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File:Gold leopard coin (FindID 976940-1146042).jpg

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Summary

Gold leopard coin
Photographer
The British Museum, Helen Geake (Norfolk), 2021-06-17 10:24:10
Title
Gold leopard coin
Description
English: Two gold coins found c. 150m apart. Both are early issues of Edward III, a leopard issued in 1344 and a noble issued in 1351-2.

Catalogue

1. Gold leopard (half-florin) of Edward III, third coinage period, issued Jan to July 1344. North 1106. Found doubled (folded in half). Weight 3.51g.

2. Gold noble of Edward III, fourth coinage, pre-Treaty Series C, issued 1351-2. North 1144. Found doubled (folded in half). Weight 7.69g.

Discussion:

Both coins were found folded in half, so not all their details are visible. Neither have much wear, apart from some scuffing caused by agricultural activity. The noble (coin 2) was worth 6s. 8d. and the leopard (coin 1) was worth 3s.

The leopard was struck as one of the first three denominations through which Edward III sought to introduce a gold coinage to England early in 1344. This coinage failed, it seems because the mint charges were too high and the value assigned the coins overvalued gold against silver. New coins were introduced to replace them from July 1344, in a process of adjustment that went on until 1351.

Mint records indicate that a little over £30,000 of gold coin was produced across these months. Nevertheless, all these initial denominations (florin or double-leopard (6s.), leopard (3s.), and half-leopard, or helm (1s.6d.)) are known today from very small numbers of surviving examples and none come from the context of recorded hoards that help assess how long they remained in currency. Three examples of the leopard (coin 1) exist in public collections, two in the British Museum and the third in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The two coins were issued within 10 years of each other and represent high denominations, with a notional combined face value of 9s.8d. It seems unlikely that they represent separate losses, and indeed there may have been more coins originally in the deposit. The gold standard used was over 23 carats fine, about 96% pure gold.

It seems likely that both coins went into the ground at the same time, either as part of a purse loss or as part of a concealed hoard. Assuming these coins were deposited together, this find would appear to be the first to indicate that some leopards remained in use into the early years of the Fourth Coinage period.

Although gold coins did not circulate with much intensity, from their condition it seems unlikely that they went into the ground very many years after issue, and we might suggest a date of loss or concealment circa 1351-75. 

Depicted place (County of findspot) Norfolk
Date between 1344 and 1352
date QS:P571,+1350-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1344-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1352-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Accession number
FindIdentifier: 976940
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Notes See also:
Gold noble (FindID 976940-1144813).jpg
Source https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/1146042
Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/1146042/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/976940
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Attribution License
Other versions FindID 976940 has multiple images: 1144813 1146042 search

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Attribution: The British Museum
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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current17:56, 22 June 2021Thumbnail for version as of 17:56, 22 June 20211,714 × 1,287 (1.37 MB)Portable Antiquities Scheme, NMS (slurp), FindID: 976940-1146042, medieval, page 37, batch count 847

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