Cut Farthing of Prince Henry

Robert Bell asked if I could confirm his ID on the coin featured here let him know what it could be worth.

The coin is a Scottish cut farthing, which Robert had identified as being struck for Prince Henry, who was the son of King David I (1124-53). However, Henry never became king as he died in 1152.

This cut farthing is dark in colour so the detail is difficult to make out. On the obverse part of a crown shows up but only two letters in the legend: E followed by N, the latter is elongated and reversed. I could not identify any letters in the reverse legend but within the inner circle one arm of a cross fleury is quite clear. From my description I’m able to say that this is definitely a coin of Prince Henry of Scotland.

In Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands coins of this type are listed as number 5012 and in the Standard Catalogue they are number 1311. In volume I of J. J. North’s English Hammered Coinage they fall under number 913.

Valuation

As already stated, the detail does not show up well on this cut farthing and the type is not as rare as it used to be. Another minus point is the fact that cut coins sell for a great deal less than whole pennies. As it stands, if the coin was offered for sale at auction I’d expect the pre-sale estimate to be £250-300.

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