COIN

Contemporary copy of a gold noble of Henry VI (first reign) dating to AD 1422 to 1427. Annulet issue. London mint. Copying North (1991) no. 1414. The coin has two outer sheets of probably slightly debased gold around a base metal core. The core has now degraded and the outer metal has slightly tarnished, betraying the false metal. Post deposition damage in the form of a tear to one side shows the hollow centre where the core has decayed. There are also a few places around the edge where the foil outers have peeled back from the core although it is not clear if this is post deposition damage. The centre is filled with a dark grey material, the colour and slight laminar corrosion structure suggests a silver, probably a base silver or a lead alloy. There is no evidence of cutting or destruction to indicate the coin was identified as false prior to loss.

The dies used to create the forgery are well made to the casual appearance but have some poorly made details, and obvious flaws such a misaligned h on the reverse, some letters, such as the n in FRAnC and DnS are misaligned and stops are often missing or added at random places such as a trefoil within rather than after hEnRIC. Contraction marks are also missing. There is an area of smoothness on both sides at the same point which appears to result from a lack of striking or damage while the flan was hot, at 4 o'clock on the obverse and, less badly, at 11 o'clock on the reverse.

Oddy et al (2012) in a study of forgeries of English Medieval gold coins found those that appear plated (as opposed to made in debased metal) were all plated using fire gilding, often, like this example, extremely thickly so the 'gold' made up nearly 50% of the mass and can appear as a separate surface sheet when the core has degraded (p.238). The gilded blanks were then struck between forged dies. In the cases of gilded examples all the coins they examined had high purity gold surfaces.

In this current coin the 'gold' also appears tarnished and probably impure, a feature also see on BH-A52661, a fragment of a gold noble forgery of the same issue where the core was identified as lead alloy. It iseems likely this coin, and BH-A52661, reflect a third method of forgery, 'fourrée' copies, ie made with slightly debased gold foil clinched around a base metal core then stamped, not identified in the Oddy et al paper, or that occasionally the heaviest style of gilding was carried out with debased metal. It is hoped, in future, the material composition of this example can be tested to identify this.

Oddy et al (2012) suggest a concentration of forging in the earlier 15th century, ie from 1412 to 1465, including both copies of contemporary issues and copies of older types still in circulation (p.242). Their article includes two plated copies of nobles of Henry VI, annulet issue, no. 10 and 11, the latter from the Fishpool hoard. Neither are die duplicates with this example although their example 10 also has a mis-aligned h.

Coin references

No coin references available.