In the middle ages, the coinage in England was overvalued - the silver content was worth more than the face value of the coinage. This resulted in unscrupulous individuals sending the coinage across the channel where it was melted down, which then resulted in a shortage of small change. To fill the gap, continental coinage was smuggled in and used instead. One such foreign coin was the 'Galley Halfpenny' - in reality, these were soldinos from Venice, carried to England on merchant galleys. The government of the day spent a lot of effort to withdraw and destroy the galley halfpennies, but the flow only stopped when the Venetian government finally banned their export in the 16th century.
This galley halfpenny came along with a Charles I rose farthing, a James I crowned thistle penny and a couple of worn down long cross pennies (also pictured). There were also a few low grade roman coins and a worn smooth Victoria 3d and one completely smooth hammered coin bent into a love token - total for the lot, £6.
Posted 05/17/2019 9:38 pm
