Beschreibung:

ENGLISH MEDIEVAL COINS - HENRY VII - LONDON - LONG CROSS FARTHING 1485-1603 AD Obv: facing bust with neck and open crown with [+HEN]RICxDIxG[RAxREX] legend with single saltire (or trefoil?) stops and unknown mintmark. Rev: long plain cross and triple pellets with CIVI TAS [LON] [DON] legend for London mint. 0.14 grams. Good fine; loss at edge. Extremely rare; possibly unique? [No reserve] Literature S. -; N. -/see Withers, p.45 for single-arched crown/cross fourchée farthings and p.42 for open crown/plain cross halfpennies. Footnotes This coin is somewhat enigmatic; the weight, allowing for some loss to the edge, is appropriate for late issue farthings (average at about 0.19 grams), as is the inner circle diameter of 6.1mm. The three letters for the end of the king's name are RIC for HENRIC; the general obverse legend form is very clearly DI GRA (rather than REX ANGL) with a saltire (possibly a trefoil?) stop each side of DI. The only farthings recorded for this general form are those of Henry VII. The known Henry VII farthings have a single arch over the crown and the reverse cross is of fourcheé form, with pierced ends, although the open crown/plain reverse cross type I issue is recorded for halfpennies, pennies, halfgroats and groats of this king. It seems that this coin is a previously unrecorded farthing issue/type for Henry VII; worthy of further research and publication.