Penny

When Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, she boldly set about improving the quality of England’s coinage following the debasement of silver under her father Henry VIII. Throughout her reign large quantities of silver coins were produced, the silver was often obtained from raiding Spanish ships. Many silver denominations were produced under Elizabeth’s reign, from the Rare Crowns and Halfcrowns, the mass produced shillings and sixpences, and the more unusual small denominations — groats, threepences, half-groats, three-halfpence, pennies, three-farthings, and halfpenny. These small denominations were very popular with merchants and small traders. Elizabethan pennies are very small, and are often found creased or bent. The obverse bears the legend E D G ROSA SINE SPINA — Elizabeth by the grace of God a rose without a thorn — around a left-facing bust of the queen, while the reverse bears the legend CIVITAS LONDON — City of London. We are delighted to offer you a very small group of Elizabeth I Pennies, they were minted at the Tower Mint in London. Each is in Very Good or Fine condition with a clear depiction of the Queen. These are fantastic little coins, each is at least 420 years old, struck in Sterling Silver and bears the portrait of Elizabeth I.

With wonderful colour and fields, slight edge bump.

Copper Pennies first introduced in 1797 under George III were worth their weight in copper, which was a huge 1oz. By Victorian times the copper pennies - which were struck between 1838 and 1860 - were reduced to 0.6oz, before they changed to the smaller Bronze “Bun Head” design. We have been putting high-grade Copper Pennies of Victoria away for a number of years and are delighted to offer you these impressive pieces in Extremely Fine grade. They feature William Wyon’s depiction of Victoria’s “Young Head” on the obverse and the classic Britannia reverse. Some dates are very rare, we will be offering ones dated 1854 and 1858 only.

The Copper Penny of Queen Victoria was issued between 1839 and 1860. It was a nice chunky copper coin, that was replaced by the thinner bronze Penny in 1860. We have this coin available in Very Good, a grade that is better than they usually come. Because this coin was of such small value it tends to come up for sale in very used well-circulated quality. These copper pennies are above average quality.