Philip & Mary Groat

I love it! Great color and details, a perfect piece from such an interesting time in history.

Hello Peter in Oz,

MARIA is 4:00 to 6:00 in the legend on the obverse. There is only the portrait of Mary on this groat (4 pence). There are some portrait coins of Philip and Mary facing each other (aka confronted busts).

I will have to get back to you as to the translation of the reverse legend- (time to eat dinner).

The reverse legend is "POSVIMVS DEVM ADIVTO NOS", a variant of the Latin legend commonly used on English coins of the time, posui deum adjutorem meum", "I have made God my helper" (based on Psalm 54). Note the subtle change in the legend, though, including meum (my) being replaced with nostrum (our), basically pluralizing the verse: "we have made God our helper".

Only the larger denominations, sixpence and shilling, show the two monarchs face-to-face, and the Spanish arms blended with the English arms on the reverse. I suppose they figured such details would be lost on groat-sized and smaller coins.

There certainly is subtext in the legends used on Philip and Mary coinage: the earliest series included the titles Philip was heir to: Spain and Naples. Within a year, these references had been dropped form the coinage - undoubtedly because the marriage and resultant alliance with Spain was highly unpopular with the English public.