Groat
Encyclopedia
Groat or Fuppence is the traditional name of an English
silver
coin
worth four English pence, and also a Scottish coin
originally worth fourpence, with later issues being valued at eightpence and one shilling
.
(grosso), a silver coin issued by Tyrol
in 1271 and Venice
in the 13th century, which was the first of this general size to circulate in the Holy Roman Empire
and other parts of Europe. The immediate ancestor to the groat was the French
gros tournois or groat of Tours
, which was known as the groot (Dutch for "great" or "large") in the Netherlands
.
The name groat also refers to a range of other European coins
such as those of the Italian peninsula known as a grosso including the grosso of Venice
and the Kraków grosz. Marco Polo
referred to the groat in recounts of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the Yuan Empire
. His descriptions were based on the conversion of 1 bezant
= 20 groats = 133⅓ tornesel
.
.
Scots groats were not issued until the reign of David II
. Scots groats
were originally also worth fourpence, but later issues were valued at eightpence and a shilling
.
Irish groats were minted first in 1425 and the last ones were minted under the reign of Elizabeth I of England
. There were also two more issues, both emergency coinage.
While strictly speaking, the English groat should have contained four pennyweight
s or 96 grains
(6.2 gram
s) of sterling silver
, the first ones issued weighed
89 grains (5.8 g) and later issues became progressively lighter. The weight was reduced to 72 grains (three pennyweights or 4.7 g) under Edward III
, 60 grains (3.9 g) under Henry IV
, and 48 grains (3.1 g) under Edward IV
. From 1544 to 1560 (the weight being reduced to 32 grains (2.1 g) in 1559) the silver fineness was less than sterling, and after the 1561 issue they were not generally issued for circulation again for about a hundred years.
From the reigns of Charles II
to George III
, groats (by now often known as fourpences) were issued on an irregular basis for general circulation, the only years of mintage after 1786 being in 1792, 1795, and 1800. After this the only circulating issues were from 1836 to 1855, with proofs known from 1857 and 1862 and a colonial issue of 1888. These last coins had the weight further reduced to about 27 grains (1.9 gram
s) and were the same diameter as the silver threepenny pieces of the day although thicker. They also had Britannia
on the reverse, while all other silver fourpenny pieces since the reign of William and
Mary
have had a crowned numeral "4" as the reverse, including the silver fourpenny Maundy money
coins of the present. Some groats continued to circulate in Scotland
until the 20th century.
At times in the past, silver twopenny coins have been called "half-groats."
The groat ceased to be minted in the United Kingdom
in 1856, but in 1888 a special request was made for a colonial variety to be minted for use in British Guiana
and the British West Indies
. The groat remained in circulation in British Guiana right up until that territory adoted the decimal
system in 1955.
s were employed in English Navy ships of war
by the Captain, and paid out of a "groat" per month deducted from the wages of the seamen. The Navy's wages did not rise between 1653 and 1797 (see Spithead and Nore mutinies
), during which time the Ordinary Seaman was paid 19 shilling
s, as was the chaplain.
In the north of England, there is the saying "Blood without groats is nothing" meaning "family without fortune is worthless." The allusion is to black-pudding, which consists chiefly of blood and oats
formed into a sausage
. "Not worth a groat" is an old saying meaning "not worth a penny", i.e. worthless.
Benjamin Franklin
, in his book, Necessary Hints gives the following thrifty advice:
In Beatrix Potter
's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
, there is the following riddle
:
The answer is "a cherry
."
According to Hawkins' History of the Silver Coins of England, groats were also known as "Joeys",
This refers to the Victorian fourpenny piece. The mention of cab fares is related to the fact that the standard minimum was fourpence, so many passengers paid with a sixpenny piece, allowing the cabbie to keep the twopence change as a tip. The slang name "Joey" was transferred to the silver/cupronickel threepenny pieces in use in the first third of the twentieth century.
In A Little Princess
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
, Sara Crewe picks up a fourpenny piece from the street and uses it to buy buns. The original story was set in 1888.
John o' Groats
, commonly (and mistakenly) regarded as the most northerly part of the Scottish
mainland, despite its name has nothing to do with the coin, but is in fact a corruption of "Jan de Groot", the name of a Dutchman
who migrated there, in the reign of James IV
http://www.bartleby.com/81/9271.html http://www.visitjohnogroats.com/history.htm
The monetary unit of Federation, the forerunner of the currently active Federation II
text-based roleplaying game, was the groat.
Terry Pratchett's
first book in the Moist von Lipwig
series of novels, Going Postal
, introduced a supporting character named Tolliver Groat.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
worth four English pence, and also a Scottish coin
Scottish coinage
The coinage of Scotland covers a range of currency and coins in Scotland during Classical antiquity, the reign of ancient provincial kings, royal dynasties of the ancient Kingdom of Scotland and the later Mediaeval and Early modern periods....
originally worth fourpence, with later issues being valued at eightpence and one shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
.
Name
The name has also been applied to any thick or large coin, such as the GroschenGroschen
Groschen was the name for a coin used in various German-speaking states as well as some non-German-speaking countries of Central Europe , the Danubian principalities...
(grosso), a silver coin issued by Tyrol
County of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
in 1271 and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in the 13th century, which was the first of this general size to circulate in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
and other parts of Europe. The immediate ancestor to the groat was the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
gros tournois or groat of Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
, which was known as the groot (Dutch for "great" or "large") in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
The name groat also refers to a range of other European coins
Groschen
Groschen was the name for a coin used in various German-speaking states as well as some non-German-speaking countries of Central Europe , the Danubian principalities...
such as those of the Italian peninsula known as a grosso including the grosso of Venice
Grosso of Venice
The grosso of Venice is a silver coin first introduced in Venice in 1193 under doge Enrico Dandolo. It originally weighed 2.18 grams and was composed of 98.5% pure silver, valued at 26 dinarii...
and the Kraków grosz. Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
referred to the groat in recounts of his travels to East Asia when describing the currencies of the Yuan Empire
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
. His descriptions were based on the conversion of 1 bezant
Bezant
Bezant is a medieval term for a gold coin from the Byzantine Empire, which term is derived from the Greek name Βυζάντιον for the relatively minor city which in the 4th c. became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, renamed Constantinople by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great...
= 20 groats = 133⅓ tornesel
Tornesel
The tornesel, tornesol, or tornese was a silver coin of Europe in the late Middle Ages and the early modern era. It took its name from the denier Tournois, the denier of Tours....
.
History
It was after the French silver coin had circulated in England that an English groat was first minted under King Edward IEdward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
.
Scots groats were not issued until the reign of David II
David II of Scotland
David II was King of Scots from 7 June 1329 until his death.-Early life:...
. Scots groats
Scottish coinage
The coinage of Scotland covers a range of currency and coins in Scotland during Classical antiquity, the reign of ancient provincial kings, royal dynasties of the ancient Kingdom of Scotland and the later Mediaeval and Early modern periods....
were originally also worth fourpence, but later issues were valued at eightpence and a shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
.
Irish groats were minted first in 1425 and the last ones were minted under the reign of Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. There were also two more issues, both emergency coinage.
While strictly speaking, the English groat should have contained four pennyweight
Pennyweight
A pennyweight is a unit of mass that is equal to 24 grains, 1/20 of a troy ounce, 1/240 of a troy pound, approximately 0.054857 avoirdupois ounce and exactly 1.55517384 grams....
s or 96 grains
Grain (measure)
A grain is a unit of measurement of mass that is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definition of units of mass. However, there is no evidence of any country ever...
(6.2 gram
Gram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
s) of sterling silver
Sterling silver
Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by mass of silver and 7.5% by mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925....
, the first ones issued weighed
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
89 grains (5.8 g) and later issues became progressively lighter. The weight was reduced to 72 grains (three pennyweights or 4.7 g) under Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
, 60 grains (3.9 g) under Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
, and 48 grains (3.1 g) under Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
. From 1544 to 1560 (the weight being reduced to 32 grains (2.1 g) in 1559) the silver fineness was less than sterling, and after the 1561 issue they were not generally issued for circulation again for about a hundred years.
From the reigns of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
to George III
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
, groats (by now often known as fourpences) were issued on an irregular basis for general circulation, the only years of mintage after 1786 being in 1792, 1795, and 1800. After this the only circulating issues were from 1836 to 1855, with proofs known from 1857 and 1862 and a colonial issue of 1888. These last coins had the weight further reduced to about 27 grains (1.9 gram
Gram
The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
s) and were the same diameter as the silver threepenny pieces of the day although thicker. They also had Britannia
Britannia
Britannia is an ancient term for Great Britain, and also a female personification of the island. The name is Latin, and derives from the Greek form Prettanike or Brettaniai, which originally designated a collection of islands with individual names, including Albion or Great Britain. However, by the...
on the reverse, while all other silver fourpenny pieces since the reign of William and
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
Mary
Mary II of England
Mary II was joint Sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband and first cousin, William III and II, from 1689 until her death. William and Mary, both Protestants, became king and queen regnant, respectively, following the Glorious Revolution, which resulted in the deposition of...
have had a crowned numeral "4" as the reverse, including the silver fourpenny Maundy money
Maundy money
Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British Monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" as symbolic alms to elderly recipients...
coins of the present. Some groats continued to circulate in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
until the 20th century.
At times in the past, silver twopenny coins have been called "half-groats."
The groat ceased to be minted in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1856, but in 1888 a special request was made for a colonial variety to be minted for use in British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
and the British West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
. The groat remained in circulation in British Guiana right up until that territory adoted the decimal
Decimal
The decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations....
system in 1955.
Royal Navy chaplains
In the 1600s and 1700s, chaplainChaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
s were employed in English Navy ships of war
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...
by the Captain, and paid out of a "groat" per month deducted from the wages of the seamen. The Navy's wages did not rise between 1653 and 1797 (see Spithead and Nore mutinies
Spithead and Nore mutinies
The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. There were also discontent and minor incidents on ships in other locations in the same year. They were not violent insurrections, being more in the nature of strikes, demanding better pay and conditions...
), during which time the Ordinary Seaman was paid 19 shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s, as was the chaplain.
Cultural references
The word "groat" has entered into a number of English and Scottish expressions, many of them now archaic.In the north of England, there is the saying "Blood without groats is nothing" meaning "family without fortune is worthless." The allusion is to black-pudding, which consists chiefly of blood and oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
formed into a sausage
Sausage
A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
. "Not worth a groat" is an old saying meaning "not worth a penny", i.e. worthless.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, in his book, Necessary Hints gives the following thrifty advice:
- He that spends a groat a day idly, spends idly above six pounds a year."
In Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
's The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in August 1903. The story is about an impertinent red squirrel named Nutkin and his narrow escape from an owl called Old Brown. The book followed Potter's hugely...
, there is the following riddle
Riddle
A riddle is a statement or question or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: enigmas, which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that require ingenuity and careful thinking for their solution, and...
:
- "Riddle me, riddle me, rot-tot-tote! A little wee man in a red red coat! A staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat; If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat."
The answer is "a cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
."
According to Hawkins' History of the Silver Coins of England, groats were also known as "Joeys",
- "so called from Joseph HumeJoseph HumeJoseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and Radical MP, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...
, M.P., who strongly recommended the coinage for the sake of paying short cab-fares, etc."
This refers to the Victorian fourpenny piece. The mention of cab fares is related to the fact that the standard minimum was fourpence, so many passengers paid with a sixpenny piece, allowing the cabbie to keep the twopence change as a tip. The slang name "Joey" was transferred to the silver/cupronickel threepenny pieces in use in the first third of the twentieth century.
In A Little Princess
A Little Princess
A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's Boarding School, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.According to Burnett, she...
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
, Sara Crewe picks up a fourpenny piece from the street and uses it to buy buns. The original story was set in 1888.
John o' Groats
John o' Groats
John o' Groats is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland. Part of the county of Caithness, John o' Groats is popular with tourists because it is usually regarded as the most northerly settlement of mainland Great Britain, although this is not a claim made by the inhabitants...
, commonly (and mistakenly) regarded as the most northerly part of the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
mainland, despite its name has nothing to do with the coin, but is in fact a corruption of "Jan de Groot", the name of a Dutchman
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
who migrated there, in the reign of James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
http://www.bartleby.com/81/9271.html http://www.visitjohnogroats.com/history.htm
The monetary unit of Federation, the forerunner of the currently active Federation II
Federation II
Federation II is an online text-based game also known as Federation 2 or Fed2, designed and programmed by Alan Lenton and developed by IBGames that centers on the intergalactic trade and economy in the distant future. The game was originally launched in 2003, but started attracting larger crowds...
text-based roleplaying game, was the groat.
Terry Pratchett's
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
first book in the Moist von Lipwig
Moist von Lipwig
Moist von Lipwig is a fictional character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He is the protagonist of the novels Going Postal and Making Money.-Background and execution:Little is known about Moist von Lipwig's past...
series of novels, Going Postal
Going Postal
Going Postal is Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series...
, introduced a supporting character named Tolliver Groat.
External links
- British Coins - Free information about British coins. Includes an online forum.