Women and 'False Coining' in Early Modern London

By the later seventeenth century, the English coinage was under a great deal of pressure. This was in no small part due to the efforts of numerous coiners and clippers who had diminished the coinage to such an extent that the government felt compelled to commence a massive programme of recoinage in 1696. Coining, though, was not something to be done lightly for it was a treasonable offence and carried the death penalty. This article analyses Old Bailey coining trials from 1674 to 1749 and reveals that large numbers of London women were engaged in offences against the coinage. It uses qualitative evidence from the Old Bailey Proceedings to explore the ways in which women — singly, in groups, or with husbands or other men — were involved in coining. Indeed, 46 per cent of those tried at the Old Bailey for coining offences in this period were women and it is argued that this figure is demonstrative of an unusually high level of female participation in what could be a skilled crime. Through its examination of coining, this article also suggests that women's work and women's crime might have overlapped, especially among the urban poor.