Coins

From: Benedict Adamson <ben_at_cd.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 12:37:40 +0000


'We Orlanthi use Lunar coins? An insult! The only use for coins is weregeld. While I have air in my lungs I shall accept only blood vengance for murder by a Lunar!'

   RW note: It has been suggested that the early use of coins by the Englisc    (Anglo-Saxons) was only for such payments. Certainly it was not until    later that coins were used for trade. Even then, the trade started as    an enterprise directly controlled by royalty to supply them with prestige    goods from distant places. Once the prestige goods arrived, I guess they    entered the cycle of gift exchanges that bound a lord (drihten) to his    companions (gesithes). See 'Dark Age Economics', Hodges, pub. Duckworth.

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