Definition
Blanks, in historical English legal usage, were a form of small silver coinage — so-called "white money" — valued at eightpence, struck by Henry V in the English-controlled territories of France. The coins took their name from their pale, whitish appearance (French: *blanc*, meaning white). Their circulation in England was prohibited by statute, 2 Hen. VI, c. 9.
This is a term of narrow historical significance with no surviving legal application in modern practice.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Third-person singular present indicative of the verb "to blank" — as in "she blanks the screen."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "Blank" as a noun referred to an empty space, a lottery ticket that wins nothing, or a roughly shaped piece of metal before it is stamped into a coin (a "coin blank").
The Webster's 1913 sense of a coin blank — an unstruck disc of metal — is the closest bridge between ordinary and legal usage here. The legal term "blanks" denotes not unformed metal awaiting the mint, but a specific finished coin of defined value produced under English royal authority in occupied France and subsequently outlawed for domestic circulation.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term will surface almost exclusively in research touching medieval English monetary law, the economic administration of English-held France during the Hundred Years' War, or the legislative history of currency regulation under the early Lancastrian kings. Researchers encountering "blanks" in primary sources from the fifteenth century should not assume the modern sense of an unfilled document form, a lottery blank, or a coin blank in the minting sense — all of which appear in contemporaneous and near-contemporaneous texts.
The prohibitory statute (2 Hen. VI, c. 9) is the anchoring legal event. Any source discussing English currency regulation in the 1420s may reference this term in proximity to other foreign or debased coinages also barred from circulation. The term is essentially a dead end for modern doctrinal research but is a live issue in legal history, numismatic history, and medieval fiscal administration.
Corpus researchers should note that both Black's editions rely on Wharton's Law Lexicon as their secondary authority for this entry, meaning the definition traces to a single chain of secondary transmission rather than independent verification across multiple treatise sources.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) provide identical, single-sentence entries, both citing Wharton. There is no evolution between editions and no elaboration in either. The definition is spare: white money, eightpence value, coined by Henry V in French territories, prohibited by 2 Hen. VI, c. 9.
No significant historical legal dictionary divergence exists on this term because no dictionary does more than repeat the same Wharton-sourced account. What the dictionaries do not address: the broader monetary context of English administration in Normandy and northern France, the relationship of blancs to other Anglo-French coinages of the period (such as the *salut d'or*), or the practical enforcement challenges of the 1423 statutory prohibition. Researchers needing that context must move beyond the dictionary shelf to monetary and constitutional histories of the Lancastrian period.
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Jurisdictional Note
This term has no current jurisdictional relevance. It is specific to English statutory law of the fifteenth century and has no equivalent in American legal history or modern common law jurisdictions.
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