MEDIEVAL BROOCH

1280

A nummular brooch of the Medieval period, TAQ 1279.Dr Barrie Cook of the British Museum writes: 'The coin is a silver groat (fourpence) of King Edward I, issued in 1280-1. The fineness of the coin will be of the official sterling silver standard, 92.5% fine metal. However, the coin has been converted into a piece of jewellery, a brooch, by two additions, one presumably to enable it to be sewed to a garment and the other being a hook aligned with it. The coin also shows signs of gilding.Edward I introduced the large silver groat in 1280, but it did not become a successful part of the currency at this time: only in 1351, with Edward III's revival of the denomination, did this occur. It is a relatively rare coin, therefore. However, the features that made this coin a brooch are in fact common for the Edward I groats: of the 59 previously-known examples of this coin, 14 show such signs. It is also the case that, since this is a relatively rare coin, these additions are sometimes removed for commercial advantage, so this proportion is only a minimum. The Middleton find adds a 60th example to the corpus and another to those known to have survived in brooch form. Other, similarly-sized coins were also converted into brooches in England at this time, as finds attest - mostly gros tournois of the contemporary kings of France. On both groups of coins, the English and French, the side of the converted coin on display in its brooch form and usually gilded is that with a prominent cross design: for the English groat, this is the reverse of the coin, and it is the portrait and name of the king that is hidden under the attachments.'