TUDOR AND STUART PARANUMISMATICA

Paranumismatica is the term applied to items that fulfil a coin-like function or are related to coins but which are not themselves coins. This catch-all category includes many rather odd items and this article will discuss a few of these groups from the Tudor and Stuart periods, roughly the 16th and 17th centuries.

A good volume of gold coins had been produced in England since the mid-14th century. By the start of the 16th century, there were several denominations in use, not to mention significant numbers of foreign coins which circulated quite happily alongside their English counterparts. However, as we have seen in earlier articles (Coin Collector issue 7), coins of this period might be forged, particularly examples of gold with their very high face value. The very high purity gold from which these coins were struck, however, would have had a noticeable weight which it would have been difficult to give a forgery. Forgeries were often plated with a base, lighter-weight core.

Thus, coin weights were introduced against which a given coin would be weighed. These coin weights would be made so that they had a weight at the lowest point of what was legal. They would then hopefully show lightweight forgeries for what they