The Welsh Marches PBeM Game
Second edition Chivalry and Sorcery used the 4.5 gram Silver Penny as the basis for monetary transactions. There were 100 of these to 1lb and 25 to the Gold Piece or Ducat which also weighed 4.5 grams.
In the Welsh Marches PBeM game the unit of currency in the English silver penny. The English silver penny was the common currency of the realm during medieval times, 12 pennies made a Shilling and 20 Shillings or 240 pennies the Pound Sterling. The Pound and Shilling were regarded as money of account, used only for book-keeping, no coins were issued until late in the medieval period.
Some coins of greater value circulated, about 1250 the Grosso, a big silver coin, was minted in Italy as the equivalent to 12 pennies but the circulation of such a coin was limited mainly to Italy. In 1266 St. Louis, King of France, issued a 'gros tournois' and in 1279 Edward I, King of England, an even larger groat valued at 4 pence. He also issued round half-pennies and farthings (quarter pennies) where previously the penny had physically had to be cut in half or quarters to produce these denominations. Coins had a physical value in silver matching their face value and so it was possible to make change in this manner and know that by reminting 4 quarter or 2 half pennies the value of the coin would be restored.
Most pennies were of a silver-copper-zinc alloy containing about 30% silver. The coin was struck as a disc just about 5/8 inch (16mm) in diameter weighing about 0.01 lb (100=1lb). As a comparison a modern US quarter or UK 10p coin weighs in at 0.015 lb (64 =1lb).
The exchequer was the counting board used by merchants to keep track of the money used in business. It consisted of a flat board laid out in a grid pattern. Counters were used to represent the numbers of pennies, shillings and pounds. Effectively each time the bottom row counter reached 12 the second row counter, representing shillings, was incremented and similarly when that counter reached 20 the top row was incremented with the number of pounds.
In France a similar system of currency existed. Also derived from the
old Roman money system, France used the Livre (Pound), either the Livre
Tournois or the Livre Parisis depending upon the standard used by mint
that made the coins (1 livre tournois was worth 1.25 livre parisis). The
sou was the equivalent of the English shilling and the denier (an
example from Poitou is illustrated right) the equivalent of the penny.
The Franc gradually replaced the livre during the 15th century as
money of account and was issued as a gold coin worth 20s tournois.
All the money used was noted in Latin as the Libra (pound), Solidus (shilling or sou) and the Denarius (penny or denier). Another unit of money of account was the Mark which was a measure of weight (8oz) normally used to measure silver (marks of silver) and usually valued at 13 Shillings and 4 Pence (160 silver pennies). Again this was used only for book-keeping or valuable metal transactions.
Most lords carried barrels of pennies as part of their baggage train when going to war as they troops had to by paid in coin and no larger unit of currency generally existed.
During the 13th century coins like the Florentine Florin (c1252) and the Venetian Ducat (c1284) were minted. Henry II of England issued a gold penny in 1257 but it was undervalued (less gold content than its face value) and never favoured, soon dropping out of use. Later on gold Nobles (1344) were being minted in England and gold Moutons (Francs) and Crowns or écu in France. Gold and silver bezants were minted in Constantinople.
In game terms everything is valued and paid for in English silver pennies. Under 2nd edition C&S prices are in silver pennies but 3rd edition introduces a new copper penny with the 5 penny coin replacing the 3nd edition silver penny. What this means is that prices and wages in 3rd Edition are 5 times the number of silver pennies under 2nd edition. This is purely as a result of the 5 copper pennies equals 1 silver penny ratio adopted for the latest edition.
Players should stick with whichever edition was used when they generated their characters for money and prices. However if they want to update a 2nd edition character to 3rd then they should multiply the number of silver pennies they possess by 5 to get new copper pennies.
I shall try and note the correct numbers of pennies for specific characters but you may find that I slip up occasionally.