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Message:: [QUOTE="ewomack, post: 4788435, member: 15588"]King Edward VI was the son that Henry VIII had always wanted. To produce this heir, Henry changed the history of England itself. Henry died in 1547, likely feeling that he had fulfilled his sacred duty to carry on the Royal succession, but he had done so far more than he could possibly imagine, just not with his only son. Of course Henry never knew that Edward died at the age of 15 and so never fully ruled the kingdom left to him. Edward and his regents apparently had plans to build a strict Protestant state, but of course those never materialized. Sadly, his father had debased the coinage to such an extent that the economy had faltered to a startling degree. Rather than addressing the issue, Edward's protectors instead sought further profit by continuing this practice. As Edward wrote in his diary on August 18, 1551: "The shilling fell from nine pence to six pence, the groat from three pence to two pence, the twopence to a penny, the penny to a halfpenny, the halfpenny to a farthing, etc." Something had to be done, so the government issued fine silver coins, which Edward described with some pride in his diary entry for September 24th, 1551. Regardless, the economy did not fully recover until the reign of Elizabeth I. The coins below are the only Edward VI coins that I possess. They are not the most stunning examples, but they help quench my fascination for the boy king who died young and allowed his once disowned sisters to rule England. One wonders what Henry VIII would have thought of how his succession panned out. Looking back, perhaps some poetic justice exists in the fact that women, particularly Elizabeth I, carried on Henry's legacy after he had mistreated so many of them for his own purposes during his lifetime. Yet this situation did end up producing one of England's most highly regarded monarchs, arguably the greatest legacy of Henry's controversial, stormy and short-lived marriage to Anne Boleyn. Had Edward VI lived longer, or married and produced heirs of his own, the world might never had seen Elizabeth I. Edward did take after his father somewhat and, as it turned out, ended up inadvertently condemning Lady Jane Grey to her death. Because his direct heir, Mary, had practiced Catholicism, Edward tried to bypass her and appoint the Protestant Jane Grey as his true heir in the "<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-reign-of-mary-i/edward-vis-devise-for-the-succession" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-reign-of-mary-i/edward-vis-devise-for-the-succession" rel="nofollow">My Devise for the Succession</a>," written by a very ill Edward in 1553. Jane Grey, only 16 or 17 herself, "ruled" for 9 days before an unopposed Mary Tudor returned to London to claim the crown. Jane remains an extreme example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, though she did officially sign a letter as "Jane the Quene," so perhaps she fully understood the potential consequences of her actions? Or perhaps her family pushed her along? In any case, she was beheaded for treason in 1553. Edward VI's coins feature fascinating designs and they capture one of the usually overlooked eras of Tudor England, one which actually set English history on an entirely new course. The reverse of the older debased Shilling also features one of the earliest dates to appear on English coins. [ATTACH=full]1163900[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1163901[/ATTACH] Edward VI - Shilling Second Period, debased - Tower MintSpink 24661549 (MDXLIX on reverse)Obverse: EDWARD VI : D • G • AGL • FRA • Z : HIB • REXReverse: Arrow Mintmark, TIMOR • DOMINI • FONS : VITÆ • M : D : XLIX; E - R across fields [ATTACH=full]1163902[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1163903[/ATTACH]Edward VI - Shilling  Third Period - Fine Silver IssueSpink 24821551 - 1553Obverse: Tun Mintmark, EDWARD . VI: D . G . AGL . FRA . Z: HIB . REX:Reverse: Tun Mintmark, POSVI DEVM:A DIVTOR E . MEV . [ATTACH=full]1163909[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1163910[/ATTACH]Edward VI - Sixpence  Third Period - Fine Silver Issue - London MintSpink 24831551 - 1553Obverse: Y Mintmark : EDWARD . VI: D . G . AGL . FRA . Z: HIB . REX :Reverse: POSVI DEVM:A DIVTOR E . MEV . Y Mintmark[/QUOTE]

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