Class 4b penny of Richard I

The finder of this coin asked to remain anonymous. It’s a voided short cross cut halfpenny, which the finder described as highly unusual as he believed that it was struck between two reverse dies. I was asked for my thoughts on this find.

Firstly, the central area on both sides does appear to be a voided short cross but this is due to a blundered strike by the hammerman. On one side what remains of the legend reads IOAN O, so this bears the moneyer’s name. On the other side we have a legend reading ON-RIC; the ON is part of a reverse legend and RIC is part of the obverse [hEN]RICVS.

Blundered strikes like this one are fairly common during the voided long cross coinage but they also occur on short cross coins, though less frequently. When a coin was struck if a die was not directly over the silver blank then it would leave a flat area. The hammerman would replace the disc and strike it again. However, it was not always replaced the same way up and the end result of the second strike would be a coin with jumbled legends.

Valuation

With the moneyer’s name reading IOAN this coin is most likely to be a class 4b penny of Richard I from the Canterbury mint. It’s an interesting curiosity but in terms of value it would sell for a figure no higher than low single figures.

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