London halfpenny of Richard II

This hammered silver coin was unearthed very recently by John Ruczynski. It was thought to be a halfpenny of Richard II.

Firstly, this is an intermediate style London halfpenny of Richard II.(number 1699 in the Standard Catalogue).   

Valuation

About half of the coin is in near VF condition; the other half is mostly flat. Another minus point is the small chip on the edge. In its present overall condition I’d price this halfpenny at £25 to £30.

Interestingly, the pattern of detecting finds in relation to coins is often not what could be expected. By this I mean that some coins that are fairly common today (early milled silver, for example) are rare as detecting finds. Conversely, some coins that used to be rare now turn up regularly as detecting finds. An example of the latter is halfpennies of Richard II; they used to be quite rare but are fairly common today due to the number unearthed by detectorists. I’ve no doubt that today far more specimens are known than 40 years since.

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