I once posted this on the old CT, and apparently it needs to be reposted here. No, it's not 100% definitive, I know I have some errors, and need to back up some claims. But here's the introduction to Edward I pennies, as written by me. In 1279 A.D., Edward I initiated a major recoinage in England. Not only did he redesign the penny, he also introduced new denominations: the groat, which has a value of four pence, the halfpenny, and the farthing, which is one quarter of a penny. The voided long cross of Henry III’s coins was discontinued in favor of a solid long cross. The long cross served as a kind of security device to show if a coin had been clipped. Clipping was the practice of shaving off pieces of a silver coin, thus reducing its weight. The long cross helped to ensure that a coin had not been clipped and was still the official weight. Other changes to the coins included a new bust of Edward, a new obverse legend, and the discontinuation of putting the moneyer’s name on the reverse of a coin. With the exception of a few years at Bury St. Edmunds, the moneyer’s name does not appear on Edward’s coins. Edward had 4 main mints: London, Canterbury, Durham, and Bury St. Edmunds, and 8 part-time mints: Bristol, Exeter, Chester, Lincoln, York, Kingston-Upon-Hull, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and Berwick-Upon-Tweed. During the initial recoinage from 1279 to 1281, around 125,000,000 coins were minted. By the end of Edward’s reign, over 350,000,000 coins were minted. Coins minted between 1279 and 1301 are easiest to identify by a trifoliate crown. Starting in 1301, a bifoliate crown was used. Small changes to the drapery on the king’s bust, changes to the king’s face, hair, and crown, and changes to the letters of the obverse and reverse legend lead to the different classifications of Edward’s coins. With the exception of a few provincial and ecclesiastical dies used in Durham, York, Bury St. Edmunds, and Berwick-Upon-Tweed, the dies were centrally produced in London and transported to the other mints. In 1279, several different legends were initially used. By the end of 1279, the engravers seemed to have agreed on the legend EDW R ANGL DNS HYB. That legend was used until 1301, when new varieties began to appear. The legend translates to, “Edward, King of England, Lord of Ireland.” The changes in 1301 stayed the standard on coins until Henry VIII’s recoinage in 1509.
One revision that I am adding is the legend after 1301. It was EDWA R ANGL DNS HYB. That was the legend used throughout the after rulers.
Interesting topic - and since I just saw some Edward I (and II and III) coins in a different topic (that you contributed to as well) in the Ancients forum, let me just point at that one: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/medieval-coin-id-edward-the-somethingth.284180/ Christian
