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Description: | A Medeival gilded silver farthing of King Henry VI, Rosette Mascle issue, c. 1427-1430. North Number 1455. Dr Barrie J. Cook writes:I have examined an object reported found at Stone-cum-Ebony, Kent. It is a silver farthing of King Henry VI, Rosette Mascle issue (late 1420s-early 1430s), London mint, wt: 0.25g. The coin will be of the official sterling standard of 92.5% fine silver, but this example has been completely gilded.Single coins do not normally quality as Treasure, according to the terms of the Treasure Act of 1996. However, coins that have been converted into something else, usually for jewellery purposes, do have the potential to be considered as Treasure and there are many cases of this in the record. The gilding of a silver coin would have the consequence of enhancing its value above its intended level, if in each separate case to an uncertain degree, so it seems unlikely that a gilded coin such as this would function normally in currency as a farthing.Gilded low-denomination silver coins of 15th-century England have been occasionally recorded. However, their purpose has not yet been definitely established. It seems a legitimate presumption that the gilding was applied to these coins to remove them from normal currency and give them a different status and role. This might have been to serve as some sort of offering piece or to convert them into a decorative item of some type, with a particular purpose for which their small size was an advantage. If this logic is accepted, such gilded coins would seem to fulfil the criteria of Treasure.Dr Barrie J. CookCurator of Medieval and Early Modern CoinageDepartment of Coins and MedalsBritish Museum23 April 2015
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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