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at least not much of one, with trade and barter being much more common - trading work for animals or food, etc. But for those occasions when there was a trading of ka-ching!...

Pound - based on the now-very-nonstandard Tower Pound (350 grams) of sterling silver (in most ancient times and cultures, including the Middle Ages, silver, not gold, was the standard currency base). There was originally, no coin or other physical item (other than an actual Tower pound of silver) called a "Pound" - it was simply a convenient hypothetical unit of bulk currency, useful for accounting and record-keeping. Coins that were worth a Pound, however, such as Angels or Sovereigns, existed, but were fairly uncommon.

Crown - Common only among nobles and royalty, Crowns, some of which were silver but may also have been composed of gold, represented about five silver shillings, or one-quarter of a pound.

Shilling - when the above Pound of silver was carved up to create individual coins (silver shillings, one of which is thought to have represented the value of one cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere), you got about 20s to the Pound, so the division was more one of weight and substance than intentional assignation. Although some medieval weights were figured differently, we can generally say that a silver shilling weighed just a little less than 19 grams - fairly large, probably unwieldly coins.

Groat - Representing and likely physically composed of about four pence worth or silver

Pence - Following the Age of Antiquity's Greek and Roman and other currency systems' divisions for smaller units of currency, each shilling could be broken down, literally, into 12 silver pence (pennies), which were much smaller and thinner than the shillings - a shilling was worth 12 pence because you would get 12 pence if you carved up one silver shilling - again, this is more a measurement of weight than of intentional monetary value, with each penny weighing just slightly under 1.6 grams.

Ha'Penny - Valued at 1/2 of one pence, the Ha'Penny, like the Farthing below, was never common but did see use from time to time.

Farthing - Infrequently used, the Farthing was the further subdivision of the penny, with four Farthings equaling one penny. Rather than an official coin, the Farthing was usually an actual silver penny, cut into four equal pieces - not very practical to carry around but it let you work in increments smaller than one penny. This is about the most miniscule subdivision of currency ever needed and a

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