By galley and by oar: recent Italian medieval to post-medieval coin finds in Kent
Kent’s position as a maritime and continental trade hub in Britain has provided the archaeological landscape with often unique quirks. This is often most clearly represented by finds of distinctly continental flavour when it comes to material culture. One object that often stands out is the small, silver hammered coins of the Venetians, the soldino.
While the soldino is perhaps the least unique to Kent of all the continental connections, their presence is still incredibly interesting. The soldino is a small silver coin used by many Italian city states but made most famous in its use and circulation by the Republic of Venice. First issued by the doge or city ruler Andrea Contarini (1367–1380), they began to arrive in Britain during the early 15th century. We see three common types: the first two of which are variants on the same theme, the Lion of St. Mark. These depict the doge on one side and the haloed Lion of St. Mark on the other (Fig 1), with later examples having a tressure around the reverse lion. Following this is the final type, with the doge kneeling in front of St. Mark and receiving the saint’s standard on the obverse and a haloed standing Christ on the reverse. All have the doge’s name on the obverse (Fig 2).
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These coins became incredibly popular in England due to the relative lack of small denomination coins (farthings and halfpennies) issued during the later medieval period. They gained the popular moniker of ‘galyhalpens’ or galley halfpence being brought to the country with the regular arrival of the Venetian trade fleets made up of Mediterranean galleys. Despite the crown’s renowned control of English coinage, their use was never stamped out – a deathbed polemic by Doge Tommaso Mocenigo (1413–23) claimed (perhaps rather generously) that ten million of the coins were exported yearly to England[fn1] . Despite this exaggeration, the coins’ popularity is evident both in the crown’s frequent attempts to ban and seize them over the 15th and early 16th centuries and the presence of the coins themselves.
More than 1380 soldinos have been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme[fn2] (PAS), 5% of that number being found in Kent. Since the number of contemporary medieval to post-medieval coin records total 15,370[fn3], the number of soldinos is significant, representing around 9% of those recorded. No other non-English coins, even Scottish coins, have quite a representation on the database. This is striking considering that successive bans and recoinages probably took most out of circulation. It should be noted, however, that, being very small coins, they can be easily damaged by agricultural processes, and until relatively recently, they would have proved difficult for many metal detectorists and their machines to pinpoint (contemporary halfpennies and farthings also suffer this bias in recovery). This likely means that they are slightly underrepresented in the database. [pg11]By the end of the first quarter of the 16th century, the vast recoinages of the early Tudors had injected much-needed quantities of small change into the economy. This, coupled with stricter laws and controls, led to the soldino falling out of everyday use.
While for a short period of history, the Venetian soldino was a popular coin in England, it was not the only Italian coin to arrive. The Venetian grosso, the larger multiple of the soldino, came too, though in vastly smaller numbers. This coin again depicts the Doge and St. Mark, though in various forms. This coin was roughly the same size as the English penny, and this comparison may account for its rarity, being easily removed from circulation without much public opposition. None have yet been reported as stray finds from Kent. Gold coins issued by Venice, most notably the ducat, were popular, but very few seem to have survived if they ever made it to England. These coins were so prized that they were imitated and copied, like the Florentine florin across the Mediterranean and Europe. One such example of these imitations is a direct, though a very poor copy of a ducat found in the parish of Brenzett (Fig 3). Probably of late Ottoman Turkish (c.18th-19th century) manufacture, it likely relates to the use of such coins as adornment, an aspect of numismatic use that is often sadly overlooked.
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Both the soldino and the grosso were issued by other Italian city states, and examples have been found in Kent. One such coin was a grosso of the city of Brescia found in the Dover Treasure, a hoard of late medieval silver coins found at Market Street, Dover, in 1955[fn4]. Another grosso, this time issued by Milan, was recorded from Ramsgate (KENT5243) during the early days of the PAS. And a recent unusual find was that of a 17th-century grosso of the Papal States (Fig 4).
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A Soldino of the City of Asti, issued during its period of French annexation under Louis XII (Fig.5) at the beginning of the 16th century, has just been reported from Sandwich. It looks very different from the usual religious motifs of previous Italian coins, instead presenting a crowned porcupine[fn5], a symbol much favoured by the French king. As mentioned, gold coins were issued from the Italian city states. While the Venetian ducat was popular, the florin, originally issued in Florence in the early 13th century, would become the most iconic. Most recently, an early 14th-century florin (Fig 6), with its distinctive fleur de lis on one side and the city’s patron saint (St. John) on the other, was recovered from Romney Marsh. This example was issued in the city of Milan and represents one of only two Italian examples so far recorded on the PAS. The Italian coins discussed above provide an interesting snapshot into the international links that so define the history of Kent and help create its unique archaeological character. Over the coming years, it is hoped to improve both recovery of stray finds and investigate more of these global links.
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[fn]1|Stahl, A. 1995,. ‘The deathbed oration of Doge Mocenigo and the mint of Venice’, Mediterranean Historical Review 10, 284–301.[/fn]
[fn]2|The Portable Antiquities Scheme records archaeological objects found by members of the public on a voluntary basis. The majority of these finds tend to be metal and reported by responsible members of the metal detecting community.[/fn]
[fn]3|At the time of writing.[/fn]
[fn]4|Dolley, R.H.M. 1956. The 1955 Dove Treasure Trove. Archaeologia Cantiana, 69. 62-68[/fn]
[fn]5|It also represents the only true representation of a porcupine on a coin recorded by the PAS, despite what our early-medieval coin colleagues may argue.[/fn]