It has long been VERY difficult to pin medieval pennies to specific rulers. Edward I and Edward III look remarkably similar on their coins, you might almost suspect they were related... I love the coins though. They look and feel... old. Old silver has few equals, so todays strange old thing was something of an enigma when I bought it. And here she is:
Fantastic, lovely portrait and enough legend to identify the coin. Yes, my finger is in the picture, that's for scale, Im not a camera mong... So who is it. It looks... like every medieval ruler. The image is not a portrait, efforts were not made to capture the King's likeness until Henry VII stole, I mean ascended, the throne in the late 15th century. Before that the image was a representation of a bloke with a crown. Well, helpfully medieval mints wrote legends around their coins. Unhelpfully they are all very similar, silver is easily worn and damaged, the legend is often cut away for scrap silver and the font of the text is something like IMPACT and very difficult to read.
What can we see here? lets look again:
We can see the letters 'DUSREX'. REX, obviously, is Latin for king. DUS is only found on Edward I, II and III coins (EDWARDUS is, again, latin). However, Edward I and II mostly used the legend EDW REX. It was Edward III who used EDWARDUS REX. So we have our best guess as to the ruler. The difference between Edward I and II is much more subtle. All I can say is... Good luck with that! If we flip the back we get even more information:
Top right is EBO which is part of CIVITAS EBORACI. More Latin lessons: EBORACUM is the Roman town of York, here the mint at York is responsible. Compare the example on the left (our coin) with another one right. In the centre is a quatrefoil design, which was used by the archbishop in York when the mint became an ecclesiastical asset. Thus: Edward III, York mint. If we can identify more of the legend, it may even have the letters FR around the end of the portrait, denoting Edward IIIs claim to the French thrown after the treaty of Bretignt in 1360.
Todays lessons then:
1) know your history and you will know your strange old thing.
2) Latin is just as much a pain in the arse now as it was for our parents....
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| Medieval Silver Penny (York Mint) |
What can we see here? lets look again:
We can see the letters 'DUSREX'. REX, obviously, is Latin for king. DUS is only found on Edward I, II and III coins (EDWARDUS is, again, latin). However, Edward I and II mostly used the legend EDW REX. It was Edward III who used EDWARDUS REX. So we have our best guess as to the ruler. The difference between Edward I and II is much more subtle. All I can say is... Good luck with that! If we flip the back we get even more information:
Top right is EBO which is part of CIVITAS EBORACI. More Latin lessons: EBORACUM is the Roman town of York, here the mint at York is responsible. Compare the example on the left (our coin) with another one right. In the centre is a quatrefoil design, which was used by the archbishop in York when the mint became an ecclesiastical asset. Thus: Edward III, York mint. If we can identify more of the legend, it may even have the letters FR around the end of the portrait, denoting Edward IIIs claim to the French thrown after the treaty of Bretignt in 1360.
Todays lessons then:
1) know your history and you will know your strange old thing.
2) Latin is just as much a pain in the arse now as it was for our parents....
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