Silver penny of Henry III, London class Vg

What it is

This is a photograph of a silver medieval penny of Henry III, showing its reverse side. The coin belongs to the London class Vg and is dated between 1251 and 1272. The reverse shows a long cross with pellets in each quadrant and a worn outer legend. The photograph was taken by Tom Redmayne and shared on Wikimedia Commons. The coin itself is not held in this archive.

Why it matters

Pennies like this one were the everyday money of England in the thirteenth century. Henry III ruled for most of the century and reissued the Magna Carta charter, so his coins connect ordinary trade with the political history of the charter. A coin shows how a king wanted his rule to be seen across the kingdom, and it reveals how ordinary people handled royal money.

Look closer

• What do the cross and the pellets tell you about the way the coin was designed?
• Why might a coin like this survive while many others were lost or melted down?
• What does this single coin leave out about the lives of the people who used it?