What is a monetary unit that was a strong universal standard in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

In England, under the later Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings the only coins usually issued was the penny. Later, a fourpenny piece (called the groat) was issued; then two pence as half a groat and the penny was subdivided into two halfpennies, divided into two farthing each. Gold coins were not issued till the reign of Edward III.

Answer 2

Answer:

it was salt

Answer:

Salt has been a medium of exchange at many times in many places, but I doubt a case could be made that it was universal for all of Europe during the entire Middle Ages. The Middle Ages included times and places as divers as Spain under the Visigoths, pagan Prussia, the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire, Viking lands, and Chaucer's England.

I think a better answer would be silver, since silver coins were always produced and used in medieval Europe. Gold coins were sometimes issued, but not always. Copper coins seem not to have been used much in the West, though they were common in the Byzantine Empire.

Roman silver currency and copies of it were used for the first centuries of the Middle Ages. After the third century, Roman silver coins were both debased and highly variable in weight, making generalities about them rather useless, and this continued for about two or three hundred years after the fall of the West Roman Empire.

In the Early Middle Ages, leaders of the French Carolingian Dynasty, made a clearly stated decision to resurrect the Roman denarius as a medium of exchange, creating the denier, which was rated at 12 to the solidus and 240 to the livre. This coin was copied in Italy, Spain, Germany, and England. In fact it was the same design that was used for the English penny until after the Renaissance. The currency of 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound, directly copied from the old French design, was used in Britain until recently.

There are links on the denier and the penny below.

Answer 3

gold coinage