April
04
/ 2022
The world’s most expensive spice by weight, saffron, has been valued and coveted by many ancient civilizations for a multitude of purposes, and debates over its origins still continue. Worth its weight in gold or higher, literally, the flowers of this labor-intensive crop yield two or three wispy saffron pieces that can only be hand harvested. Now research has shown that saffron money was apparently used by elites in late medieval and early modern England to pay the rent and signal status, reports The Guardian . [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"95398","attributes":{"alt":"The red stigma and styles, called threads, on these saffron flowers became saffron money in medieval England new research shows. (Museums and Botanic Gardens)","class":"media-image","height":"371","style":"width: 610px; height: 371px;","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"610"}}]] The red stigma and styles, called threads
