Charles I shilling

Colin Smith sent in the images of this peculiar looking hammered silver coin. Colin asked for it to be identified, valued and also wanted to know why it was in such a bad state of preservation.

The coin is a shilling of Charles I and is most likely to be a fairly late issue from the Tower mint. I can’t date it any more accurately as I can’t make out the mint mark.

The edge looks as if it has been eaten away over a long period of time. The centre of the obverse has survived reasonably well but nearly the whole of the reverse is encrusted with a deposit. The only explanation for the appearance of this coin is that the soil it had been in for well over 300 years most have included corrosive elements that have eaten into the silver.

In its present condition it would be of minimal commercial value but on the plus side I have no reason to believe that it isn’t a genuine shilling of Charles I.

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