Is there a type of currency in middle earth?
Whilst in the car with my mum we started talking about LOTR (as always lol) and we wonderd what the currency was, we know that Bilbo had gold and treasures but what were they, were they jewls and gold blocks etc only? or were they coins?
What wages does Sam get or Rosy or the Gaffer? I imagined them paying by trade aka a bag of carrots for some potatoes, but then what would they pay for their good old ale with?
And elves? where do they get their items? Argos4elves?lol but really, how do they afford things? surly there must be a form of currency in at least Rohan and Gondor?
Usually Tolkien only mentions the different sorts of metal like "silver coins" or so;
The only currency I know by name though is that of Gondor.
They had two different named types of coins, Canath and Mírian, one Canath (canad=four) being one fourth of the worth of a Mírian (mîr=jewel, treasure)
Canath was made of silver and in Westron called Tharni; Mírian was probably made of gold and was in Westron called "Castar". I have no idea though how much they'd equal in Dollars or whatever
They are mentioned in the "Peoples of Middle-earth"-volume of the History of Middle-earth, I can re-read it to find out more
__________________ Life is complex: it has both real and imaginary components.
I haven't seen or read much dealing with money in LotR. It seems most ppl pay with services or weapons (like Eol giving his swords to Thingle, i think )
Coins get specifically mentioned by JRRT on a few occasions - in the Fellowship
"There was plenty of everything left for Frodo. And, of course, all the chief treasures, as well as the books, pictures, and more than enough furniture, were left in his possession. There was, however, no sign nor mention of money or jewellery: not a penny-piece or a glass bead was given away. "
"When the old man, helped by Bilbo and some dwarves, had finished unloading. Bilbo gave a few pennies away; but not a single squib or cracker was forthcoming, to the disappointment of the onlookers. "
" Bill Ferny's price was twelve silver pennies; and that was indeed at least three times the pony's value in those pans. It proved to be a bony, underfed, and dispirited animal; but it did not look like dying just yet. Mr. Butterbur paid for it himself, and offered Merry another eighteen pence as some compensation for the lost animals. He was an honest man, and well-off as things were reckoned in Bree; but thirty silver pennies was a sore blow to him, and being cheated by Bill Ferny made it harder to bear. "
And from the Hobbit:
"They did not care tuppence about the butterflies, and were only made more angry when he told them of the beautiful breeze, which they were too heavy to climb up and feel. "
As to what they looked like - here is a picture of a Shire 1402 penny minted by master Will Whitfoot, the legendary coin maker of the shire.
Q=
How much would you have to pay for a pint of ale at the prancing pony?
I noticed in the movie pippen just came up to the bar and got one. How do you pay? and how much would it be equal to in american money? surly the ale isn't free?
Dont think there was a curreny ie instead of a Deutchmark we have a "riddermark"
as people said, gold coins,silver and even mithrel and whatever else dwarves find in their caves.
The armour is made from many things, its just like asking yourself about the time of "Braveheart" in the 1300s. The english were well armoured and had good swords ect.
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
wow this is a hard topic, but those shire coins are cool!!!
I really wonder about the wages, sam's wages, how much does frodo give him? or Rosy? either way I'm sure that when they got married they must have become quite rich?
well in the EE of FOTR Bilbo described the shire as being a place to eat,drink and smoke - so I could take a guess saying they get paid in one of those 3 forms.
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"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
I think that there were of course currencies in different kingdoms and by different races and then of course different regions. Of course there was trade also, and some evidence for the existence of currency. The auction involving Bilbo's furniture has been mentioned, and auctions tend to involve goods being exchanged for currency, rather than bartered for other goods. Also, the Trolls that Bilbo and the Dwarves encountered had a purse, the purpose of purses generally (although not exclusively) being to carry coinage, and their hidden horde included pots of gold coins.
I doubt that a society as complex as that of Gondor could function without some form of currency.
I don't think however that there was a universal currency in Middle-earth. In cases like these I think that it is best to assume that they used metals as a way of money. Of course there would be coins, probably gold ones, silver ones, bronze, etc. And the most precious, gold, was worth the most of course. But what about mithril you ask? Well I believe that there were no mithril coins. I believe this because it was such a rare metal that no one would want to use it for currency. They would want to make something beautiful out of it, like a family heirloom or something. But it is also a hard metal, not soft like gold. So it would suit better being used for armor or weaponry, like the coat that Bilbo and later Frodo gets. About the exchange rate, I really believe that there was none. It was probably right on the spot like settling on 14 gold coins for a chicken or something. But maybe someone else would buy a chicken for 27 gold coins. And if there is no exchange rate, then is it really money? Maybe trading would be more appropriate since you still are exchanging an item for another item, and it might work better if the item being the coins have no set value.
I think that this is something that Tolkien forgot to address. He pointed out that he has seen many major and minor perfections in his works. Maybe this is one of them, but is it major or minor? I myself would say major seeing as Tolkien might come down hard on himself for leaving out something as simple yet so big as currency. I might be wrong though. Maybe he saw it as simple or maybe he didn't even realized he forgot it at all, and maybe he never intended to have it in there. Whether or not, I think it might be better without it. Middle-earth might not be that enjoyable if it was too realistic, especially if we enjoy the escapism aspect; escaping reality only to enter another...now I just got myself confused, oh well. It's kind of good to have imperfections, having ME seem real is great, but not too real.
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Currency
Aug 19th, 2004 07:45 PM
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It's kind of good to have imperfections, having ME seem real is great, but not too real. 
