The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

104 NUMISMATIC CHKONICLE.under William II fivetypes for a reign of 21 years,types for 13 years, under Henry I fifteen types for 35years. 11(4) It resulted in the monetary standard havingto befixed by the Council of Lillebonne, a new coinage beingstruck at a loss to the duke, and the consequent closingof all Norman mints. No adjustment of the monetarystandard was necessary in England at this time, nor doesany seem to have been made ;the currency does notappear to have undergone any alteration or reorganization.We must therefore conclude that there is no truerelation between the Norman and the English tax ofMonetagium, or at least that no influence of the tax onthe English coinage can be induced from the purposeand effect of the Norman tax bearing the same name.The nearest connexion we can suppose to have existedbetween the two is that the Norman tax suggested inthe mind of King William anew method of triennialtaxation under the threat of debasing the coinage ifEven this, however, seems anwere not regularly paid.unnecessary conclusion when we do not even know thatthe English tax was paid triennially: we only know thatthere was a " " " "geldum regis called monetagiurn or"monedagium," which is the only possible word thatcould be used for a payment made for the right ofissuing coins, and perhaps we maytake it to mean quite literally what Henryitwith better reasonI's charterexplains it to be, "a general payment-for-right-of-11In Edward the Confessor's reign also, if we eliminate the rare" Harthacnut" type, which probably only lasted a very short time andwas not a true type of Edward's reign, we have ten types in a reign of23 years, which gives precisely the same average as the succeedingreigns (see in N. C., 1905, pp. 179 ff., Mr. Carlyon-Britton's arrangementof the coins of the Confessor).