I'm wondering myself about its authenticity. I'm going to check my Spink guide tonite for guidance...
To be frank,I am not sure about its authenticity since it is too nice-strike to be real one. I hope your SPINK guide can tell.
I really see nothing to make me think that coin is fake. The one I picture below is absolutely genuine, and it is not all that uncommon to find them nicer than this.
I agree, the Edward I pennies are probably the most common medieval British coin and they are found in high grades quite often, I have a few in my collection that are well struck and retain a lot of detail. It is also worth noting that these coins have a lot of differences between mints and time periods, things like the kings crown, the shape of his face, hair and collar as well as the lettering can all be slightly different. I just think that the coin is question is a good example, Very Fine at least id say.
But yet there does seem to be differences between the coin in the OP and this one, most notable the neckline in the OP is much wider, the chin/lips/nose area seems different (chin looks shorter) and the ends of the cross in the OP seem squarer. Granted the OP pics are smaller and more difficult to make out the detail. Could these differences be attributed to the different mints?
Of course. There are many minor differences like that among those produced by the different mints. There are no less than 7 pages of different varieties of this coin in Spink. My post was merely to show that finding one of these coins well struck and in that condition is not uncommon. I could post several examples.
