Leaders in the European Middle Ages issued coins as a kind of aspirational statement of stable power. After all, currency is only as successful as a community’s faith in its worth. But what happens when a leader goes out of favor, or dies? This is a photo of coins issued by two English kings, one of them – Harold II – killed in battle by the other’s (William the Conqueror/Bastard) forces in October 1066. They make up a hoard of over 2,300 coins recently discovered with metal detectors in January of 2019. The fact that coins from the rival leaders were mixed together speaks to a time of enormous upheaval. The fact that they were buried testifies to a high degree of uncertainty that followed William’s conquest.
Source(s): BBC “Detectorists find huge Chew Valley Norman Coin Hoard”, Somerset, August 28, 2019.
