Just won this rare Henry VIII penny

Towards the end of Henry VIII's reign, in about 1545 or so he debased all of the gold and silver coinage. The coins went from 92% silver down to as low as 25% in the early years of Eddie VI's reign. Henry was fighting wars with while living rather lavishly, and the crown was broke. All of the good silver coinage either went to the melting pot or the continent, while the devalued coinage, which was of poor quality, was all that was circulating. Wikipedia has a nice little article about it title "The Great Debasement." It's similar to why Henry IV coinage is scarce well.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Very nice penny of king Henry, Orfew. Well struck and fully detailed. I like it.

Going through my box of assorted european coinage last week, I found this little coin, never attributed. It looks a little like yours but chipped and dark.
If anybody could attribute it, that would be great. I can see Civitas London so that is where it was struck London. That much I know.

Here are some of my coins of Henry VIII and family:

Penny of Henry VIII (?)



Half Groat of Henry's father, Henry VII:




Groat of Henry VIII as a young man:



Groat of King Henry VIII in his later years:

 

And of Henry's children:

Shilling of Edward VI:



Penny of Elizabeth I




Shilling of Elizabeth I:



Sixpence of Henry's eldest daughter Mary, married to Philipp of Spain.

 

The sixpences are scarcer than their value indicates. People like big coins, so the more common shillings are more expensive. Interesting question on date - I don't know!

 

I remember posting something about this on CT some time ago. As I recall, the first time dates appeared on British coinage was during the reign of Edward VI (son of Henry VIII and brother of Elizabeth I). This practice was then discontinued and dates were reintroduced by Elizabeth during the last two years of her reign on some coins. The smaller silver denominations had the full date 1601 and 1602 whereas the larger coins only had 1 and 2 struck on them.

Dates were once again discontinued for many years after her death.

 

Hi @Eduard your first coin looks to be a Henry VIII sovereign penny SCBC 2349. The mint Mark is a lis and the obverse legend reads h D G ROSA SIE SPIA.

 

Great coins everyone!

 

Sorry about the auction house mistake, Orfew... but that is indeed a very nice Henry VII.

My Henry VIII (so hard to find with a decent portrait, Eduard's is nice!), and a dated Elizabeth milled sixpence, 1568.

 

Henry VIII 2d TC Durham

Henry 8 groat Canterbury - a photo challenge


Elizabeth I milled 6d 1567

Elizabeth I 6d 1571

Elizabeth I 6d 1593 I have loaned this coin to three brides of which the most recent has kids in college now.


Elizabeth I 3d 1578 doublestruck


Charles I half crown (clipped) This was given to me as a thanks for some photos I did.

Charles I 1d holed


I know nothing about modern coins but a few found their way here one way or another.

 

Really nice!! And in a rare condition to moot with strong strikes and no visible flaws.. congratulations!

 

Thank you very much for the attribution! This is very helpful.

 

I contacted the auction house and heard back from them today. They have cancelled the transaction and apologized for their mistake. It was a great coin in very nice condition but I wanted Henry VIII not Henry VII.

Thanks to all of those who posted their coins in this thread. I very much enjoyed the photos.

 

I guess it is good in some cases to post the pictures right after winning.