Henry VII – Half Groat

This coin was unearthed by Stewart Beech, who said it had been located while he was detecting around Hull. Stewart asked me to let him have more details about his find, including what it might be worth. It’s a halfgroat of Henry VII who was the first king of the House of Tudor. The Plantagenet line ended when its last king, Richard III, was defeated by an army led by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

On the obverse of this halfgroat is a facing bust of Henry VII; the reverse is the standard type and the inner legend, CIVI TAS CAn TOR, points towards the coin being a product of the Canterbury mint. This is a joint issue of King Henry and the Archbishop of Canterbury (John Morton). Henry VII never missed an opportunity to amass wealth and half of the profit made from issuing halfgroats of this type would go straight into the royal coffers. There are a few different varieties and this specimen is listed as number 2211 in the Standard Catalogue.

Valuation

The obverse is Fine, the reverse much better but the coin is short of flan from 12 to 3 o’clock on the obverse. Halfgraots of this type are fairly common and the catalogue price in Fine condition is £40. However, they can be bought for less and as Stewart’s specimen is rather short of flan my best estimate on its commercial value would be £25.

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