Edward I, farthing

This hammered silver coin looks massive but is only about 11mm in diameter. The finder, Peter Vernon, had already identified it as an Irish farthing but said I could feature it on my website. Being so small and quite rare, Peter said: “I doubt I will ever see another.”

It’s a farthing of Edward I, which was struck at the mint situated in Dublin. On the obverse the king’s head is in an inverted triangle and the three-part legend reads ERA NG LIE. The Lombardic letter E is open, so this farthing was struck during the second coinage (number 6255 in Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands). On the reverse the legend reads CIVI TAS DVBL INIE.

The obverse would grade Fair, the reverse Fine, but there is loss to the edge at the lower part of the triangle on the obverse. Perhaps more than anything else, unearthing such a tiny coin proves that Peter’s detecting machine is working well.

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