本帖最后由 Assur 于 2016-12-27 14:02 编辑
The Fortieth Charge of Treason against Wolsey
I should admit that this title is a bit strange. Well, at least it seems so as it appears in our forum of coins! But! Why don’t you find yourself a comfortable chair and hear what I have to say. Who is this Wolsey? It’s Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473 to 1530), an English churchman and finally a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was once a friend of King of England Henry VIII, and also the most important person in the court. By 1514, he had become the second most important cleric in England, the Archbishop of York and then in 1515, the appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X gave him precedence even over the Archbishop of Canterbury. The highest political position Wolsey attained was Lord Chancellor, the King's chief adviser. I reckon it was anequivalent of the Prime Minister in today’s world. But when Henry VIII decided to seek anannulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, Wolsey failed in securing the annulment. Wolsey fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles. His failure is perceived to have directly caused his downfall and arrest. Such a man would of course have many foes and they brought more than forty charges against him. One of them was brought by Duke of Suffolk according to Shakespeare’s work: That, out of mere ambition you have caused Your holy hat to be stamp onthe King’s coin. Henry VIII, Act III, sc. 2. Well, the King’s coin! But which coin is it indeed? The famous Wolsey Groat! Yes, this is what I’m going to talk about. Or more specifically the Wolsey Groat. Groats are middle-sized silver coins worth four-pence, first struck under the rule of King Edward I. But it was interesting to see that those Groats of Edward I were an absolute failure in history. Groats were cancelled straight after their production. The existent Groats of Edward I are very rare but many subclasses of them exist. This is proof of the theory that the issuing of these Groats was only experimental. No Groats were seen in the short reign of his son, Edward II. But under the reign of Edward III, Groats had become a very important domination in the history of British monetary system. Groats were in use until the Monetary Reforming (from the old P-S-D system to Decimal system)in 1971. Actually, even today, Queen Elizabeth II’s Maundy set still contains a silver Groat.
To put it in perspective, let’s have a look at a Groat of Edward III. The diametre is about 27 mm and weighs 3.7 grams. This is a very typical early Groat. The main design of the obverse is the King’s facing bust together with the title of the King around the bust as +EDWARD D G REX ANGL Z FRANC D H. On the reverse, we can spot the design preferred in British coinage, the cross and the pellets. The legend reads +POSVI DEVM ADIVTOREM MEV(M) (I have made God my helper). Two more early Groats, struck under the reign of Henry VI and Edward IV. They were quite similar designs with only the King’s title changed. But the weights decreased from 89 grains (5.77 grams) for Edward I Groats to 48 grains(3.11 grams) for Edward IV Groats. The fineness remains 92.5% Sterling silver standard. These two weigh 3.70 grams and 2.80 grams. This basic design remained unchanged for about two hundred years and finally under the reign of Henry VII, the Groats had the profile of the King for the first time. And the reverse also changed with the royal crest replacing the cross-and-pellets design. It was strange for Henry VIII to have copied the whole design of his father, even his father’s profile. He only added a letter Ito the legend VII on obverse. Henry VII was now changed to Henry VIII. Several years later, he got his own profile. The following is a typical Groat of Henry VIII’s own. A bit different from the old form of Edward III’s Groat, isn’t it? The diametre is 25 mm and it weighs 2.72 grams. The legends read *hENRIC VIII D G R AGL Z FRANC on the obverse and *POSVI DEVADIVTORE MEV. But anything about Wolsey? Please be patient. The Groats of Henry VIII are not rare and you can find dozens if you search from eBay. Most of them belong to a single subclass, labeled as S2337Ein SPINK’s standard catalogue. The above one is also a standard S2337E. Then maybe you will find one or two ‘S2337E’-like Groats with two capital letters Tand W beside the crest on the reverse as well as some strange patterns under the crest as well, which look like a cap. Further examination will tell you that the legends on the reserve are different from S2337E as CIVITAS EBORACI (Cityof York) instead now. Are they Wolsey Groats? Bingo! Now this is the theme of this topic, those Groats struck in York by Wolsey under the reign of Henry VIII. The two letters are exactly the first letter of Thomas Wolsey and the hat-like pattern is the cardinal’s hat.These Groats were struck in York, which was called Eboraci in that time, the manor of Wolsey, the Archbishop of York. The following is a nice sample of Wolsey Groat. It weighs 2.48 grams. Also a cardinal hat here. If what I said has sparked your interest, you may start searching and you will probably find a few half-Groats that also bare the letters of TW, and WA, XB, TC and EL or LE as well. You will probably make a wild guess and think they are also archbishops. Yes, you are quite right as WA stands for Archbishop Warham, XB Archbishop Bainbridge, TC Archbishop Cranmer and EL/LE Archbishop Lee. Have you found something unusual? None of these archbishops had a whole Groat with their names except Wolsey! Yes, these archbishops were granted the privilege of none other than striking small silver coins, namely the dominations of half-Groat and pennies or even smaller ones. Wolsey was no exception but he just issued the whole Groats. He even put his cardinal hat on theses coins. It looked that Wolsey enjoyed his power so much and in history he was even depicted as an alter rex (other king). As you know, Henry VIII was a King with stories and so was Wolsey. That’s the proper reason to explain the popularity of these Wolsey Groats. I should admit that it was these stories about Henry VIII and Wolsey that lead to my trip to London with my wife. We hoped to have alook at Hampton Court Palace with our own eyes, which was once Wolsey’s home and then Henry VIII’s court. After the trip, I eventually developed the hobby of collecting British hammered coins. So you can imagine how excited I was when I got my first Wolsey Groat. Such Wolsey Groats are not rare and you can find one with a moderate budget. These Groats can be divided into two subclasses according to the mint mark. The mint marks, often knows as mm, are some very small marks on the coins to record the time or place of issuing these coins. The more common mm is the Voided Cross as we have already seen above and the other is the Acorn, much scarcer.There are also rare samples with two different mm on the obverse and the reverse, which we call mules. The following is a scarcer sample of Wolsey Groat with mm of the Acorn. It weighs 2.25 grams.
Also, an extremely rare variety is a Groat with the hat only and no TW at all. Possibly less than ten are known. Such varieties could be easily mistaken for common S2337E, but please be aware of the hat and the different legend of CIVITAS EBORACI on the reverse. Among the known samples, all the reverses were from a single die yet the obverses came from two or three different dies. Such Groats were once thought as experimental patterns at the beginning of Wolsey Groats, another theory as these Groats were struck during Sede Vacante (the period of time with no Pop or Cardinal). But this is not true. I think itwas merely a mistake by the die sinker. The following is the extremely rare Wolsey Groat without TW.
I’ll let the photos do the talk. Several more Groats. Another Wolsey Groat followed by several Royal Groats (S2337E). It weighs 2.49 grams. One more typical S2337E with different mms on both sides. Lis on the obverse and Rose on the reverse. Yes, a mule. The production of mules were dueto the different serving time of the obverse and reverse die, normally the obverse dies last longer. A different pair of dies made these mules. Quite interesting, isn’t it? It weighs 2.31 grams. Another typical S2337W with the extraordinary mm Sunburst, quite scarce. It weighs 2.66 grams. These S2337E Groats with Sunburst were struck in 1537 only to celebrate the birth of Henry VIII’s son and heir, Prince Edward. In my opinion, the mm of Sunburst is the most beautiful one in the whole series of the British coinage. These Sunburst Groats are very sought after. One last Groat for today is a sample of Henry VIII’s old times. It weighs 2.39 grams. You can find the old and fat face of the King. These Groats also mark the commencement of the debasement of the coinage. Less beautiful and less welcomed as well. The coinage of Groats is a big topic and fans of Groats are seen all around the whole world. For example, Ivan Buck and Frank Brady are two top collectors based in UK. And my new friend Mr. He in Tianjin is also a fan and a serious collector with eye appealing samples of Henry VI Groat. Groat is too big a topic to be discussed here, so my very small aim for today is only about the most interesting and fascinating type, Wolsey Groat, an ecclesiastical Groat which appeared only once in the British history. Hope you will like these Groats!
Assur 26 December 2016 Shanghai
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发表于 2016-12-26 18:23:59
发表于 2016-12-26 18:47:56
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