POST MEDIEVAL COIN

Unknown artist

Silver sixpence of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) dated 1602 which has been clipped to remove the entire legend leaving a coin similar to a contemporary threepence in diameter.The clipping is very even, producing a round of 20mm in diameter. The portrait on this coin is worn but not as worn as many Elizabethen coins. It has been suggested this coin may have been set into a pendent or otherwise re-used. A similar coin HAMP-EDC856 has been recorded, it was suggested this was used as a gaming counter.Alternatively, as the inner border is complete, it may have been clipped to gain the silver based on this quote from E. Besley. "Older ‘hammered’ coinage continued to form the bulk of the circulating currency until the 1690s, by which time it was mostly in a poor state. The Great Recoinage of 1696-7 converted this into the modern ‘milled’ money, but a decision to exchange all old coins for new at face value, provided that they had not been clipped within the ‘inner circle’ of their designs, unleashed a final epidemic of clipping.” (Besly, E. Loose Change, 1997, p.22)