Monday 7th November.
·
Fakes and Forgeries –
Ancient and Modern By
Stephen Alexander.
Monday 5th December.
Monday 9th January.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
Notices
·
The
Xmas dinner is booked for 18.45 on Sat 10 December 2016 at The Cunning
Man. The cost will be £25 per person. Please let us know if
you want to come by phone, e-mail or at the very latest, at the November
meeting.
·
Please continue thinking about Short Talks for
January, and Auction lots for March!
October Meeting
Chris Comber came to
Reading Coin Club on Monday October 3rd 2016 and gave a talk
illustrated with slides and coins from his own collection titled “The Irish Harp
coinage of Henry VIII the Definitive Version”. Chris
gave an over view of Henry VIII’s services to the crown and his need to pay the
troops stationed in Ireland. Following
his break with Rome to marry Anne Boleyn in pursuit of a male heir, Henry's
establishment of the Church of England coincided with a new coinage for
Ireland. A commission of 1536 authorised the introduction of 'coins of the
harp' (groats and half-groats).
The obverses were standard being a
crowned shield of arms over a cross. The
changing of mintmarks determined the different coinages, but it was the reverse
designs that were of particular interest and significance.
The first reverse depicted a large harp dividing the
ciphers H and A for Henry and Anne Boleyn. It is certain that the groats were minted in a frantic two to three month period
during which Anne was beheaded and replaced by the more demure Jane Seymour
within weeks. This coincided with the change of initial from A to I for Jane.
These coins were struck between August 1536 and June 1537. By the time Jane had
died following the birth of Edward, Ireland had no immediate need for large sums
of money to pay the troops, thus no coins were struck for Anne of Cleaves.
Whilst the coins showed no obvious signs of
debasement, like their English counterparts they were becoming lighter and
contained less silver even more so in the Irish series. Between mid-1537 and
mid-1540 groats were struck with H for Henry and R
for Rex on either side of the harp. On
19 July 1540 the import of Irish 'harps' into England was officially
prohibited. So, by implication it was acknowledged that these coins were so
debased that we did not want to add them to our own debased monies.
From August 1540 to February 1542 a fourth reverse
appeared bearing the initials H and K the K for Katherine Howard. It is assume that
they were struck and stockpiled while Katherine was still Henry's mistress, and
ready for issue upon their marriage. Katherine
was never crowned Queen, and by November 1541 she had fallen out of favour. These
are the scarcest of the initialled groats.
For the rest of the reign the initials HR were
employed so poor Catherine Parr (Henry's last wife whose Christian name began
with C) did not warrant an Irish coinage.
On 18 June 1541 the Irish parliament offered Henry the
title of King of Ireland but it was not until April 1542 that the revere legend
reflected this by reading HIBERNIE REX. Previously the legend read DOMINUS
HIBERNIE (i.e. Lord of Ireland). All the
issues bearing the new title were heavily debased and of poor quality. There
was little visible change until 22 April 1545, which was Henry's 37th regnal year, and at some stage the reverse legend included the
figure 37/S at the end of the legend. Effectively these were the first dated
coins made in England. They are quite scarce in any visible condition.
At the same time, around August 1546, minting switched
from the Tower to Bristol.
A unscrupulous William Sharington
ran the Bristol mint, and he happily contracted to produce 'sixpenny groats' of .250 fineness. The coins commenced with the
mintmark WS (William Sharington's initials), and end
with the figure 38 (equating to 1546). The WS sixpenny groats
omitting the regnal year are not an engraver's error but
coins denoting the death of Henry VIII in January 1547.
Researching
material for this paper, Chris said, was frustrating, challenging but most
interesting and he had ended on an unanswered problem. A very few better
quality groats of Henry's first issue from 1536 were
countermarked with four pellets. When or why this was done is a mystery.
The original
four-penny groats were upgraded to pass as a sixpence
from 1540, and were later reduced in value back to a four-penny piece before
finally succumbing to the melting pot.
Chris said
that he was sure that the four pellets signified that later reduction in value.
The problem is that there is no documentary evidence for this countermarking, which
could have taken place at any time from 1552 to mid-1620. It can only be
assumed that the process was successful and that most of the coins met their
fate in the melting pot.
Subscriptions
Be reminded that
subscriptions are now due. It would be most appreciated if members yet to renew
their subscription would please do so at the next meeting. Please see our
treasurer Peter Hall. For anyone who does not pay their subs, this issue of the
newsletter will be the last they receive.
Future
Events.
Past Events
Ten years ago in 2006, Tony Holmes talked on “Having Fun with Junk Boxes”.
Twenty, Thirty
and Forty years ago was the Club Auction.
Club
Secretary.