In China and Iapan one pound weight of fine gold is worth but nine or ten pounds weight of fine silver;
& in East India it may be worth twelve. And this low price of gold in proportion to silver, carries away
the silver from all Europe.
(1) Name the English monarch who first minted silver pennies.
(2) How many pennies were initially minted from one ounce of sterling silver?
(3) The weight of such a penny, a pennyweight, is nominally equivalent
to the weight of how many grains of barley?
(4) EITHER name the English monarch under whose reign these "light
pennies" were first minted; OR give the year
of the first such minting.
One English monarch began the "Great Debasement" of coins which
eventually became so severe that pennies'
copper content was high enough to give "silver" coins a coppery color.
(5) Name that monarch.
(6) Name the English monarch during whose reign a new standard was introduced, with old coins redeemed according to their
actual precious metal content.
(7) How many pennies per ounce of sterling silver were minted with the
new standard?
(8) Name the man who proposed and supervised this monetary change.
9) Name the man who wrote that report.
(10) The English mark, while never coined, was a popular unit of
account. It was equivalent to how many pennies?
(11) How many farthings in a groat?
(12) What was the smallest denomination of British money ever minted?
(13) Where did those small-denomination coins circulate?
(14) In what year was the Bank of England founded?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Round 5: Ancient Coinage
(13) The Spanish gold doubloon was often valued at what whole number of Spanish dollars?
(14) Though becoming archaic, "two bits" is American slang for how much money in more familiar units?
Round 4: English Coinage
(2) How many pennies were initially minted from one ounce of sterling silver?
(8) Name the man who proposed and supervised this monetary change.
Round 5: Ancient Coinage25 cents
(14) Though becoming archaic, "two bits" is American slang for how much money in more familiar units?
This is the final round of the first (and last?) installment of
Jamie's Trivia Questions. The present standings are
Mark 5 + 34 + 33 = 72
Dan_T 8 + 33 + 24 = 65
Joshua 16 + 0 + 39 = 55
So it's anyone's victory! And those who missed Rounds 1-3 may always try
to outscore in round 4 or 5.
Rounds 4 & 5: Coinages
Except as noted, a correct answer gets 4 points.
One point will be deducted if two answers are provided to any question, but only one answer is correct.
For questions asking for a non-Monarch's name, 1 point will be deducted if the personal name is missing or wrong.
For questions asking for a date, 4 points will be credited if the date is within 6 years of the correct year;
3 points within 12 years; 2 points within 20 years; 1 point within 30 years.
Full credit for misspelled or approximately correct answers.
Round 4: English Coinage
Hereafter "pound" refers to Troy pound; we'll write "monetary pound" to denote 20 shillings of nominal monetary value.
We'll ignore that the English ("Tower") pound was slightly lighter than a Troy pound before the Troy (Troyes) system
became a European standard. An "ounce" will mean one-twelfth of such a Troy (or Tower) pound.
A "penny" refers to the English coin or monetary value BEFORE decimalization. "Silver" usually refers to the sterling alloy (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper).
(1) Name the English monarch who first minted silver pennies.
(2) How many pennies were initially minted from one ounce of sterling silver?
(3) The weight of such a penny, a pennyweight, is nominally equivalent to the weight of how many grains of barley?
The Great Bullion Famine refers to a major European crisis. Precious metals were being shipped to the Levant in exchange
for luxury goods, while Europe's mines were producing less metal, or even shutting down. Silver and gold were so scarce that
many mints ceased producing coins altogether. One English response was to reduce the silver content of their penny, now
minting 40 ("light") pennies per ounce rather than the earlier 32 ("heavy") pennies.
(4) EITHER name the English monarch under whose reign these "light pennies" were first minted; OR give the year
of the first such minting.
One English monarch began the "Great Debasement" of coins which eventually became so severe that pennies'
copper content was high enough to give "silver" coins a coppery color.
(5) Name that monarch.
After continuing with the debasement for a short while, that Monarch's successor begin minting 60 pennies per ounce
of sterling silver -- a much lighter standard than afore-mentioned "light" pennies, but still much better than the
debased coins the mint had been producing. Debased coins were redeemed by the government at a 50% discount.
With some bad coins continuing to circulate, English currency had a bad reputation in Continental markets.
(6) Name the English monarch during whose reign a new standard was introduced, with old coins redeemed according to their
actual precious metal content.
(7) How many pennies per ounce of sterling silver were minted with the new standard?
(8) Name the man who proposed and supervised this monetary change.
In 1663 England introduced a gold coin ("Guinea") originally priced at 20 silver shillings.
But for various reasons the gold coins were preferred in England and could often be exchanged for much
more than 20 shillings of silver. Silver coins were often melted down or exported to other polities.
One man is often credited with establishing the guinea price at 21 shillings. Here is a brief excerpt from the report he wrote on gold/silver pricing:
In China and Iapan one pound weight of fine gold is worth but nine or ten pounds weight of fine silver;
& in East India it may be worth twelve. And this low price of gold in proportion to silver, carries away
the silver from all Europe.
9) Name the man who wrote that report.
(10) The English mark, while never coined, was a popular unit of account. It was equivalent to how many pennies?
(11) How many farthings in a groat?
(12) What was the smallest denomination of British money ever minted?
(13) Where did those small-denomination coins circulate?
The Bank of England was established as a private joint-stock corporation to lend money to HM Government
during a time of financial distress. The target of 1.2 million monetary pounds was raised quickly from
more than 1200 individuals. (To increase confidence that Government could afford interest on the debt,
Parliament passed an Act allowing tariffs, especially on alcoholic beverages.)
(14) In what year was the Bank of England founded?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Round 5: Ancient Coinage
Ancient weights
(1) In the oldest documented system of weights, one shekel allegedly weighed as much as how many grains of barley?
(2) In that system, one mina weighed how many shekels?
(3) In that system, one talent (sometimes treated as the weight one laborer could carry) weighed how many mina?
But later civilizations adopted the terms with different definitions, and further revised them.
As one example of confusion, a "gold talent" was a smallish gold coin and had hugely less
value than a talent-weight of silver, let alone a talent-weight of gold!
(4) How many librae (pounds) in a Roman talent?
Shekel (with its multiples) was also used to denote monetary value, nominally the same value as a shekel-weight of silver.
This was often a "money of account" with debts eventually settled with barley, cattle or other goods,
but there is evidence that physical silver was sometimes weighed even in ancient Sumeria to settle trades
or debts. There was wide variation in weight among the shekel coins eventually minted by Levantine polities.
Questions about drachma assume the Attic (Athens) system, which became a standard for several centuries.
(5) How many drachmae in a mina?
(6) How many oboli in a tetradrachm?
(7) What polity is noted for minting the first coin (called a "stater") of relatively high quality?
(8) The first staters were made from an alloy of silver and, primarily, what other metal?
(9) Name the monarch who first began minting staters with relatively pure metals, instead of alloy.
Coins weighing a fraction of a stater were minted, and eventually a half-stater became known as a "light" stater.
Another polity copied this light stater, called it a siglos, and minted a gold daric coin (weighing 1.5x the siglos).
Because the gold daric was valued at exactly 20 silver siglos this may have been the first official system
of bimetallism.
(10) What was that polity that minted siglos and daric coins?
There were two gold coins of almost identical weight introduced in the 13th century which became respected
throughout Europe. Unlike many other coinages, their purity and weight were maintained throughout
centuries of minting.
(11) Name either one of these two coins (for 3 points). Add 2 more points if you also name the issuing polity.
(12) Name the other of these two coins (for 3 points). Add 2 more points if you also name the issuing polity.
Another coin that was respected for several centuries due to consistent weight and purity was the silver coin that
eventually came to be called the Spanish dollar.
(13) The Spanish gold doubloon was often valued at what whole number of Spanish dollars?
(14) Though becoming archaic, "two bits" is American slang for how much money in more familiar units?
Rounds 4 & 5: Coinages
Except as noted, a correct answer gets 4 points.
One point will be deducted if two answers are provided to any question, but only one answer is correct.
For questions asking for a non-Monarch's name, 1 point will be deducted if the personal name is missing or wrong.
For questions asking for a date, 4 points will be credited if the date is within 6 years of the correct year;
3 points within 12 years; 2 points within 20 years; 1 point within 30 years.
Full credit for misspelled or approximately correct answers.
Round 4: English Coinage
Hereafter "pound" refers to Troy pound; we'll write "monetary pound" to denote 20 shillings of nominal monetary value.
We'll ignore that the English ("Tower") pound was slightly lighter than a Troy pound before the Troy (Troyes) system
became a European standard. An "ounce" will mean one-twelfth of such a Troy (or Tower) pound.
A "penny" refers to the English coin or monetary value BEFORE decimalization. "Silver" usually refers to the sterling alloy (92.5% silver, 7.5% copper).
(1) Name the English monarch who first minted silver pennies.
(2) How many pennies were initially minted from one ounce of sterling silver?
(3) The weight of such a penny, a pennyweight, is nominally equivalent to the weight of how many grains of barley?
The Great Bullion Famine refers to a major European crisis. Precious metals were being shipped to the Levant in exchange
for luxury goods, while Europe's mines were producing less metal, or even shutting down. Silver and gold were so scarce that
many mints ceased producing coins altogether. One English response was to reduce the silver content of their penny, now
minting 40 ("light") pennies per ounce rather than the earlier 32 ("heavy") pennies.
(4) EITHER name the English monarch under whose reign these "light pennies" were first minted; OR give the year
of the first such minting.
One English monarch began the "Great Debasement" of coins which eventually became so severe that pennies'
copper content was high enough to give "silver" coins a coppery color.
(5) Name that monarch.
After continuing with the debasement for a short while, that Monarch's successor begin minting 60 pennies per ounce
of sterling silver -- a much lighter standard than afore-mentioned "light" pennies, but still much better than the
debased coins the mint had been producing. Debased coins were redeemed by the government at a 50% discount.
With some bad coins continuing to circulate, English currency had a bad reputation in Continental markets.
(6) Name the English monarch during whose reign a new standard was introduced, with old coins redeemed according to their
actual precious metal content.
(7) How many pennies per ounce of sterling silver were minted with the new standard?
(8) Name the man who proposed and supervised this monetary change.
In 1663 England introduced a gold coin ("Guinea") originally priced at 20 silver shillings.
But for various reasons the gold coins were preferred in England and could often be exchanged for much
more than 20 shillings of silver. Silver coins were often melted down or exported to other polities.
One man is often credited with establishing the guinea price at 21 shillings. Here is a brief excerpt from the report he wrote on gold/silver pricing:
In China and Iapan one pound weight of fine gold is worth but nine or ten pounds weight of fine silver;
& in East India it may be worth twelve. And this low price of gold in proportion to silver, carries away
the silver from all Europe.
9) Name the man who wrote that report.
(10) The English mark, while never coined, was a popular unit of account. It was equivalent to how many pennies?
(11) How many farthings in a groat?
(12) What was the smallest denomination of British money ever minted?
(13) Where did those small-denomination coins circulate?
The Bank of England was established as a private joint-stock corporation to lend money to HM Government
during a time of financial distress. The target of 1.2 million monetary pounds was raised quickly from
more than 1200 individuals. (To increase confidence that Government could afford interest on the debt,
Parliament passed an Act allowing tariffs, especially on alcoholic beverages.)
(14) In what year was the Bank of England founded?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Round 5: Ancient Coinage
Ancient weights
(1) In the oldest documented system of weights, one shekel allegedly weighed as much as how many grains of barley?
(2) In that system, one mina weighed how many shekels?
(3) In that system, one talent (sometimes treated as the weight one laborer could carry) weighed how many mina?
But later civilizations adopted the terms with different definitions, and further revised them.
As one example of confusion, a "gold talent" was a smallish gold coin and had hugely less
value than a talent-weight of silver, let alone a talent-weight of gold!
(4) How many librae (pounds) in a Roman talent?
Shekel (with its multiples) was also used to denote monetary value, nominally the same value as a shekel-weight of silver.
This was often a "money of account" with debts eventually settled with barley, cattle or other goods,
but there is evidence that physical silver was sometimes weighed even in ancient Sumeria to settle trades
or debts. There was wide variation in weight among the shekel coins eventually minted by Levantine polities.
Questions about drachma assume the Attic (Athens) system, which became a standard for several centuries.
(5) How many drachmae in a mina?
(6) How many oboli in a tetradrachm?
(7) What polity is noted for minting the first coin (called a "stater") of relatively high quality?
(8) The first staters were made from an alloy of silver and, primarily, what other metal?
(9) Name the monarch who first began minting staters with relatively pure metals, instead of alloy.
Coins weighing a fraction of a stater were minted, and eventually a half-stater became known as a "light" stater.
Another polity copied this light stater, called it a siglos, and minted a gold daric coin (weighing 1.5x the siglos).
Because the gold daric was valued at exactly 20 silver siglos this may have been the first official system
of bimetallism.
(10) What was that polity that minted siglos and daric coins?
There were two gold coins of almost identical weight introduced in the 13th century which became respected
throughout Europe. Unlike many other coinages, their purity and weight were maintained throughout
centuries of minting.
(11) Name either one of these two coins (for 3 points). Add 2 more points if you also name the issuing polity.
(12) Name the other of these two coins (for 3 points). Add 2 more points if you also name the issuing polity.
Another coin that was respected for several centuries due to consistent weight and purity was the silver coin that[The Spanish dollar, aka "piece of eight (reales)", was legal tender in the USA until 1857;
eventually came to be called the Spanish dollar.
(13) The Spanish gold doubloon was often valued at what whole number of Spanish dollars?
(14) Though becoming archaic, "two bits" is American slang for how much money in more familiar units?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
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