1526-1544 Half-Groat – Henry VIII

Classification: House of Tudor. King of England. Hammered.

Henry VIII was born in 28 June 1491, his parents being King Henry VII of England, Elizabeth of York. He became King in 1509 aged just seventeen.

Henry was well educated and athletic, standing six feet tall. Henry liked to have his own way and could ruthlessly enforce it, and in doing so blew the fortune left him by his Father. He split with the Pope who didn't allow him to divorce, leading the King to become the head of the Church of England. He built a large Navy and heavily debased the currency.

Henry VIII is perhaps most well know for having six wives: Catherine of Aragon (m. 1509; ann. 1533); Anne Boleyn (m. 1533; ann. 1536); Jane Seymour (m. 1536; d. 1537); Anne of Cleves (m. 1540; ann. 1540); Catherine Howard (m. 1540; d. 1542); and Catherine Parr (m. 1543).

Three of Henry's children had a turn on the throne: Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
The Groat is an old coin worth four pence. It was found in England, Ireland and Scotland. The English Groat can be traced back to Edward I and was minted (not every year) up until Victoria although the fourpence coin is still minted today for use in Maundy sets.Not all mints are located in a single place. From the Roman days through to the middle ages it was easier to have local moneyers (trusted people who were allowed to mint coins) rather than make the coins centrally and then have the security and logistics problem of distribution.

There were often dozens of mints, sometimes all making the same coin. The variations and mintmarks are exciting for numismatists, although sometimes it takes an expert to analyse them.

Most English Provincial Mints began to close after 1279 when the Royal Mint opened The Tower Mint (called so as it was housed at the Tower of London), although some continued working for much longer. The central mint gave the King and the Master of the Royal Mint much more control over the production and quality of English coinage.
The United Kingdom (UK) is the Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is often refered to as Great Britain (GBR). It has a long, rich history.

The orignal coinage was Pounds, Shillings and Pence but since decimalisation on 15 February 1971, it is £1 = 100p, that is One Pound = 100 pence. The coinage of the UK is also a long history, the Royal Mint being established as long ago as 886AD when coins were hammered. Today there is perhaps 30 billion coins in circulation, and many (numismatic) collectors coins and sets are issued frequently in gold, silver and other metals.