I’ve been indulging in a re-read of Neal Stephenson’s trilogy “The Baroque Cycle” the books of which have a place of honor on my tiny cabin’s tiny bookshelf. But there’s one thing about it that pisses me off and that’s because for an epic story ostensibly about money Neal Stephenson gets it all wrong.

Before we get into the substance of my rant I want to mention an entertaining video that’s been mentioned here before: “Pounds, shillings, and pence: a history of English coinage”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2paSGQRwvo

Watching it may help make the following more comprehensible. Here’s a brief synopsis:

One pound = four crowns = 20 shillings = 240 pence

One crown = five shillings = 60 pence

One shilling = 12 pence

The third book of the trilogy, “The System of the World”, describes the second meeting of The Clubb for the Taking and Prosecution of the Party or Parties responsible for the Manufacture and Placement of the Infernal Engines lately Exploded at Crane Court, Orney’s Shipyard, &c. which takes place in 1714:

But certain things about Clubbs were universal. “First order of business: the collection of Dues!” Mr. Threader proclaimed. He had a coin pre-positioned in a tiny pocket of his waistcoat, and now flipped it casually onto the stone lid of a twenty ton coffin. Everyone did a double-take: it was a pound sterling, which was to say a silver coin, and very crisp-looking too. Using it to pay Clubb dues was a bit like non-chalantly riding around Hyde Park on the back of a Unicorn.

Daniel threw in a Piece of Eight. Mr. Kikin paid with Dutch silver money. Mr. Orney tossed out a golden guinea. Henry Arlanc upended a purse and poured out half a pint of copper tokens.

This is like one of those ultra-woke articles where every single sentence is false or makes no sense. Let me deconstruct it step-by-step:

…it was a pound sterling, which was to say a silver coin, and very crisp-looking too.

Silver pound coins were made in England but only during the 1640’s[1] during the time of Charles I’s difficulties with Parliament. They were not an easily manageable coin because they were huge at 53mm in diameter and weighing 119g[2], more like a medallion than a coin. The largest common silver coin was the “crown” worth a quarter of a pound. At 41mm in diameter and weighing about 32g[3] it was slightly larger than a U.S. silver dollar which weighs 26.7g. During World War II when the pound sterling was worth four U.S. dollars the crown was sometimes casually referred to as a “dollar”.

Daniel threw in a Piece of Eight.

The Piece of Eight or Spanish Milled Dollar was the universal currency of the era. It was 38mm in diameter and weighed 25.5g. The initial value of the U.S. dollar was the weight in silver of the Spanish Milled Dollar.

Mr. Kikin paid with Dutch silver money.

I know very little about Dutch coinage. At the time the “guilden” seems like the standard silver coin. At 31mm in diameter and weighing 10.6g it was worth about one-third of a crown.

Mr. Orney tossed out a golden guinea.

The gold “guinea” was the standard pound coin of the era but even then the increased value of gold made the guinea worth more than 20 shillings. The value finally stabilized at 21 shillings and it was a snooty practice to price things in guineas instead of pounds. The guinea was 25mm in diameter and weighed 8.3g.[4] It was replaced by an actual one pound gold coin the “sovereign” during the reign of George III.

Henry Arlanc upended a purse and poured out half a pint of copper tokens.

The largest copper coin of the time was the half penny and it was not small at 28mm in diameter which is larger than the U.S. quarter at 24.3mm. The penny of the time was made out of silver.

It is implied that the Clubb’s dues were a pound. If this is so then:

  • Mr. Threader paid with a “crisp-looking” coin that didn’t exist.
  • Daniel paid one-quarter of the charge.
  • It isn’t specified what Mr. Kikin paid but possibly three guilden or slightly less than a crown.
  • Mr. Orney paid slightly more than a pound.
  • It takes 480 half pennies to make a pound which is far more than “half a pint” so Henry Arlanc underpaid as well.

Now I know the trilogy is fiction, and if in his universe Neal Stevenson wants the silver one pound coin to be the size of a silver dollar that’s his prerogative, but would it have killed him or changed the events of the story to be more accurate?

Footnotes

[1] I seem to recall seeing another silver pound coin in my copy of Seaby[5] but I haven’t been able to find it again.

[2] I’m using Vampire units here because millimeters and grams are more natural for the discussion of coins than inches and ounces.

[3] The astute of you will have noticed that the silver in four 1714-era 32g crowns is more than the silver in one 1640-era 119g pound. Coin weights fluctuated over the years and reigns

[4] If a pound is 128g of silver and a guinea was 8.3g of gold then at the time the gold/silver ratio was 15.4 which is correct according to this:

https://www.longtermtrends.net/gold-silver-ratio/

[5] The British equivalent of the U.S. Red Book[6] is “Coins of England & The United Kingdom” originally published by B. A. Seaby:

https://spinkbooks.com/products/coins-of-england-the-united-kingdom-2023-pre-decimal-issues

[6] “The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of United States Coins”:

https://whitman.com/a-guide-book-of-united-states-coins-spiral-2023/