HistoricCoinage

That's pretty risky, Peter!

I was admiring your Annes, too.

Class 9s are typically understood to have been minted between 1299 and 1301.

Toshgirl, Sorry to learn of your loss. Peckris has given you some very good advice. Whereabouts are you based? I'm sure one of us might be able to lend you a pair of eyes if it really is making you scream. Kindest regards, Clive.

John, ignore him. It's not worth your time.

Here's the coin.

Look familiar?

There is a huge ring of sellers in Ireland who are selling known fakes to the UK audience. Please be wary at the best of times, especially of English hammered coins located in Ireland on eBay.

Happy birthday, good sir! I hope you're enjoying yourself unsuitably!

As a young child I remember my father returning home from a long day at work and letting me sort through his wallet and exchange a few coins or, if he was in a good mood, let me take a few and store away in my little box of coins. Ever since then I've never lost the bug, it's just been eating away at me and my finances! As for the star coin of my collections, I really cannot choose. When you've got a unique coin or a coin that is the only example in private hands it's a wonderful feeling. The joys of hammered, I suppose. That and the joys of spending endless hours researching.

As these seem only to be found on Tudor and Stuart coinage may I suggest that these marks were to test the coin due to the uncertainty of hammered silver when milled began to be circulated alongside? There's a good hundred or so year gap between this coin and the Great Recoinage. Just a thought, but probably wrong.

Good luck with the sales! I've put in a couple of bids as I haven't bought a milled coin in far too long.

Doesn't at all surprise me but I'm glad to hear you were drinking tea at the time. Still keeping the British theme.

I like this very much. Did you buy this to sell?

I'd switch back as soon as possible or even to Chrome, Stuart. But I'm glad it now works for you, the tool is invaluable for some eBay items.

Even clicking on this link? Try clearing your browser cache and then try, or use another browser.

Seems to work fine for me, see here. Make sure you're typing it in correctly here.

Also, look at the sixpence for sale and then look at the seller's only purchase. Looks like he's a hammered shiller, too!

I wholly agree, that's why I collect Anglo-Saxon and Norman primarily and am working on a paper on the iconography of these pennies and their influences. The pennies of Edward I really look awful in comparison.

I agree with your assessment - gorgeous. Just to be mildly pedantic, I don't think that's classed as "hammered"? It just about falls into the "Ancients" class, though I'm willing to be corrected on that. I would definitely class it as hammered, otherwise I wouldn't collect it. Ancient would be Celtic or Roman if we're talking about British issues, in my opinion. I could have resolved this myself by consulting North, whose Vol.1 of hammered coins begins at 650, early Anglo-Saxon. However, on a purely personal subjective level, I can see a good case for redefining the term "hammered" to correspond more to a look than a strict historical period. For one thing, the first plates in North show coins that have a strong resemblance to Celtic coins (and let's face it, any coins from this period issued in the areas of Cornwall, Wales, the Northwest ARE Celtic). For another, there appears to be a dramatic change to the designs occurring during Aethelred's reign (Plate X) - a beauty to the earlier designs that deteriorate towards what I call "medieval ugliness" in his later years. However, the change seems less abrupt when you look at later reigns, which deteriorate even more as you reach the early Norman kings (see the last few plates of North vol.1), which are truly horrible and exemplify why I dislike hammered coins so much. It's almost as if there was a kind of "de-Renaissance" that takes place between Aethelred and the Norman Conquest. In the light of this, Viking and earlier Saxon coins seem really beautiful, which is how I also think of Roman, Greek, and some Celtic. I class those together in my mind, which I simply cannot for the medieval period before Henry VII. For me, "hammered" has always meant medieval, but I guess it now has to go back at least as far as the later coins of Aethelred. I think you'd have a very hard time arguing that the early thyrsmas and tremisses of the 7th centuries aren't hammered coinage. Admittedly many are based upon Roman examples but they are, essentially, English hammered coinage. I do agree that the majority don't bear the complex beauty that the later coins of the Late Anglo-Saxon era bear but they are still hammered coins and examples which I, and many other collectors of hammered coinage, continue to collect. I've done a lot of research on the re-emergence of trade centres in the early Anglo-Saxon era and coinage has had a great importance in this as the ephemeral evidence has long since deteriorated leaving coinage, bones and pottery as main sources of evidence. Even in this context amongst archaeologists many hammered coins are deemed ugly, so I can sympathise!

I agree with your assessment - gorgeous. Just to be mildly pedantic, I don't think that's classed as "hammered"? It just about falls into the "Ancients" class, though I'm willing to be corrected on that. I would definitely class it as hammered, otherwise I wouldn't collect it. Ancient would be Celtic or Roman if we're talking about British issues, in my opinion.

If you're looking to sell other coins it might be worth trying some of the members here. I, for one, know someone who loves hammered silver.

With regards to your hammered coins, which I've labelled basically, you have an Edward I penny, an Elizabeth I sixpence and a Henry VIII groat. The Edward I penny is of Canterbury mint (CIVI TAS CAN TOR). It looks to be class 10cf1. The Elizabeth I sixpence is dated 1575 and has the initial mark of an eglantine. The Henry VIII groat is of his posthumous coinage minted during Edward VI's reign. It is of Southwark mint due to it reading CIVI TAS LON DON. I hope this helps.

I've got a halfcrown, halfgroat and penny but no sixpence at the moment. I'll let you know if I come across one, though.