Farthing of Edward I
The images of this coin were sent in by Peter Vernon on behalf of Chris Phillips, who is the finder.
It’s a peculiar looking hammered silver farthing of Edward I and Peter asked if I could say what had happened to it to explain its appearance. Well, the reverse is double struck and the end result is TTAS is one of the quarters.
Peter was more interested in the obverse, for instead of the cross at the start of the legend being at the top, on this coin it is at the bottom. This has nothing to do with double striking. The obverse is a perfect strike in VF condition and is an example of the very rare 6 o’clock variety.
There are other varieties, with the cross at 2, 4 and 9 o’clock. All are very to extremely are and are much sought after. They are sometimes catalogued as errors but when did the error occur? Was the head cut into the die first and the legend started in the wrong place? Or, was the legend entered into the die first and the head not placed directly under the cross? We will never know but the end result is a very interesting and unusual coin.
There can be no doubt that this Edward I farthing would be of great interest to specialist collectors.