I often find the remains of coins that have been damaged or deliberately cut in the plough soil while metal detecting. I enjoy finding and adding such items to my collection but was wondering if serious coin collectors would share a similar level of interest in them.
They are all English with the earliest being an 11th century King Cnut through to A 16th century Henry 8th.
Thinking logically, “cut coinage” represents how the population at the grass roots level actually used them, so of course there is interest, with stipulations, as @Victor_Clark said. Importantly, identification is a big plus and you seem to have that well in hand. Nice post!…Spark
Spark 1951, thanks for your comment. As you say, identification is key and it sometimes requires quite a bit of detective work to get a result. Often there are clues such as short/long cross, style of cross, image of the bust or edge lettering.
I know what you meant. And thank you for your info. You are very knowledgable, have extensive expertise and are very highly regarded on Coin Talk and as a dealer. And now everyone else knows (if they didn’t already)…Spark
I have some cut pennies and I think the issue here is that they are not fragments but were deliberately cut so were an essential part of day-to -day commerce. You can imagine the scenario: “No I don't want the whole sheep only half of it so I'm not paying a whole penny”. The full cross design deliberately evolved to allow easier cutting of coins. You have to bear in mind that one silver penny was a whole day’s wages for an average person. Imagine you are a medieval peasant who has just finished a day's work and earned a single silver penny. You need to buy a few things for your family, but none of them are worth a whole penny. You need to buy a single loaf of bread (worth a farthing). You want a pint of ale at the local tavern (worth a halfpenny). You, can't pay for these with a whole penny because the merchant doesn't have the smaller, fractional coins to give you as change. So, the solution was to simply cut the penny into pieces. The term "Fourthing" or Farthing for the term of a quarter penny actually comes from "Fourthing" highlighting this practice. So yes, if you are a numismatist this is an essential part of the history of coinage and people do specialise in these coins. Fragments or damaged coins are another matter as they were the result of damage not deliberate actions based on monetary demand so these are more of interest to the archaeologist than the numismatist. To reiterate, the long cross that replaced the short cross on the reverse coins was a brilliant and practical design for the time. It wasn't just decorative; it was a "cut here" guide. It allowed a labourer or a merchant to take out their knife, slice the coin cleanly along the lines of the cross, and create a halfpenny or a farthing with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The value was in the silver itself, and as long as the pieces were roughly equal, they were considered valid currency. This practice highlights the vast difference between medieval and modern economies. Our money is based on a trust in its assigned value, while theirs was based on the intrinsic value of the metal. Cutting the coin was a tangible, everyday act that reflected this reality. When I say trust, I really mean idiocy if we believe in Fiat currencies which really are the figment of imagination and the reason governments have dumped the silver and gold standard over the past couple of hundred years. Nice collection by the way!
I definitely like to collect cut coinage, though I don't come across it in the US very often. It's usually considerably cheaper than half the price of a whole coin in comparable condition. I remember my local store had some halves and quarters in stock once. The price he asked for a quarter (farthing?) was a little more than half that of a half piece. So in theory, if I had wanted two quarters, it would have been cheaper to buy the half and cut it myself!
These are seven of my "cut" farthings and a halfpenny - I actually have a whole wee bag of these that I bought from a British detectorist years ago, the halfpenny is Scottish - William I as are a couple of the cut farthings with the stars. The other coins are Henry II and John from England. No image but one of the cuts is a Danish cut farthing from the Anglo Saxon era.
Thank you The Eidolon and Scottishmoney for your replies and the photos of your cut coins. Being a Scot myself, who was born in Glasgow but now living in south west England, I particularly love the cut Scottish examples. My latest cut quarter finds were the earliest examples I've ever found and were found a week apart on a field that I have been detecting for over 25 years. Both are Ethelred 2nd examples, one from a long cross coin and the other from a helmet type coin. They were found about 100 yards apart on the field. The earliest coin prior to that from the same field was a fragment of a Cnut pointed helmet penny. The building at the edge of the field is a 13th century church.
English (and Scots-Irish) hammered fragments are certainly collectible. Thank you for that site picture. Seeing that tilled soil really made my old detectorist's antennae twitch!
Yes, it's a lovely site to detect on. Apart from the 36 hammered coins/fragments I've found along with the odd artifact including silver cufflinks and a late saxon lyre key, others who detect the same field have also found several coins.
