Tallystick

Tally sticks were used as receipts for loans or other payments. Notches were cut into them recording the amount of money involved, and then the stick was split lengthways. Both people taking part in the transaction would keep a piece as proof. When the debt was paid, the two pieces were compared to check the amount. The size of the notches indicates the sum of money. This tally stick was found in a cesspit behind a row of houses on Milk Street that belonged to Jews at various times in the 1200s. Jewish settlers were often moneylenders - perhaps this tally stick was thrown away after a borrower had repaid a debt? The notches on the stick suggest the amount: 9+ medium notches on one side and 3 small notches on the other, then 4+ notches after a gap. As the stick is broken, it is hard to be sure of the total amount but it was possibly nine pounds, four shillings and three pence (the equivalent of around £4,250 today).

Businesses, the Crown, and many individuals used tally sticks throughout the medieval period until quite recently. The Exchequer used them until the 1800s. Depending on the amount of money they recorded they could vary hugely in length (one example from the 1700s was 8 feet 6 inches!).

The cesspit where this tally stick was found was behind a house, which in 1276, was owned by Bonamicus, ‘Jew of York’. His neighbours at that time were Master Moses, ‘Jew of London’, then Cresseus son of Elias, ‘Jew of London’. Other non-Jewish Londoners also owned these properties over the time that the cesspit was in use so we cannot be sure to whom this tally stick belongs.