Nobel (coin)
Nobel is the name of a medieval English gold coin that was first minted in 1344 and established itself as the leading coin in North and Baltic Sea trade until the end of the 14th century . The fineness of the Nobel was 995/1000, its original weight of 8.86 grams was reduced to 7.0 grams by 1411. The face value of the Nobel was 6 shillings and 8 pence (half and quarter Nobel respectively).
The Nobel was first created in 1344 under King Edward III. (1327–1377) issued in memory of the victory over the French fleet in the Battle of Sluis (1340). For this reason, the obverse of the coin shows the king in the ship on the sea waves (so-called ship's nobel ). The Nobel Ship replaced the Florin , an English gold coin worth 6 shillings, which was only issued in 1343.
Under Edward IV (1461–1483) the minting of the ship's Nobel was stopped in 1465 and the so-called Rose Nobel was issued as a new gold coin in a slightly modified form. On the obverse, as an allusion to the House of York , which came to the English throne with Edward IV, it also shows a five-petalled rose on the side wall of the ship. The rose nobel is also known as ryal .
In England the Nobel was minted under Elizabeth I (1558–1603). On the continent, due to its popularity as a trade coin of stable value, it was minted , especially in the Burgundian Netherlands . Its widespread use in Western Europe can be seen, among other things, from the fact that at the end of the 17th century there were hardly any larger coin scales missing coin weights of the Rose Nobel type.
The Isle of Man was from 1983 a bullion coin of platinum in the coinage Nobel out the so-called platinum-Nobel . Their face value corresponded to the denomination . With a coin weight of one troy ounce , the face value was one noble (= one noble).
literature
- Stuart Jenks : Noble. In: Michael North (Ed.): From shares to customs. A historical lexicon of money. Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-38544-3 , p. 278 f.
- Tyll Kroha: Ship Nobel and Rosenobel. In: Tyll Kroha: Lexicon of Numismatics. Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh 1977, ISBN 3-570-01588-2 , pp. 391 and 375 f.
