Noble Público Deposited
A gold coin of England first issued in 1344 in the reign of Edward III, being a successor to the Florin. Its original value by proclamation was six Shillings and eight Pence, and no one could refuse to take them in sums of twenty Shillings and upwards. At the same time were issued half Nobles called Maille Nobles and quarter Nobles called Ferling Nobles, their value being in proportion.
The name of the coin is supposed to be derived from the noble nature of the metal of which it was composed, it having only one half of a grain of alloy.
The prominent feature of the coin is the great ship in which stands the King holding a sword and shield, from which circumstance the coins are sometimes referred to as Shij) Nobles. The ship may commemorate the naval victory which the English fleet, commanded by the King in person, obtained over the French fleet at Sluys, on Midsummer Day, 1340, and as an old rhyme states:
"Foure things our noble sheweth unto me, King, ship, and sword, and power of the sea."
The legend on the Noble was Ihc Avtem Transiens Per Medivm Illorvm Ibat, taken from the Gospel of St. Luke (iv. 30), and it was explained to mean that "as Jesns passed invisible and in most secret manner by the middest of the Pharisees, so gold was made by invisible and secret art amidst the ignorant." A legend also states that it was put upon the coins "because Ripley, the Alchymist, when he made gold in the Tower, the first time he found it, spoke these words, 'per medium eorum,' i.e., per medium ignis et sulphuris."
The large cross on the reverse has various letters in the centre : E for Edward, L for the London Mint, and one struck at Calais has a C. Those of the succeeding monarchs have R for Richard II, and H for the Henries.
The original weight of the Noble was one hundred and thirty-eight and six thirteenths grains; in 1346 it was reduced to one hundred and twenty-eight and four sevenths grains, and in 1351 it was further reduced to one hundred and twenty grains, although retaining the same nominal value of six Shillings and eight Pence. Henry IV, in 1412, reduced the weight to one hundred and eight grains, and Edward IV in 1465 restored it to its former weight of one hundred and twenty grains. He raised its value to ten Shillings, and to distinguish the new Nobles from the old ones he stamped a rose on each side of them, from which they received the name of Rose Nobles, corrupted into Royals or Ryals, a name borrowed from the French. The white rose was the badge of the King's family. See Ryal.
In the time of Henry VI 1 a double Ryal was struck, called a Sovereign (q.v.).
The Noble was copied in Burgundy and by the Archdukes of Austria. It was also closely imitated in the Low Countries under the names of Gonden Nobel and Rose-nobel [q.V.). In a proclamation by Etoberl Dudley, Earl of Leicester, as Governor in the Low Countries, mention is made of the various unlawful coins then current, and among them is NobiUs Rosatus, struck in Gorcum by the authority of Don Antonio, of which one side is said to agree with the English Noble.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)