British Hammered

[JOHN]

It is very thin, 24 - 25 mm diameter and weighs 1.9 grams. It appears to be silver.

It has been bent, is cracked and has a chip missing.

And the final question? Is it worth anything?

[JOHN]

And the other side.

[azda]

Elizabeth I?, i could be wrong though, as for grade and value i'd leave that to the experts of the forum

[scott]

its mary, it says MARIA on obverse

[scottishmoney]

Yes indeed, it is Queen Mary(1553-1558) a tanner or sixpence - which accounts for why it was bent - they were referred to contemporarily as "benders" because they could be bent easily. There was a tradition then of giving a sixpence to your intended and if she kept it she was yours, otherwise she bent it and cast it away. Some poor bloke could have gotten the diss with this piece.

Love the renaissance era lettering on the piece, very decourative and not quite as utilitarian as QEI's coins got later in the 16th century.

[azda]

I'm thinking spink 2492 groat, looks very much like it. In the book it states for a Fine 135 pounds, but thats spink

[Peckris]

Anyone else think the colour looks wrong? Or was Mary one of those Tudor monarchs who cheerfully debased the silver coinage?

[scottishmoney]

Anyone else think the colour looks wrong? Or was Mary one of those Tudor monarchs who cheerfully debased the silver coinage?

Without having my English hammered at hand I wondered on the groat part too. But I like the toning on it, it is old. By Mary's time the fine .925 had taken root, actually back during the reign of Edward VI. It was HVIII that was called "old coppernose" for a reason.

[JOHN]

Thanks for the replies. Once I knew to search for Queen Mary coins I was able to

confirm that it is a groat by comparing weight and size to many others online. Read a

huge amount of history also and learned that Mary was the ruler that started the shift

to better silver coinage but it was Elisabeth that pulled the silver based coins[25% silver]

and replaced them with purer silver [.925]. One website stated that some of Mary's early

coins were produced from remaining inventories of billon [25% silver] and shifted to good

silver when the crap material ran out.

The history is just amazing. I wish this coin could talk.Here is a link to some interesting reading

and some pretty good pictures that I found while researching this coin.

http://www.kenelks.co.uk/coins/tudor/tudor.htm

Thanks again, John.

[Chris Perkins]

I have all that, hosted with permission from Ken Elks, here:

http://www.predecimal.com/p5tudor.php