Groat of Henry VIII

Tony Hollis unearthed this hammered silver coin from Cambridgeshire soil on 7 November. Tony knew it was a groat of Henry VIII but asked for a full ID and a valuation.

The coin was struck during the second coinage (starting in 1526) and the mint mark on both sides is a fleur de lis. Groats of this type are not particularly rare as detecting finds but this is one of the best specimens I’ve ever seen.   

Valuation

The reverse has been struck slightly off centre but overall the coin would grade good VF. Both sides have beautiful toning, which enhances its eye appeal. This groat is so attractive that I would expect a pre-sale auction estimate to be as high as £400 to £500.

Photography

I first started to photograph detecting finds in 1997. The camera I used was the SLR type, which produced pictures of varying quality. It wasn’t straightforward, because various settings on the camera had to be attended to before a shot could be taken. The main snag with SLR cameras was that you didn’t know what the photograph would be like until the film was developed. Sometimes a photograph looked exactly like the subject but more often than not it didn’t. I remember taking several photographs of a brooch before I managed to gain a good image.

Today we have cameras on mobile telephones that can capture really good images. However, as with SLR cameras, the images can vary.

The first shots of the Henry VIII groat were as described above: great toning and wonderful eye appeal. The first set were taken indoors with artificial lighting against a plain background.

However, Tony then sent me another set of images, which are shown here. These were taken outside, in daylight, in Tony’s hand. In the second set the coin was much lighter, the toning hardly showed up and the overall appearance wasn’t as good.

Modern cameras and photo processing apps recognise skin tone and can presume that it is the subject of the photo. They can auto correct both the colouring and the focus; in the second photos the skin is perfectly in focus but the coin is slightly out of focus. In the first photos against a plain background the coin is perfectly in focus. Photos of coins in a hand provide a really useful sense of scale but for a truer image it is better to take the photo against a plain background.

We end up with two sets of images of the same coin, in which it looks markedly different. With the attractive toning I priced it at £400 to £500 but if the second set of images are true to life then my best estimate would drop down to £350. Therefore, whilst a camera cannot lie, it can certainly give a false impression in regard to what something really looks like.

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