The history of the English penny from 1154 to 1485 covers the period of the House of Plantagenet, up to the Battle of Bosworth Field which brought about the beginning of the Tudor period. The Plantagenet era saw an overall rise in quality of the coinage but saw a decline in the number of mints used to produce coins.
The first years of the reign of Henry II saw no change in the production of coins from the reign of Stephen, until the Tealby penny was introduced, minted from 1158 to 1180. These coins' weight and quality of silver were good, but the overall production was poor; as a result, in 1180 the short-cross penny was introduced.
The coinage during the reigns of Richard I and John remained largely unchanged. In 1247, under Henry III, the long-cross penny replaced the short-cross penny to deter clipping. In 1279 Edward I began a new coinage which was admired and imitated on the continent, and included the introduction of the farthing, halfpenny and groat, as well as making clipping easier to detect. This design remained similar throughout the reigns of Edward II and Edward III, with the addition of the quarter noble, half noble and noble in the latter's reign.
During the Wars of the Roses, Henry VI's administration kept a sufficient supply of coins in circulation, with many designs and variations of the penny minted. Henry would later be overthrown by Edward IV, who was in turn succeeded by Edward V, with Richard, Duke of Gloucester acting as Lord Protector. Richard became king in 1483 with only a small number of coins minted in his name, and was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field by Henry VII in 1485.
The Plantagenets (1154–1485) Henry II
Henry II ascended the throne in 1154 as the first of the Plantagenet dynasty. For the first few years of his reign the coins of Stephen continued to be produced, but in order to restore public confidence in the currency a new standard was introduced: the Tealby penny, so named after a hoard of such coins was found at Tealby, Lincolnshire in 1807. A total of 30 mints were employed in the initial recoinage (the mint at Ipswich was not active during the early stages – but was extremely productive from class B until the end of the series). The mints in operation at the beginning of the recoinage were:D.F.Allen Catalogue of English Coins: Henry II Cross & Crosslets Type (BMC, 1951) Bedford, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Colchester, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Ilchester, Launceston, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Pembroke, Salisbury, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Thetford, Wallingford, Wilton, Winchester, and York. However, once the recoinage was completed only 12 mints were allowed to remain active. This marked the beginning of the gradual decline in the number of mints used to strike English coins.Allen, Martin (2007). "Henry II and the English Coinage". In Harper-Bill, Christopher; Vincent, Nicholas (eds.). Henry II: New Interpretations. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press.
While the Tealby coinage was acceptable in terms of weight and silver quality, the overall quality of production was quite poor. To remedy this, in 1180 a new style of coin, the short-cross penny, was introduced. This style remained largely unchanged until 1247, which gave both the coinage and the state a sense of stability. The practice of placing the moneyer's name and mint on the reverse continued, though the reduction in the number of mints enabled better quality control to be applied. The Tealby coins bear the obverse inscriptions HENRI REX ANG, HENRI REX AN, HENRI R ANG, HENRI REX, HENRI REX A, or HENRI REX – Henry King of England, or King Henry, while the short-cross pennies are inscribed HENRICUS REX. Short-cross coins were minted at Carlisle, Exeter, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Wilton, Winchester, Worcester, and York.
Richard I and John
During the reign of King Richard I (1189–1199) the short-cross coinage continued unchanged, even to the extent of still being inscribed HENRICUS REX. Ricardian coins were minted at Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Exeter, Lichfield, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Winchester, Worcester, and York.
King John's coins (1199–1216) continued the short-cross series, still inscribed HENRICUS REX. John's coins were minted at Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chichester, Durham, Exeter, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Rhuddlan (although many of the short-cross coins minted there were doubtless imitative issues by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Wales, John's son-in-law), Rochester, Winchester, and York.
Henry III
In King Henry III's long reign (1216–1272) the short-cross penny continued in use until 1247. By then, however, through no fault of the moneyers' there was a problem in that many of the coins in circulation were underweight. This was caused by the illegal practice of clipping silver off the edge of the coin, which was made easier by the cross on the reverse not extending to the rim thus giving people no clear indication of exactly how big the coin was supposed to be. In 1247 therefore, a new long-cross penny replaced the short-cross coin, which made it more obvious when the coin had been clipped. Apart from the change in the size of the cross, the rest of the design did not substantially change, and the long cross made it easy to cut the coin into halves or quarters for change. Because of the introduction of the new coinage, it was necessary to reopen many of the old mints to supply sufficient coins. Short-cross Henry III pennies were minted at Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Durham, London, Winchester and York. Long-cross pennies were produced at Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Ilchester, Lincoln, London, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Wallingford, Wilton, Winchester, and York.
The inscription on the short-cross penny was still HENRICUS REX, while the long-cross pennies were variously inscribed HENRICUS REX TERCI, HENRICUS REX III ("King Henry the Third"), while one issue unpopularly omitted the moneyer's name, instead having HENRICUS REX on the obverse and ANGLIE TERCI ("of England the Third") on the reverse, while another issue had HENRICUS REX ANG on the obverse and continued on the reverse with LIE TERCI LON (or CAN or AED) indicating it was minted in London or Canterbury or Bury St Edmunds (from the variant Latin spelling Aedmundi).
Edwardian coins
Edward I (1272–1307) succeeded his father while on Crusade in the Holy Land. Coin production had to continue while the king made his two-year journey home, so long-cross pennies inscribed HENRICUS REX III continued to be produced at the Bury St Edmunds, Durham, and London mints. As Edward made his way home, he concluded an important wool-trade treaty in the Netherlands, which indicated the importance of foreign trade at that time. He also acknowledged the need to improve the style and fineness of English coins to avoid the poor-quality coins which had sometimes appeared during earlier reigns and shaken public confidence in the currency. There was also a need for larger and smaller denominations since the penny had not changed much in 500 years, so the groat (4d), halfpenny, and farthing were successfully introduced. Finally, there was the problem of clipping, for which the Jews were blamed.
In response to all these pressures, a completely new coinage was struck in 1279 with a different design which made clipping much easier to detect. Millions of coins were struck at London and Canterbury and the public could take their old, underweight short- and long-cross pennies to the mint and exchange them for new coins of the correct weight and fineness. This exchange also served as a form of taxation as moneyers were required to charge a fee for the service. The new coins were much admired in Europe and were extensively copied there, often with poorer fineness silver – but this only made Edward's coins even more popular and severely drained the local supply of silver such that the export of English coins was forbidden in 1299. The strong, good-quality coins strengthened the economy and brought prosperity to the country. The 1279 penny was different from earlier issues in many ways. The king's bust is more lifelike, facing the front, and the legend on the obverse is longer, usually EDW REX ANGL DNS HYBEdwardus Rex Anglorum Dominus Hyberniae – Edward King of England Lord of Ireland. The reverse had a long cross going to the edge of the coin; the moneyer's name is omitted except for one issue, but the name of the mint is usually given in full, e.g., CIVITAS LONDON City of London, or VILLA NOVI CASTRI Town of Newcastle. The new coins also contained a privy mark, small differences such as a rose on the king's breast, differences in the king's hair style, or an alteration in the size of the king's eyes, or the style of a letter; these differences were not caused by carelessness but to enable identification of the moneyer who produced the coin, in place of giving the moneyer's name.
The crockards, pollards, and rosaries minted in Europe as debased forms of Edward's penny were first accepted as the legal equivalents of halfpence and then banned as counterfeit. The treasurer and justiciar of Ireland, Archbishop Stephen de Fulbourn, had permitted the use of similarly debased Dutch shillings as equivalent to pence. These became known as steepings, scaldings, and Bishop's money but were also banned, as were leonines, mitres, and eagles named for the images they bore.p. xxii.Oxford English Dictionary, sv. "crockard", "eagle", "leonine", "mitre", "pollard", "rosary", "scalding".
Coins of Edward II (1307–1327) were deliberately made very similar to those of his father. Edward I coins were minted at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Chester, Durham, Exeter, Kingston-upon-Hull, Lincoln, London, Newcastle, Reading, and York. Edward II coins were only minted at Berwick, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Durham, and London.
Edward III (1327–1377) succeeded his father at the age of 14. His reign was a period of conflict with Scotland and France, which is reflected in his coins. In the first part of Edward's reign only a small quantity of pennies was produced, in a similar style to those of his father. New gold coins – the noble, half noble, and the quarter noble – were introduced, followed later by the silver groat or fourpence which became very popular and eventually superseded the penny in importance, together with the half groat which was also popular. Together with the production of half pennies and farthings, England had at last an adequate supply of varying denominations which benefited both internal trade and trade with other countries in Europe where English coins were readily accepted.