Henry II Tealby Cut Half Penny.

[Guest Jon Hill]

Hi,

I have found a cut half Henry II Tealby penny, are cut halves still collectable, how can the value of a cut half be determined?

Regards,

Jon Hill

[Geordie582]

Cut halves of hammered silver were legitimate circulated currency and as such are just as collectable as the whole coin. Value depends on so many varibles that giving a rule would be foolish. How about just halving the value of the whole coin? Afterall it is half a coin! But I must say that in some cases it will be possible that a genuine cut halfpenny is scarcer than the original!!

[Guest Jon Hill]

Hi

Thanks, who did the cutting the mint or whoever had the coin?

Cheers,

Jon

[Geordie582]

Whoever was trading the coin. You'll find quarters too! They also tried to gain money by paring a little off each coin that came their way, which led, eventually, to people weighing all coins!!

Edited March 28, 2005 by Geordie582

[Peter]

Coins were being clipped...one way to counter this was to introduce a longcross on the reverse rather than the smaller central cross.

This happened midway thru Henry 111's reign.(1247).

The longcross gave a ready made template to cut a coin into halves or quarters.

I've read somewhere it was common practice to put coins in a hessian bag and shake vigorously to extract small particles of silver.

[Guest Jon Hill]

Thanks,

Is there anywhere I can find out the coins equivalent value? what would half a penny in the 12th century have bought you?

Regards,

Jon

[mint_mark]

Thanks,

Is there anywhere I can find out the coins equivalent value?  what would half a penny in the 12th century have bought you?

Regards,

Jon

I found this link... not quite back to 12th century, but close.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/medi...evalprices.html

[Geordie582]

What a wonderful source of information, and should be compulsary reading for all numismatists!

[Guest Jon Hill]

Thanks for the link,

Unfortunately it would seem my halfpenny wouldn't have bought me very much, but it does make you realise how many coins must have been around even in those days.

Regards,

Jon.

[mint_mark]

A dozen eggs or 2 pounds of dried fruit... would keep you going for a while. Besides, I bet in those days everybody haggled so you could get something else thrown in for free