This meticulously researched work provides chapter and verse on everything the medieval historian is likely to want to know about our current knowledge of the organization, administration, and production of medieval English mints. Its focus on the period 973 to 1544 allows him the space to expand significantly on the medieval chapters in Christopher Challis’ A New History of the Royal Mint (Cambridge, 1992), which covered the whole story from c.600 to the present day. The new book also summarizes most of the recent work on the subject, much of it Martin Allen's own, which has appeared between 1992 and the present.

At first sight, the chapter on 973 to 1158 may seem a little thin, given that this period spans Edgar's reform, the huge Danegeld issues of Ethelred II, Cnut's Anglo-Danish Empire, the Conquest and Domesday Book, Henry I's debasement, and the Anarchy. However, the arrangement of the book is not entirely chronological; for example, the chapter on Weights and Fineness includes much material relating to the period before 1158, while the Appendices contain much data relating to this early period (e.g., Appendix F Hoard summaries) so the treatment of the earlier period in fact extends well beyond the opening chapter. Moreover, even though so many aspects of the late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman coinage remain open questions, Allen's carefully and accurately detailed footnotes will guide the student through this battle ground.

Surviving documentary evidence becomes more extensive from the late twelfth century, and Allen's familiarity with published and unpublished manuscripts, combined with his numismatic mastery make him unusually well-qualified to work in an area normally occupied by scholars expert in one or other field but rarely in both. The heart of the book guides the reader through the thirteenth to fifteenth century with a very sure hand. Chapters on mint profits, the exchanges, the importance of bullion brought into England in trade, and the resulting impressive totals of mint output, are comprehensive, and usefully populated with tables and figures which present large amounts of numerical information with great clarity. There are 45 figures, and over 90 tables, packed with information.

The last two chapters address the question of the size and composition of the currency. The distinction between mint output and the resulting size of the currency is an important one which Allen skillfully elucidates. The evidence of the coin hoards, 552 of which are painstakingly gathered together in Appendix E, demonstrates that coins once issued from the mint did not necessarily remain in circulation, so adding up mint output is but an uncertain guide to the size of currency in use. Here Allen presents his latest estimates of the size of the currency, which correct and improve upon earlier estimates, many of them my own. The overall picture he presents is in most respects close to mine, though he wisely proposes in this uncertain field that it is better to offer maximum and minimum estimates rather than single figures. In most respects, I'm happy to be corrected. He is quite right to remind readers that my 1974 estimates of the size of the currency could only be indicative since they are based solely on the recorded output of the London and Canterbury mints. Nevertheless, I still suspect that Allen's estimate for English pennies in circulation between 1310 and 1319 may err on the high side (pp. 328, 330, 332, 344). It is, however, a mark of the coming of age of this sort of approach that the question should attract debate.

It will already be apparent that this reviewer regards Allen's book as an absolutely indispensable compendium of information on English medieval mints and money. However, what Allen does not really address, and what the reader may legitimately be asking himself is, “why do I need to concern myself with this material at all?” Or to put it another way, “why do coins matter?” Allen's chapter on mint profits does indeed enable us to explore how significant revenues from the mints were as a proportion of total royal revenue. Yet there is little consideration of the role of money in the wider economy, although there can be no doubt of Allen's conviction that coins do indeed matter. While he provides data on the size of the currency, there is little exploration of the macroeconomic importance of money supply, or even of the use of coin in society. In fact, students of the medieval economic history of England have often been taught that coins were not much used in the early middle ages, while the rise of credit in the later middle ages kept coins in a secondary role. Established scholars of the standing of John Day, John Munro, and Peter Spufford have labored to correct this misapprehension, but it remains surprisingly widespread.

One important area of new evidence which has come to the fore in the last thirty years is that of single finds of ancient and medieval coins. These finds have proved to be so numerous, that it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine that artifacts so numerous and widespread were not part of a very significant monetary circulation. These finds are being meticulously identified and recorded in Britain through a national Portable Antiquities Scheme, and also within Allen's own Fitzwilliam Museum, so it is perhaps surprising that single finds data does not loom larger in the current volume.

In short, however comprehensive Allen's treatment on money and mints may be, there is yet more work to which we must hope he will turn his hand. Many medieval and economic historians still prefer to ignore the complexities of this subject, and Allen is well-equipped to demonstrate to them the error of their ways. If he can convert them, then the present volume will provide them with ready access to the detail they will need if they are to apply monetary data to wider economic and historical questions.