Henry VII Silver Groat - Ia
Henry VII Silver Groat
Class Ia
mm. Lis over Rose
3.18g 25.1mm
Spink - 2193
North - 1703 Rare
Obverse:
HENRIC DI GRA REX [ANGL Z FR]ANC. Facing bust, large open crown.
Reverse:
POSVI DEVM ADIVTORE MEVM. CIVITAS LONDON. Long cross fourchee dividing legend, pellets in quarters.
Obverse struck a little off centre otherwise good very fine, full weight, toned and rare, especially so in this condition.
Same obverse die as SCBI 23 - Ashmolean Part III, number 96. Same reverse die as number 103, which was combined with an obverse with a rose on the breast.
"No denomination of the first coinage is common and many of the surviving groats are in poor state, clipped or with the mint-marks barely legible from wear...
The halved sun and rose was, we know, the Yorkist emblem combining the sun of Towton with the white rose of York, and as such appeared on the later coins of Edward IV and on those of Edward V and Richard III and it is surprising to find it on the coins of the Lancastrian victor of Bosworth. The halved lis and rose was a Lancastrian answer to the Yorkist symbol, the lis being the Lancastrian emblem derived from Henry VI, who might have been King of France, and the rose the red rose of Lancaster. On the other hand the mark might have been intended to symbolise the uniting of the two houses by Henry's marriage with Elizabeth of York on 18 January 1486. The lis on sun and rose, which was probably not an early mark, seems more likely to have represented Henry's victory over the Yorkists and could well have been suggested by his success in crushing the rebellion of Lambert Simnel in June 1487."
W. J. W. Potter and E. J. Winstanley, (1960) ‘The coinage of Henry VII’ (Part I), British Numismatic Journal vol. 30, pg 262-301.
Data sheet
- Metal
- Silver
Specific References