Details

LOT 1126

English Medieval Coins - Henry III - London / Terri - Short Cross Round Halfpenny 1222 AD

Obv: facing bust with sceptre and HENRICVS REX legend. Rev: short voided cross and quatrefoils with crescent-and-pellet initial mark and TERRIONLVN.D legend for the moneyer Terri at London mint Very fine. Exceedingly rare.(0.52 grams.).

Provenance

Found Essex, UK, 2017.

Published

Recorded at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; see British Numismatic Journal, Coin Register (forthcoming).

Literature

S. 1357D; N. 981/4; see SCBI 56 (Mass), 1965A (different moneyer).

Footnotes

Although surviving medieval documents referring to the production of dies for English round halfpennies and round farthings in the reign of Henry III (intended to replace the traditional means of providing fractions by shearing pennies into halves and quarters) have been known of since the 18th century (see Ruding, Rev. Rogers, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain, 3rd edition, London, 1840, volume I, p.182 and Madox, Thomas, History and Antiquities of the Exchequer, 2nd edition, London, 1769, volume II, p.87), it was only as recently as 1991 that the first coin example (a farthing) was discovered by metal detector; since then examples for all four of the London moneyers (Abel, Elis, Rauf and Terri) working in the early class 7 short cross period have been found although only a very few specimens are known in all; apart from size and weight, the very obvious visual difference between the pennies and the fractions is the initial mark at the start of the reverse legend with this being a cross for the pennies and a crescent-and-pellet for the fractions.