Wolsey's Groat Öffentlichkeit Deposited
A name given to the Groat struck by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey at York, when Archbishop of that diocese. On this coin he placed the Cardinal's hat under the shield, and the letters T and W on the sides of same.
This act was accounted illegal and treas- onous, and one of the articles included in the bill of impeachment against Wolsey in 1530 was on account " of his pompous and presumptuous mind he hath enterprised to join and imprint the Cardinal's Hat un- der your arms in your coin of groats made at your city of York, which like deed hath not yet been seen to have been done by any subject within your realm before this time."
Shakespeare alludes to this in his play of King Henry the Eighth (iii. 2).
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)