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Primary sourceArtifact1210

Short cross penny of King John, London mint, 1210

1210

A silver penny struck in London in 1210, during the reign of King John and the period when the Magna Carta was made. It has a crowned head on one side and a short cross on the other.

A London penny of 1210, struck during King John's reign in the years around the making of the Magna Carta.

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Two photographs of a silver medieval short cross penny, obverse on left showing a crowned head and blurred inscription, reverse on right showing a short cross dividing the coin into quarters with pellets and lettering around the edge. Scale bars in cm are shown at the bottom and left.
Medieval silver short cross penny of John, minted by Abel at London, 1210. Photographs by Jo Ahmet, Kent County Council.

About this source

What it is

This is a silver short cross penny minted in London in 1210 by a moneyer named Abel. The record gives its size as 17.88 mm in diameter, 0.81 mm thick and 1.4 g in weight. The coin is slightly warped, possibly from folding after it was buried. Two photographs show the obverse, with a crowned head and blurred inscription, and the reverse, with a short cross dividing the coin into quarters.

Why it matters

King John ruled England when the barons forced him to agree the Magna Carta in 1215. Silver pennies like this one were the main money of the English kingdom, so they show the royal government that the charter aimed to limit. A coin made in the years leading up to the charter reminds students that the king's power rested on everyday institutions as well as on documents.

Look closer

  • What can you see on the crowned head, and what parts are unclear?
  • Why might a coin's measurements and warping matter to people who study it?
  • What does a coin like this leave out about the political quarrels of 1210?

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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