A Denar Delivered

Now and then I’ve written about the forthcoming (out next week, actually) videogame Kingdom Come Deliverance, which is an open-world RPG set in Bohemia, 1403, with an emphasis on realism.

By chance, I happened to see that there was a free Twitter raffle at the https://twitter.com/Pan_2072 account, retweeted the relevant tweet and won the first contest for a Bohemian silver denar from around 1390/1400. And it arrived in the post today.

For a size comparison (ahem) I naturally sought my sixpence jar, which all Yorkshiremen possess for such occasions, opting for a 1947 George VI sixpence (good condition but not especially shiny). As you can see, the denar is substantially smaller (and the sixpence isn’t large). What you cannot see is that the denar is incredibly thin, almost wafer-thin.

This small diameter and thinness is not unique to the denar. I have it on good authority that English pennies of the same era were very similar. That’s because the value of the coin was based on its silver content (and why many rulers got into trouble for devaluing their coinage by lowering the silver content).

You may have guessed from the fact I have a sixpence jar that I have a small collection of coins, so getting an addition for just retweeting something was a very nice little bonus. There’s also an off-chance that the coin in question was handled by some of the historical figures in Kingdom Come Deliverance, which is quite a nice thought (and one marketing advantage that games with a historical setting might enjoy).

KCD is out on the 13^th of February. I’ll probably post a quick blog with my early thoughts on it when I’ve had a chance to see how things stack up.

A general ramble on coins I wrote last year: http://thaddeusthesixth.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/coins-and-money-in-history.html

Thaddeus