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Auction: 25055 - British Medals and World Coins featuring The Hurter-Amman Collection of Ancient and European Gold
Lot: 703

Ireland, Henry VIII (1509-1547), Countermarked Sixth Harp Issue, Sixpenny-Groat, 1546-1547, in 0.250 Very Base Silver, Bristol, Under-Treasurer William Sharrington, Retarriffed as a Groat under Edward VI, hENRIC' VIII D '. G ': R ' AGL :, crowned shield over cross fourchée, rev. FRANCE : DOMINVS : hIBERNIE, crowned harp dividing crowned h-R, countermarked with four pellets, 1.69g [26.08grns], 1h, i.m. lys (S.6484B), clipped and quite heavily worn, the countermark otherwise clear, fine, extremely rare

Colgan, "For Want of Good Money", p. 85, suggests that this countermark may signify a later reduction of the host coin’s value from the sixpenny groat to fourpence during the reign of Edward VI. By the time of Henry’s death, the silver specie had become so debased that the country was in a state of financial ruin. Officials and soldiers found that their pay, made in these base issues, was insufficient to keep up with inflation. The intrinsic value of earlier issues became increasingly more important than its notional value.



Payment was subsequently expected in salfás or croise caoile – the sterling profile groats of Henry VII and Henry VIII, or the Anglo-Irish coinage of the 1480s and 1490s – or the “dominick grotes” – those early Harp issues which bore the title DOmInVS in the reverse legend.

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Estimate
£1,400 to £2,000

Starting price
£1000