Speakers
Andreas Westermark
(Sveriges Riksbank)
Roger Svensson
(IFN, Stockholm)
Description
During the Middle Ages and early modern times, coinage was often characterized by a shortage of small change. The main reason was the higher cost of production of low denominations, which encouraged the authorities to mint higher denominations. Another factor was that small change was better as a means of payment than larger denominations, which led the people to hold on to the small coins. In this study we present several methods used by the authorities in the Middle Ages to solve the problem of this shortage of small change. One of them was reducing the production cost for small denominations by minting bracteates.
Primary author
Andreas Westermark
(Sveriges Riksbank)
Co-author
Roger Svensson
(IFN, Stockholm)
