Mancus

Mancus (sometimes spelt mancosus or similar) was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin, a weight of gold of 4.25g (equivalent to the Islamic dinar, and thus lighter than the Byzantine solidus), or a unit of account of thirty silver pence. This made it worth about a month's wages for a skilled worker, such as a craftsman or a soldier. Distinguishing between these uses can be extremely difficult: the will of the Anglo-Saxon king Eadred, who died in 955, illustrates the problem well with its request that "two thousand mancuses of gold be taken and minted into mancuses" (nime man twentig hund mancusa goldes and gemynetige to mancusan).

Origin and development

The origin of the word mancus has long been a cause of debate. One suggested interpretation linked it to the Latin adjective mancus, meaning 'defective', which was thought to be a reference to the poor quality of gold coinage circulating in eighth-century Italy. However, it has become clear that the earliest references to payments in mancuses, which occur in north-eastern Italy in the 770s, specifically refer to Islamic gold dinars. Consequently, a second theory is probably correct: that mancus derives from the Arabic word منقوش manqūsh (from the triliteral verbal root n-q-sh 'to sculpt, engrave, inscribe'), which was often employed in a numismatic context to mean 'struck'.