Murray Andrews | University College London (original) (raw)

Books by Murray Andrews

BAR Publishing, 2019

More than 800 hoards of medieval precious metal coins are known from England and Wales, but the p... more More than 800 hoards of medieval precious metal coins are known from England and Wales, but the phenomenon as a whole remains poorly understood: who made coin hoards, what did they put in them, how did they assemble them, where did they bury them, and, ultimately, why did they do it? This book provides a pioneering analysis of the archaeological and numismatic evidence for coin hoarding in medieval England and Wales, using innovative multivariate and spatial techniques to shed fresh light on the behaviours, motivations, and mentalités behind the formation and deposition of coin hoards during in the period c.973-1544. It is accompanied by a digital gazetteer describing the 815 hoards used in the study, the largest and most comprehensive corpus ever assembled for this region and period.

BAR British Series 651, 2019

Book Chapters by Murray Andrews

in 'From Hoard to Archive: Numismatic Discoveries from the Baltic Rim and Beyond. Studies in Honour of Ivar Leimus', ed. E. Russow, V. Dabolinš and V. Lang (Tartu: University of Tartu Press), 2023

Large sums of silver flowed across Scandinavia and the Baltic in the late Viking Age – but were t... more Large sums of silver flowed across Scandinavia and the Baltic in the late Viking Age – but were the proceeds shared evenly? This paper explores the regional distribution of wealth in Scandinavia and the Baltic in AD 1000, with a particular focus on Norway’s position on the Viking Age economic ladder.

In 'Interpreting Early Medieval Coinage. Studies in Memory of Stewart Lyon', ed. Martin Allen, Rory Naismith, and Hugh Pagan (London: British Numismatic Society), 2022

This chapter reviews the evidence for coin use and monetary activity in fifth-century London, wit... more This chapter reviews the evidence for coin use and monetary activity in fifth-century London, with particular attention to a recent find of a clipped and scratched siliqua from Waltham Forest, and considers the implications of coin finds for an understanding of the transition from the Late Roman to Post-Roman periods in the London region.

In Knight, M.G., Boughton, D., and Wilkinson, R.E., eds. 2019. Objects of the past in the past: investigating the significance of earlier artefacts in later contexts. Oxford: Archaeopress. pp. 131-141., 2019

This paper considers the interpretation and function of ancient objects in the European high and ... more This paper considers the interpretation and function of ancient objects in the European high and late middle ages through the lens of coin hoard evidence, with a particular focus on the inclusion of ancient coins and engraved gemstones in hoards of the 11th to 15th centuries. Comparative analysis emphasises the diverse trajectories of ancient objects in medieval society; locally-found and deliberately-imported antiquities were equally capable of being reused and reimagined as sources of bullion, as collectable markers of social status, as Christian devotional images, or as amulets and talismans imbued with divine or magical power.

XV International Numismatic Congress Taormina 2015. Proceedings, Volume II., 2017

Journal Articles by Murray Andrews

Journal of Archaeological Numismatics, 2024

The documented medieval practice of deliberately folding coins for devotional and intercessory pu... more The documented medieval practice of deliberately folding coins for devotional and intercessory purposes has received significant attention in recent years. While contemporary written sources describe the practice as a distinctively ‘English custom’, growing numbers of finds from elsewhere in Europe and North America suggest that the practice was observed far beyond these traditional chronological and geographical borders. This article presents new evidence for the pursuit of the ‘English custom’ in medieval Scandinavia, based on a corpus of 16 single finds of folded coins held in the Coin Cabinet of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo.

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2024

This paper examines a unique 18th-century countermarked inn token, which was first recorded in 18... more This paper examines a unique 18th-century countermarked inn token, which was first recorded in 1871 and resurfaced at auction in 2023. Struck on a worn halfcrown of William III, the token was produced in 1796-7 by the Worcester innkeeper Benjamin Fieldhouse to advertise his acquisition of the Crown Hotel, a prominent coaching inn on Broad Street. The use of a valuable silver coin as a token blank hints at a deliberate strategy of 'audience targeting', which would have allowed Fieldhouse to advertise his premises and services to a select clientele of gentlemen, lawyers, clergymen, and wealthy businessmen.

Worcestershire Recorder, 2024

This note describes a recently discovered historic graffito from St John's church, Bromsgrove. Th... more This note describes a recently discovered historic graffito from St John's church, Bromsgrove. The graffito depicts a fleur-de-lis, a traditional Marian sign, and may be associated with devotion to the saint in the late middle ages.

Worcestershire Recorder, 2024

This note discusses a 19th-century clay tobacco pipe and a Cartwheel penny that were deliberately... more This note discusses a 19th-century clay tobacco pipe and a Cartwheel penny that were deliberately concealed within the wall of the White Hart, a former pub at Ashton under Hill in Worcestershire. The find is interpreted as a foundation or builder's deposit, probably deposited by the workmen to mark their completion of the building in c.1860.

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2024

This short article presents a recent find of a 19th-century Argentinian shearer's token from Curd... more This short article presents a recent find of a 19th-century Argentinian shearer's token from Curdworth in Warwickshire, and considers the global links between the West Midlands and Latin America in the late Victorian era. Please note that it should be Romney sheep, not Romsey sheep!

Numismatic Chronicle, 2023

Metal detecting is an increasingly popular hobby in Norway, and has been responsible for a signif... more Metal detecting is an increasingly popular hobby in Norway, and has been responsible for a significant growth in the number of ancient and historic coins unearthed in the country in recent decades. In accordance with the 1978 Cultural Heritage Act (Kulturminneloven), all finds of coins predating 1650 are designated as state property, and detectorists are obliged to report discoveries to their regional archaeologist before transfer to the relevant university museum for conservation, cataloguing, and permanent inclusion in the collections. This article publishes four recent finds of early modern coin hoards unearthed by Norwegian detectorists, which now form part of the collections of the Coin Cabinet of the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo.

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2023

This note describes an unusual and previously-unpublished 19th century token, issued for the Worc... more This note describes an unusual and previously-unpublished 19th century token, issued for the Worcester House of Industry in 1811 and countermarked with the legend 'WEAVER'. The specimen belong to a small group of coins and tokens countermarked by English tradesmen during the Industrial Revolution, and can be attributed to William Weaver (1771-1842), a Worcester blacksmith and farrier. Its exact function is unclear, but might have been intended to serve as a truck token, trade card, or receipt.

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

Hoards of Edwardian sterlings are by far the most common class of medieval coin hoard found in En... more Hoards of Edwardian sterlings are by far the most common class of medieval coin hoard found in England and Wales, with more than 140 examples dated 1279–1351 registered between 1751 and 2020. While metal-detecting continues to add new examples to the record, close scrutiny of archival sources has the potential to yield information on older sterling finds that are otherwise unknown to archaeological and numismatic scholarship. This article discusses eleven such hoards rediscovered from archival sources, ordered by date of discovery.

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

This article discusses a small group of centrally-pierced medieval and early modern gold coins re... more This article discusses a small group of centrally-pierced medieval and early modern gold coins recently found in England and Scotland. Drawing on Mediterranean, West African, and East Asian analogies, we argue that these piercings might reflect a practice of 'stringing' together coins into groups that match defined units of account, which could have facilitated large and high-value exchanges in lieu of credit transactions.

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

This article presents new archival evidence for a previously unnoticed hoard of Civil War era coi... more This article presents new archival evidence for a previously unnoticed hoard of Civil War era coins found in Northumberland Alley in the City of London in 1761.

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

This article describes a previously unpublished stone mould for producing lead tokens, originally... more This article describes a previously unpublished stone mould for producing lead tokens, originally found in Evesham in 1916. The mould can be dated to c.1650-1750 on stylistic and topographic grounds, and is one of only a small number of moulds attested as archaeological finds.

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

The annual summary of coin hoards from England, Scotland and Wales found up to the end of 2022. T... more The annual summary of coin hoards from England, Scotland and Wales found up to the end of 2022. The article describes 142 coin hoards dating from the Iron Age to the 18th century.

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2023

This article discusses the origins of a large group of 17th-century Evesham borough tokens record... more This article discusses the origins of a large group of 17th-century Evesham borough tokens recorded in the collection of Rev. John Pearkes (d. 1787) of Bredon, some of which were used to illustrate Treadway Russell Nash's pioneering Collections for the History of Worcestershire (1781). These pieces stand out as unusually well-represented in Pearkes' collection, particularly given the limited scale of token output for the town. It seems likely that Pearkes' Evesham tokens represent all or part of a hoard found during 18th-century building work, possibly on the High Street, Bridge Street, Vine Street, or Merstow Green.

BAR Publishing, 2019

BAR British Series 651, 2019

in 'From Hoard to Archive: Numismatic Discoveries from the Baltic Rim and Beyond. Studies in Honour of Ivar Leimus', ed. E. Russow, V. Dabolinš and V. Lang (Tartu: University of Tartu Press), 2023

In 'Interpreting Early Medieval Coinage. Studies in Memory of Stewart Lyon', ed. Martin Allen, Rory Naismith, and Hugh Pagan (London: British Numismatic Society), 2022

XV International Numismatic Congress Taormina 2015. Proceedings, Volume II., 2017

Journal of Archaeological Numismatics, 2024

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2024

Worcestershire Recorder, 2024

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2024

Numismatic Chronicle, 2023

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2023

British Numismatic Journal, 2023

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2023

Archaeologia Cantiana, 2023

This article discusses a hoard of c.50 18th-century gold coins found at Chatham (Kent) in 1861. T... more This article discusses a hoard of c.50 18th-century gold coins found at Chatham (Kent) in 1861. The hoard consisted of English guineas and foreign gold coins, probably Portuguese 4-escudos and/or 4000-reis pieces ('moidores' and 'joes'), and was hidden at the site of the Rose and Crown Inn in 1787 or later.

Worcestershire Recorder, 2023

This note describes a set of 18th-century English delftware tiles from the Grade II listed townho... more This note describes a set of 18th-century English delftware tiles from the Grade II listed townhouse at 16 Mealcheapen Street, Worcester. The tiles feature 'Figure in a Landscape' designs, and were probably produced in Liverpool in c.1740-1760. The set is a rare survival from Georgian Worcester, and almost certainly represents household furnishings installed during the residency of William Russell (1718-1801), a founding practitioner of the Worcester Royal Infirmary.

Worcestershire Recorder, 2023

In 2021-22 the North Worcestershire Archaeology Group (NWAG) undertook test pit excavations at Hi... more In 2021-22 the North Worcestershire Archaeology Group (NWAG) undertook test pit excavations at Hillgrove, Boreley Lane, Ombersley. This work aimed to identify and record potential archaeological features, deposits, and finds at the site, including those associated with the nearby Roman settlement at Holt Fleet Caravan Park and the documented historic farmstead of Hillside Cottage. Four periods of activity were revealed by the excavations. Period 1 was defined by a scatter of later prehistoric and Roman finds, which offer glimpses of riverside occupation along the Severn gravels. This was followed in Period 2 by a small but sharply defined assemblage of early post-medieval finds, which relate to the occupation of a small farm known as Aylwards or Halwards. The farmhouse survives in the north-east of the site as the 17th- and 18th-century Hillside Cottage. Periods 3 and 4 are characterised by continued occupation into the late post-medieval and modern periods, and are associated with the remains of brick outbuildings, garden and horticultural features, as well as a large assemblage of pottery, glass, and other artefactual and environmental material.

Token Corresponding Society Bulletin, 2021

Reassessment and reattribution of a series of tickets issued by an 18th-century wine dealer opera... more Reassessment and reattribution of a series of tickets issued by an 18th-century wine dealer operating in the Welsh Marches.

Journal of Archaeological Numismatics, 2020

This paper explores archaeological and numismatic patterns in the contents and contexts of 190 la... more This paper explores archaeological and numismatic patterns in the contents and contexts of 190 late medieval coin hoards from British and Irish settlements. Domestic hoarding is shown to have been a widespread phenomenon during this period, and statistical analyses provide evidence for the distinct savings and security strategies adopted by hoarders in household settings, including the retention of both liquid and non-liquid assets, and the occasional use of containers and structural features to securely conceal hoards. Crucially, formal statistical testing reveals very little evidence for qualitive distinctions in hoarding behaviour in aristocratic, seigneurial, burgher, and peasant contexts, suggesting that all social classes were capable of implementing broadly similar hoarding strategies.

Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 2020

This paper re-examines a series of Roman coins found in Worcester by the 1740s, presumably linked... more This paper re-examines a series of Roman coins found in Worcester by the 1740s, presumably linked to Georgian-era rebuilding of the city centre. The coins span the first to fourth centuries, and two coins in particular - a sestertius of Claudius, and a solidus of Valentinian II - have significant implicatons for an understanding of the beginning and end of the Roman settlement.

**CALL FOR PAPERS - TAG 2019** Money is a commonplace of complex societies, and evidence for i... more **CALL FOR PAPERS - TAG 2019**

Money is a commonplace of complex societies, and evidence for its production and use appears in the archaeological record at multiple scales: from individual coins, dies, and weights, to mint buildings, metallurgical workshops, and mining complexes. The character, scope, and volume of this evidence means that archaeology can offer significant and unique contributions to wider anthropological and sociological debates concerning the socio-cultural processes by which money comes into being: how are objects transformed into money, how are different forms of money rendered legitimate or illegitimate, and how are the social conventions behind money maintained or challenged by its producers and (non)users? This session invites contributions exploring the social production of money and moneys in past societies, with a focus on five key themes:

- The assignation of value to monetary media
- Legitimation and validation of moneys
- Fungibility and commensuration of moneys
- Money and institutions
- Hierarchies of money

The duration of presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.

If you wish to participate in this session, please submit a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words by 2 September 2019 to Murray Andrews (MAndrews [at] pre-construct [dot] com) and Olav Gundersen (o.e.gundersen [at] khm [dot] uio [dot] no).

Late medieval baptisms were materially-rich affairs, enmeshing objects, people, and places in an ... more Late medieval baptisms were materially-rich affairs, enmeshing objects, people, and places in an essential performative rite of the Christian life course. Where aristocratic children were concerned, however, customary gift-giving elevated the material dimension to ever greater prominence; infants, nurses, and even casual bystanders were lavished with luxurious and precious gifts, usually at the expense of wealthy godparents or relatives. Though few would doubt the general significance of these ritualised exchanges to the forging and reinforcing of social networks and hierarchies across families and generations, the gifts themselves receive little attention; what was given, who gave and received it, where did transactions take place, and what was the significance of particular gifts? Through a spatio-statistical analysis of baptismal gifts recorded in fifteenth century proofs of age, this paper demonstrates a persistent concern with the symbolism of objects; gift-giving did not simply entail the generalised flaunting of wealth, but involved conscious decisions to grant particular objects associated with ideals of chivalry, piety and good lordship. The gifts themselves, as much as the act of giving, were crucial to the formation of late medieval aristocratic identities.

Almost 300 coin hoards buried between 1351 and 1544 are now known from England and Wales, a vast ... more Almost 300 coin hoards buried between 1351 and 1544 are now known from England and Wales, a vast corpus of portable material culture scrutinised by numismatists for information on the structure, composition and circulation of the English currency. Traditional numismatic approaches, emphasising the role of coins as money, interpret hoards as wealth accumulations hidden for temporary safekeeping; those which survive to the present, therefore, are ‘failed hoards’ whose owners never managed to recover them. Problems arise, however, when hoards are considered in their archaeological contexts; some are buried in places ill-suited to contemporary recovery, others contain unusual objects, and many are deposited in locations imbued with religious or supernatural significance. Reviewing the hoard evidence, this paper argues that a one-sided focus on coins as money understates their significance as material objects imbued with monetary and non-monetary functions, values and meanings; through engagement with coins as objects – including their assembly in groups, sometimes with other classes of object, and their collective deposition as hoards - users might manipulate and re-negotiate these characteristics in different ways. In particular, it is argued that medieval English coins possessed several properties which made them well-suited for use in devotional and other non-profane activities, so that in certain cases hoards from ‘unusual’ locations might be better understood within a framework of devotional or ritual behaviour than as conventionally ‘economic’ deposits.

Evaluating Early Medieval Currency: Perspectives on Money and Coinage in Britain and Ireland c. 500-1150

On his 1188 Journey through the Welsh Marches Gerald of Wales encountered a varied and dynamic bo... more On his 1188 Journey through the Welsh Marches Gerald of Wales encountered a varied and dynamic border province, a largely rural landscape punctuated by castles, monastic settlements, and emergent towns, within which the use of coin had become an increasingly familiar feature of commercial and religious life. Drawing on archaeological and documentary evidence, this paper examines the development of coin use in the Welsh Marches from the tenth to late twelfth centuries, paying particular attention to the institutional agents stimulating the process of monetisation in a borderland context.

Almost 800 coin hoards are now known from medieval England and Wales, the vast majority found in ... more Almost 800 coin hoards are now known from medieval England and Wales, the vast majority found in rural locations. What can these finds tell us about life in the countryside during the later middle ages? This talk explores the contexts and composition of medieval coin hoards from rural England and Wales, shedding light on the interactions between valuables, people and places in the medieval countryside.

The introduction of the florin and the noble in 1344 marked the beginnings of the first regular i... more The introduction of the florin and the noble in 1344 marked the beginnings of the first regular issue of English gold coinage in more than five centuries. Traditionally characterised as a coinage of international commerce, a growing number of single finds and hoards are shedding new light on the extent to which English gold permeated the domestic currency of later medieval England and Wales. This paper surveys the single find evidence, using a corpus of more than 400 coins to assess the changing circulation and function of English gold in its domestic context. The paper concludes with a comparative analysis of the depositional contexts of excavated single and hoard finds of English gold coin, raising questions on the extent to which single finds might represent 'casual losses' or hoarded wealth.

In Britain tens of thousands of ancient and historic coins are uncovered each year by archaeologi... more In Britain tens of thousands of ancient and historic coins are uncovered each year by archaeologists, metal detectorists and other members of the public, each find offering new clues to the political, social and economic histories of past societies. But how do coins end up in the ground in the first place? Taking a biographical approach to medieval coins, this talk explores the life history of a coin from mint to modern recovery, and considers what these processes might tell us about the people using and losing coins in the Middle Ages.

Recent developments in applied numismatics show the benefits of a holistic approach to hoard stud... more Recent developments in applied numismatics show the benefits of a holistic approach to hoard studies, integrating the evidence of coins, non-coins, containers and archaeological contexts to understand processes of hoard formation and deposition in the past. The application of this approach to later medieval numismatics can shed considerable light on problems of social and economic history and archaeology. This paper, based on ongoing PhD research at University College London, presents some preliminary findings into the processes shaping coin hoards of c.973-1544 AD.

Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) Conference, University College London, 16-18 December, 2019

Money is a commonplace of complex societies, and evidence for its production and use appears in t... more Money is a commonplace of complex societies, and evidence for its production and use appears in the archaeological record at multiple scales: from individual coins, dies, and weights, to mint buildings, metallurgical workshops, and mining complexes. The character, scope, and volume of this evidence means that archaeology can offer significant and unique contributions to wider anthropological and sociological debates concerning the socio-cultural processes by which money comes into being: how are objects transformed into money, how are different forms of money rendered legitimate or illegitimate, and how are the social conventions behind money maintained or challenged by its producers and (non)users? This session explores the social production of money and moneys in past societies, with a focus on five key themes:

The assignation of value to monetary media
Legitimation and validation of moneys
Fungibility and commensuration of moneys
Money and institutions
Hierarchies of money

Abstracts and programme for a forthcoming day workshop at UCL - free registration online via http... more Abstracts and programme for a forthcoming day workshop at UCL - free registration online via http://bit.ly/1VfmhI4

Worcestershire Recorder, 2023

Current Archaeology, 2023

British Numismatic Journal, 2022

Worcestershire Recorder, 2022

Early Medieval Europe, 2019

Economic History Review, 2018

Journal of Archaeological Numismatics, 2017

British Numismatic Journal, 2016

Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 2014

This thesis presents an archaeological and numismatic analysis of coin hoarding in medieval Engla... more This thesis presents an archaeological and numismatic analysis of coin hoarding in medieval England and Wales, using sophisticated multivariate and spatial techniques to identify, characterise, and interpret patterns in hoards as a means of understanding the specific behaviours, motivations, and mentalités that effected their formation and deposition throughout the period c.973-1544. The primary source material, much of it hitherto unpublished, consists of a bespoke research database of 815 medieval coin hoards, which contains information relating to both the contents and archaeological contexts of hoards and their spatial and temporal circumstances of deposition and rediscovery. This material is scrutinised across four key chapters that explore different aspects of hoarding phenomena. The impacts of post-depositional processes on data coverage and representativeness are discussed in Chapter 3, and inform considerations of the spatial and temporal incidence of coin hoarding presented in Chapter 4; analyses presented in this latter chapter situate hoarding in a wider archaeological and historical context, and highlight the influence of background economic and monetary phenomena on global trends in hoard patterning. Chapter 5 offers a large-scale study of patterns in numismatic and non-numismatic contents, and evidences the technical processes and subjective considerations – both economic and non-economic – that resulted in the production of hoard deposits. These findings are complemented in Chapter 6 by a pioneering discussion of the containers and archaeological contexts of medieval hoard deposits, which emphasise the diverse motives behind hoarding behaviour. The results of this study therefore offer significant new insights into coin hoarding as a medieval socio-economic phenomenon, and are of direct relevance to wider debates concerning the relationships between people, places, and objects in historic societies.

by The Journal of Archaeological Numismatics - CEN, Clive Stannard, Alejandro G. Sinner, Noemí Moncunill Martí, Joan Ferrer i Jané, david billoin, Vincent Borrel, Massimiliano Munzi, Markus Peter, Manuel Gozalbes, Murray Andrews, Jean-Patrick Duchemin, Christian Lauwers, Aleksander Bursche, Vincent Geneviève, Marie-Laure Le Brazidec, and Jean-Marc Doyen

by Jean-Marc Doyen, Christian Lauwers, Suzanne Frey-Kupper, Clive Stannard, Noemí Moncunill Martí, david billoin, Vincent Borrel, Corinne Goy, Massimiliano Munzi, Markus Peter, Murray Andrews, Jean-Patrick Duchemin, Paul Beliën, Vincent Geneviève, and Marie-Laure Le Brazidec

Le texte des recensions parues dans le Journal of Archaeological Numismatics 7, 2017