2 thoughts on “The First English Coin Collection? – Dave Greenhalgh”
The romantic in me really hopes that your speculative suggestion is true however I suspect it’s not. This would have been a large quantity of money and probably more than would be needed for a moneyer winning over clients.
Nevertheless, the idea that this is a collection rather than just random coins seems worthy of a bit more consideration. I imagine that a statistician – if armed with the broader coin population data – could quite easily calculate the odds of 37 randomly selected coins all being from different mints. I wonder if anybody has done that analysis? A quick look at the Noonans auction archive shows that they have sold 24 Merovingian gold tremissis over the years and there are duplicated mints amongst this group – so perhaps 37 all different mints is a bit unlikely.
Thank you for your comments, regarding the cost but a moneyer was certainly more than able to afford the amount, Give the numbers of coins a moneyer can strike in a day he would expect to earn the equivalent of 1 – 2 thrymsas a day so the cost really only represents 2 – 3 weeks wages for him on the basis that the equivalent exchange rate for a thrymsa was equal to 12 silver sceats (or pennies) and the general pay for a moneyer was around 20 pence a day.
BNS Research Blog 
The romantic in me really hopes that your speculative suggestion is true however I suspect it’s not. This would have been a large quantity of money and probably more than would be needed for a moneyer winning over clients.
Nevertheless, the idea that this is a collection rather than just random coins seems worthy of a bit more consideration. I imagine that a statistician – if armed with the broader coin population data – could quite easily calculate the odds of 37 randomly selected coins all being from different mints. I wonder if anybody has done that analysis? A quick look at the Noonans auction archive shows that they have sold 24 Merovingian gold tremissis over the years and there are duplicated mints amongst this group – so perhaps 37 all different mints is a bit unlikely.
Thank you for your comments, regarding the cost but a moneyer was certainly more than able to afford the amount, Give the numbers of coins a moneyer can strike in a day he would expect to earn the equivalent of 1 – 2 thrymsas a day so the cost really only represents 2 – 3 weeks wages for him on the basis that the equivalent exchange rate for a thrymsa was equal to 12 silver sceats (or pennies) and the general pay for a moneyer was around 20 pence a day.