, England’s money consisted exclusively of English coins, bearing the names, titles, and symbols of English monarchs, and struck at English standards of weight and fineness. In practice, however, English money was often supplemented by foreign coin, which helped ‘plug the gap’ when local coin was in short supply. This phenomenon was particularly common in the Tudor period, and in the years between 1485 and 1603 a wide range of foreign gold and silver coins found their way into English circulation.

England, Burgundy, and the double patard

By the time that Henry VII claimed victory at Bosworth in 1485, one type of foreign coin had already been circulating in England for over a decade: the double patard. Known as the ‘Carolus Plack’ after its issuer, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (1467-1477), the double patard was a broad silver coin weighing roughly 3g, with a distinctive design consisting of an armorial shield on the obverse and an floriate cross on the reverse (figure 1). It arrived as the outcome of trade negotiations in 1469, which set out terms for the interchange of English coins in the Low Countries