Small change: economics and coin-trees in Britain and Ireland

Abstract

Throughout the c. 2,000-year period coins have been circulated in Britain, they have also been ritually employed, most notably as votive deposits. Focusing specifically on the understudied custom of the British coin-tree, whereby coins are ritually embedded into the barks of trees, this paper considers the coin’s role and applicability as a deposit. It aims to demonstrate that our understanding of the coin’s past, present and future ritual employment is not only aided by a consideration of economics and the coin’s secular function; it would be utterly incomplete without it.