HALFPENNIES AND FARTHINGS OF EDWARD I AND II 上市 Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 4, Number 16, April 15, 2001, Article 4
HALFPENNIES AND FARTHINGS OF EDWARD I AND II
E-Sylum subscriber Paul Withers announces his new book:
"SMALL CHANGE - I The Halfpennies and Farthings of
Edward I and II A new illustrated classification guide. Paul
and Bente R Withers. A5 Card covers 60pp. Illustrated
throughout with 4 : 1 illustrations £10 or in the USA, 19$
(Including postage).In the summer of 1278 much of the 'long cross' coinage,
which had been in circulation for 30 years, was clipped
and worn. As a result, a year later a new coinage and a
recoinage occurred together. It was a watershed in British
numismatics and economics.There were changes of manufacturing technique and artistic
changes too, and the people were presented with a handsome
new coinage with a realistic portrait and although it in no way
resembles Edward himself, it is in strict contrast to the stylised
and rather ugly visage of the earlier coin which is an example
of the 'this is the best I can do with a few simple punches'
school.Until that time, in order to make small change for minor
transactions, the penny had been cut into halves, or quarters
to make halfpennies and farthings. To prevent the necessity
of such cutting, which gave the opportunity for fraud, two
round coins, the farthing and the halfpenny were introduced,
the first-mentioned introduced immediately the reforms began
and the second a short while later.Large hoards of the pence have provided sufficient quantities
of material to permit extensive study. However, the halfpennies
and farthings, never hoarded, were rare until the the advent of
the metal detector, and even now remain scarce. Frustrated
by the lack of a book that catalogued these tiny coins without
causing confusion we asked several people to write a guide
that would explain to people like ourselves with only a little
knowledge of the series exactly what was going on and why
were we finding so many pieces that did not fit into the system.
No one wrote anything for us, so we were forced to do the
job ourselves.Once our study had begun it became obvious that the coins
could not be classified using the same system as that used
for the pence. Whilst the pence are quite obviously 'related'
to the halfpence and the farthings and broad similarities are
evident, the fine details are not the same. When isolated
examples are seen, things may initially seem to match, but
when hundreds of specimens are seen the coins develop
their own pattern and any system of classification must
reflect that natural pattern and not the system developed
for the pence.The new classification is based principally on the David
Rogers collection, but others, including those of the British
Museum, the Fox collection, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge, the Ashmolean Museum collection and several
small private collections were examined."
Web site: http://www.galata.co.uk/- 2001-04-15
- 4