#middleearth #tolkien
Q: What Would Shire Coins Look Like?
ANSWER: I received the following questions in September 2022:
Have you ever thought about whose likeness would have appeared on coins used in the Shire or Bree? I can imagine that Gondorian coins would bear images of Kings or Stewards; Rohan coins (if they existed) probably had the face of the current King or maybe even a legendary hero like Helm Hammerhand. If the Shire Hobbits thought of themselves as subjects of the lost kingdom of Arnor, do you think they used faces of Kings and Queens of Arnor on the coins they used?
These questions presuppose that the Shire was striking or minting its own coinage at any time in its history in the Third Age. So far as I know, Tolkien never offered any explanations of how Middle-earth’s coinage was made.
Before I attempt to provide an answer, please allow me to digress.
A Brief History of Coinage (Money)
We don’t know where money was invented. Current thinking is that the earliest coins were struck around 650 BCE in ancient Lydia (located in what is now modern Türkiye). These Lydian coins were made from electrum, a naturally occurring gold-silver alloy. Striking coins means a piece of metal is placed under a die and then the top die is struck with a heavy hammer. The back of the coin was struck directly by the hammer, leaving a mark called an incuse.
Some time later coins were made by melting precious metals and pouring the molten metals into molds. And then they were stamped. Modern coins are produced by a milling process in which the coins are cut from sheets of metal and then pressed into shape.
A common problem throughout history has been the making of counterfeit coins. But another problem that cropped up from time to time was the dilution of the metals used to make coins. That is, the governments issuing coins found ways to make more coins with less precious metal – thus “diluting their value”.
Tolkien Doesn’t Tell Us Much about Middle-earth Coinage
You’ll find the word money is used more often in The Lord of the Rings than words like coin or penny. In fact, the only types of coins he names are pennies, but Tolkien doesn’t say if there are more than 1 type of penny in circulation.
Bilbo gives aways a few pennies to Hobbit children in the days leading up to The Party. But when horses and ponies are stolen from the Prancing Pony, Butterbur is hard put to compensate his guests with 30 “silver pennies”.
Bilbo and Frodo are said to be rich, but when Strider (Aragorn) first offers to accompany Frodo and the Hobbits out of Bree, Frodo worries about the cost as “he had brought only a little money with him.”
Historical Coins Don’t Always Have Faces
A coin could be stamped with the image of an animal, or a tree. Or it could be stamped with a symbol like a wreath made of wheat.
So before we start arguing about whose face adorned all of Bilbo’s money, we need to consider whether anyone’s face might have been stamped there.
I don’t think ancient Arnorian coinage would have been of much use in the Shire by Bilbo’s day. And keep in mind that he didn’t get all his money from the Shire. He brought some chests home from his adventures (of which he gave most or all of that wealth away, according to Frodo). The treasure from the trolls’ hoard he certainly got rid of.
And given that the Shire was on a major east-west highway, used by Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, and Big Folk (Men), it’s reasonable to assume there was a fair influx of money. The Dwarves of Ered Luin traded with the Shire (at least, Thorin’s folk did).
Who Would Have Made the Money?
This is a question I’ve been asked before. I don’t have an answer. But the Dwarves probably used money or some other means of carrying and exchanging wealth.
The Orcs of Moria paid Thrór’s companion Nár with a “small bag” containing “a few coins of little worth”. Maybe they got those coins from Thrór’s body or maybe they simply kept a store of coins.
Given that the Orcs were capable smiths, they could have struck their own coins. But so could have the Dwarves, Elves, and Men from any large communities that maintained their own mines. Everyone seemed to have plenty of iron, so there was a fair amount of mining going on.
Hence, each producer of coinage would have decided what to do for their own emblems. I imagine a Shire merchant might receive coins made by Dwarves, Elves, and Men. Maybe Hobbits never had any need to make their own coins at all.
My Thoughts
If you’re writing fan fiction or a gaming adventure, then I’d say that most of the coins in Eriador or Wilderland would probably have been of Dwarf-make. The Dwarves were the greatest travelers in Middle-earth. They would have needed money more than anyone else. They also traded extensively with nearby communities of Men (and sometimes Elves, according to The Hobbit).
Hence, I would imagine there would be Dwarven symbols on many coins. Perhaps the heads of kings. Perhaps symbols like Durin’s hammer.
Gondor probably made its own coins. I get the impression that the Stewards maintained a sense of humility about their office, even if they didn’t always feel that way. So I don’t think Gondorian coins (in the era of the Ruling Stewards) should be imagined with faces. I think symbols of wealth and authority would be more appropriate.
The Northman realms of Rohan, Dale, and Lake-town may have circulated their own coinages. It would be reasonable to imagine they would use the faces of kings or town masters. But maybe it would be better to assume Lake-town used images of boats or fish for their coins.
Conclusion
Something I’ve always wondered about was the reference to “glass beads” in “An Unexpected Party”. That is, the narrative says “not a penny-piece or a glass bead was given away.” Were glass beads used as a medium of exchange? Trade beads have historically been used throughout the world.
And if Tolkien imagined the use of trade beads in Middle-earth, then I think the need for stamping money with faces becomes even less important. Historians and archaeologists have asked why we created money for centuries. No one really knows. All we know is that now we’re kind of stuck with it, because we don’t know how else to exchange value for goods and services.
It would not be unreasonable to assume (at least for the sake of fan fiction or gaming) that alternative media of exchange were also use, like shells or small precious stones.
See also
Is There Money in Middle-earth?
Are There Taxes in Middle-earth?
How Did Bilbo and Frodo Support Themselves?
The Merchants of Middle-earth (Classic Essay)
# # #
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
@michael Hi! Very interesting, as usual!!!But I got a bit surprised with the part "Gondor probably made its own coins", 'cause we know at least the game of two Gondorian coins, castar and tharni (from The Peoples of Middle Earth", I guess). Surely you knew about them 🙂
Busted!
Yes, I know about their coins. I had a different article scheduled for today but it wasn’t finished so I fished around late last night for a different topic and came up with this one. Fortunately, some people still ask fairly simple questions! LOL!
@michael For fan fiction or DnD purposes I would propose Hobbit coins would display the leaves of pipe-weed since this may be their most famous product. Otherwise, probably vegetables because food is near to their hearts.
There is hard currency – a quantity of generally precious metal (precious for the sake of compactness as much as for intrinsic value) or decorative/display value – beads, jewelry and such that can signify wealth/status, such as the Elvenking’s desire for a particular emerald necklace. And then there’s fiat/symbolic currency – paper or other tokens that have far less intrinsic value than their raw materials.
By its nature precious metal-based hard currency has an easily understood value. It matters little what symbols are stamped upon it; weight is its underlying value. Well-executed symbols of authenticity/authority help minimize the need to weigh the objects – they can be exchanged at “face value.”
Fiat currencies depend upon strong, stable governments in order to achieve and maintain stable value, which is certainly not the political situation in late Third Age Eriador. Hard currency it would be.
While there might be some well-worn coinage from long-passed realms (and the occasional barrow wight or troll horde), and maybe even a contemporary coin that filtered its way west from Dale/Laketown or north from Gondor/Rohan, I’d expect that most coin in circulation in The Shire and Bree would be Dwarvish. As the principal miners of precious metal and jewels they would need to exchange that stuff for food, leather, fabric, ponies, and other necessities. And unlike most Men and Halflings, Dwarves traveled extensively; spreading the wealth, so to speak.
I can imagine such coin to be highly decorated, as an advertisement for their crafting skills. Kings, Lonely, Blue, or Misty Mountains, and Iron Hills seem more likely symbols than flora and fauna.
Bilbo undoubtedly had little trouble exchanging his gold and “jools” for goods and services. Hard currency economies mix and match all the time. Surviving American account ledgers of the early 19th century list transactions in a variety of currencies; with dollar-denominated transactions adjacent to those in pounds and shillings, Spanish reals (pieces of eight), and the occasional guilder, among others. Much of that currency had been circulating since Colonial days. If too well-worn to read, what matter, just put it on the scale. If too suspect, a local jeweler or assayer could assess its metallic purity. A coin from Arvedui’s reign would likely be worn flat yet still maintain value in Hobbiton.
In the Harvard Lampoon parody of LOTR, there is a Wayfarer’s Letter of Credit (“as good as bullion anywhere”). I’m guessing that there were no credit or debit cards in Middle-earth, though I do rather like the idea of Butterbur taking out a machine to process Frodo’s proffered Feasters or Numenorean-Express card to settle his bill at the Prancing Pony. Ah, but Tolkien never said it didn’t happen, so … Sorry, back in the room.
Given that the Dwarves undoubtedly paid for food and other goods and services in gold, silver and jewellery, it follows that these things had value among other races. It seems even Trolls valued them, although it’s difficult to imagine Trolls carrying out any trading or going to the local supermarket. “Fifty pence for a kilo of man-flesh? It’s a disgrace.”
In Chapter 1, there’s a discussion about alleged jewel and gold hoards in Bag End, so the question arises of what value they would have among Hobbits, to whom the most important things were food, ale and tobacco. Precious metals and jewels could only be a medium of exchange, and in a society such as the Hobbits’ that must mean there was a consensus on what any given amount of gold, etc was worth – one silver penny equals a bushel of wheat, or a case of pipe weed, or some such. What would be the effect of a particularly poor harvest, or a particularly good one? Presumably the Shire leaders would have to convene and reset the exchange values.
If most internal Shire trade was done in person, prices could easily be set by bargaining. I have fresh corn. You have mushrooms. We agree on a trade value – so many ears for so many mushrooms.
Money would probably be used the same way. There wouldn’t necessarily be a fixed price for goods, just a general consensus. I have corn, I don’t need mushrooms. You have mushrooms, but want corn. That guy over there wants mushrooms, but doesn’t have any produce. He does have a few coins. You sell your mushrooms to him, give a coin or two to me, I give you the corn. All three are happy.
For services, such as lodging, village hole rent, wagon repairs, etc, there would likely be a commonly recognized price, as it’s a little hard to barter for those.
Dealing with the Dwarves would likely be different. They could pay in coins, which would then be given back to them later in exchange for their goods. They wouldn’t likely need a bushel of corn in exchange for a new ax head!
Well they did use money inside the Shire, we hear of them especially in regards to sales of property, land or estates, I mean the sell of Bag End comes to mind and as rumors had it at “bargain price”, as Frodo was spreading rumor that he was running out of money and so sale of his estate was natural. I would say that the internal trade among the Hobbits themselves would still follow some basic demand and supply free market rules, I mean it comes to mind that when Bilbo organizes his party:
“The purchase of provisions fell almost to nothing throughout the district in the ensuing weeks; but as Bilbo’s catering had depleted the stocks of most stores…”
We also know that the sales especially of land are recorded in Yellowskin, the Year-book of Tuckborough, so definitely such transactions would be in money.
“1 Recording births, marriages, and deaths in the Took families, as well as matters, such as land-sales, and various Shire events.”
We also know that some Hobbits worked for other Hobbits and received pay:
“For this he used Hobbits within the Shire, in the pay of the Bracegirdles and the Sackville-Bagginses,…” … “‘My cousin Hal for one. He works for Mr. Boffin at Overhill and goes up to the Northfarthing for the hunting.”
How the prices would be established, I guess it would depend, there could be some bargaining and haggling (though for instance in UT Gandalf mentions that the Hobbits trading with the Dwarves do not haggle much and are generous) only in Bree we hear anything about the various prices :).
“The next day more carts rolled up the Hill, and still more carts. There might have been some grumbling about ‘dealing locally’, but that very week orders began to pour out of Bag End for every kind of provision, commodity, or luxury that could be obtained in Hobbiton or Bywater or anywhere in the neighbourhood.”
We know that Hobbits have markets, market-places, Free Fair in the poems in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil there is reference to “cheaping”
“Queer tales from Bree, and talk at smithy, mill and cheaping; Rumours in whispering trees, south-wind in the larches, Tall Watchers by the Ford, ”
A word designating market, though also can mean haggling.
Agreed, the Hobbits’ economy most likely started off in an ad hoc manner, with one to one negotiations, with little or no attention paid to other deals going on. However, as they became more settled, and their population expanded so that specialists in the various occupations and trades emerged, the negotiations would have become more wide ranging and the groups involved would have overlapped more and more. “Hold on, Grubb, you’re offering two sacks of mushrooms for my cartload of wheat? Why, the other day Maggot gave Proudfoot three sacks and a barrow of potatoes for the same stuff!”
Hobbit sense and a desire for fairness and consistency would then lead by degrees to a Shire-wide consensus on relative values. Which would tie in with this UT quote from Gandalf: “You do not know much about the Shire folk, Gloin. I suppose you think them simple, because they are generous and do not haggle.”
This suggests (although it doesn’t prove) that they liked a comfortable consistency in prices, just as they liked their orderly, more or less carefree life in the Shire.