How much is sixty pence in medieval money?

Answer 1

Depending on the time, 60 pence would have been wages for 30 to 60 days work by a common laborer.

What sixty pence meant varied, because there was a gradual decline in the value of silver through most of the Middle Ages. In the Early Middle Ages, a penny was a bit more than a laboring man would earn in a day. Later, a laborer might earn two in a day. In either case, it was a living wage, but just barely.

A penny was a small silver coin weighing about one and a third grams - about the size of a US cent or UK five pence. It was derived from the Roman denarius, which is the reason the abbreviation for pence is d.

A solidus was a small gold coin, and was valued at 12 pence. It is the ancestor of the shilling and the reason the shilling is abbreviated s.

The pound was 240 pence, and obviously derived from the Latin libra.

The larger denominations of medieval currency were rarely minted.