What Currency Was Used in the Early Middle Ages?

In england before about the later seventh century, you would have thought primarily in terms of what were called gold shillings. Later on, people kept on using the shilling, but it consisted of varying numbers of pennies depending on where you are. One silver penny probably had the buying power of maybe ten, 20, 30 pounds nowadays. And a gold piece would have been worth probably several hundred pounds in one coin. So spending a penny was really quite a big deal, not something to be done lightly. If you actually do have coins, the other option that's open to you is simply to bury them and hide them until you need them again.