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Medieval penny of Henry III, Berkshire Archaeology

A worn, partly broken medieval silver penny of Henry III, photographed by Berkshire Archaeology. It shows a crowned head on one side and a long cross on the other.

This penny was issued during the reign of Henry III, the king who reissued Magna Carta, and shows the royal image used on his coins.

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Two photos of a worn, partly broken silver medieval coin, obverse left showing a crowned facing head with a long-faced profile and reverse right showing a long cross with pellets in the quarters, on a black and white scale bar below.
Medieval penny of Henry III. Photograph by David Williams for Berkshire Archaeology, Wikimedia Commons.

About this source

What it is

This is a pair of photographs of a worn, partly broken silver medieval penny of Henry III. The obverse shows a crowned facing head with a long-faced profile, and the reverse shows a long cross with pellets in the quarters. A black and white scale bar appears below the photographs. The photographs were taken by David Williams for Berkshire Archaeology and shared on Wikimedia Commons. The coin itself is not held in this archive.

Why it matters

Henry III was the king who reissued the Magna Carta charter, and his pennies carried his image through the kingdom. A coin like this one shows how a royal face and a royal cross reached ordinary people in their daily trade. Its damage also reminds us that most surviving coins have lost parts of their design over time.

Look closer

  • What features of the crowned head can you see, and what would a king want them to show?
  • Why might a coin be broken or worn, and what does that tell you about how it was kept?
  • What does a photograph of one coin leave out about the king and the people who used it?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Magna Carta on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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