LORD OF THE COINS | Everything Money in Middle-earth

Listen, I just wanted to preface this with the fact that I’m no die-hard Tolkien aficionado.

Now don’t get me wrong - I think he’s brilliant beyond measure and his imagination almost unparalleled. But you should just know that I’m an amateur. My relationship with LOTR lore is more of a casual fling than passionate love affair.

And truthfully? I hadn’t really thought twice about Lord of the Rings until my partner decided we should cover every square inch of Tolkien’s Middle-earth ever documented in cinema before the new Rings of Power series came out.
In “crispy 4K - actually, technically it’s 4K Ultra HD.” Extended edition, of course.

Personally… I’m of the belief that 15 disks for three movies might be a little excessive. The idea that I’ll have to endure a marathon of 222+223+263 minutes for the LOTR series, then another 532 minutes for the Hobbit, has me just about ready to throw myself into the fiery pits of Mount Doom.

But the thing is, the new billion-dollar series does look… well, exceptional.
And I do love burrowing deep into a rabbit (dare I say hobbit) hole.
So, I figured if I’m going to embark upon this quest, then I should go all in.

And now you have it – a breakdown of everything money in Middle-earth.

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Film still from Lord of the Rings: Aragorn.

Tolkien, meticulous as he is, had comprehensive and detailed appendices; and even then, much of his material never made the cut. One of the excluded passages was published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, and it’s one of the few publications that mentions currency.

From this excluded passage, it’s inferred that the people of Gondor used two coins: tharni – a silver coin, which is the fourth part of a castar – the chief coin. In Elvish, or to be technical, Sindarin, (and this is the point that I realised I am way too deep in Tolkien lore), the tharni is known as canath which has roots in Tolkien’s lingo for ‘four,’ and the castar is known as mírian which is derived from ‘jewel’ or ‘precious thing.’

Fans theorise that this could mean the Elves also used this currency to trade, but also acknowledge that the Sindarin language is commonly spoken in Gondor, so that might not be the case.

Fans also speculate on what these coins might look like, as it’s never explicitly described.

To cite a Reddit thread from eight years ago (to my many professors’ lament), Reddit user Ambarenya likens the coin system of Gondor to coins from history: presuming that the castar/mírian might be a gold coin similar to Romano-Byzantine solidus/nomisma coins, while the tharni/canath could be similar to the Romano-Byzantine miliaresion.

Other coins in the world of man have even less detail. The people of Eriador are thought to use silver pennies as the equivalent for Gondor’s tharni. And there isn’t any mention of what currency the people of Rohan might use (so please don’t hold your breath if that’s what you came here for).

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Film still from Lord of the Rings: Gimli

'What?' cried Gimli, startled out of his silence. 'A corslet of Moria-silver? That was a kingly gift!' 'Yes,' said Gandalf. 'I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the whole Shire and everything in it.'

I probably mined harder for this info than the dwarves did for mithril; digging deeper into niche Reddit threads than any sun-loving human ought to.

To be fair, I’m genuinely very impressed by the intensity of fan theories. They really cover everything: from the macroeconomics of Middle-earth after several ongoing wars; monarchy in the dwarf kingdom; why the size and scale of Middle-earth means the dwarves avoided the gold inflation endured by us humans in the Spanish Price Revolution of the 15th to 17th centuries... it really is quite remarkable.

To summarise these fan theories:

The dwarves likely traded with nearby kingdoms for food (as they did not and could not grow their own) in exchange for their masterful craftsmanship (and perhaps they also minted some coins, however skilled production is likely to have been the main trade).

Most of the kingdoms in Middle-earth use a barter system, and one Reddit user suggests that because the Seven Dwarven Rings drove the dwarves to greed, they most likely hoarded their riches – meaning precious metals might have been mined but never forged or circulated. This supports the theory that dwarves likely traded skill and labour in place of gold, jewels, and mithril.

This, combined with the fact that:
(A) the dwarf population was dwindling after battles with orcs and dragons, and
(B) most races have been too busy defending themselves from invasion to form a planned, central economy
… implies that the supply of gold into the greater Middle-earth economy would have been small enough to prevent hyperinflation.Or so the fans theorise. Without any extrapolation from Tolkien, it’s a concept I’m happy to accept.

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Official Hobbit Coins issued by New Zealand Post.

In our world however, Hobbit Coins exist!

New Zealand released commemorative Hobbit Coins, worth thousands of dollars, for the release of the Hobbit Trilogy in cinemas in 2012.

The coins featured characters such as Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf, and were genuine legal tender in NZ – though the actual value of the coin is not correlated to its denomination.
The most expensive coin was made from 28.3 grams of pure gold, and cost $3695 NZD to buy – while its face value was $10 NZD. The cheapest coin was a $1N ZD coin, which cost $29.90 NZD for collectors to buy.

You might still be able to find some of these limited-edition collector’s coins floating around, but they’d be rather precious to their Tolkien-enthusiast owners.

UPDATE!

Turns out, there are more LOTR coins you can purchase in the real world - you can also find officially licensed Middle-earth coinage produced by The Shire Post Mint!

What began as a single coin press and a love for Tolkien's works, became a coin collection of more than sixty unique pieces - and they really thought of everything. The attention to detail is nothing short of remarkable. Even though Tolkien didn't give much detail in the way of currency, The Shire Post Mint has meticulously and lovingly crafted entire currency systems for their favourite places in Middle-earth. And, I mean this is just my personal opinion, but I can't think of a better tribute to someone whose claim to fame is creating entire language systems.

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Sourced from The Shire Post Mint website: Shire Shilling.

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Hobbiton Movie Set in New Zealand.

Lord of the Rings brought NZ to the main stage when it comes to tourism.

The General Manager of Tourism New Zealand, Sarah Handley, told Matador Network that in 2019, 18% of people who visited New Zealand for a holiday were initially inspired by Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and that the LOTR franchise contributes an estimated $630 million NZD (approx. $428M USD or 564M AUD) annually to the NZ economy.

One of the coolest examples of this is Hobbiton itself.

The story goes that, in 1998, Sir Peter Jackson’s team was flying over New Zealand, scouting for somewhere to film that was as lush and idyllic as The Shire. In the heart of Waikato, they stumbled upon Alexander Farm – a 500-hectare sheep farm with rolling hills, the perfect Party Tree, and no powerlines or modern structures in sight. The NZ Army helped bring it to life with 39 temporary Hobbit Holes secretly constructed. It was all very hush-hush. After demolition, there were 17 facades remaining, with the owners giving guided tours in 2002 after the success of Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. Then in 2009, when Peter Jackson returned to film The Hobbit trilogy, he created 44 permanent Hobbit Holes and The Green Dragon Inn, which are major tourist attractions to this day.

CASH

You’ll want to take cash with you, especially if travelling to rural areas where the wifi might be spotty. Cash is accepted pretty much everywhere, and is good to have on hand just-in-case.

LEARN MORE about budgeting for your NZ holiday!

A comprehensive guide to how much it costs to travel New Zealand, with our very clever budget planner to help you prep for your journey.

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Like Tolkien, I have things I want to say that couldn’t be said within the manuscript. Unlike Tolkien, I’ll be brief and concise about it. I’d like to apologise to all Lord of the Rings fans for any blunders I might have made along the way – I am flawed, but I tried my best, just like Frodo (though I identify more with that Gollum energy). If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading! Also, very sorry, I have no idea what kind of money Tom Bombadil would have used (or, for that matter, what Tom Bombadil is). Peace! 

Máriessë.