King Edward 1 Silver Penny

Another in an occasional series of indoor blips when I'm not able to capture anything more exciting during the day ....

This is an Edward 1 hammered silver penny from the London Mint that was produced sometime between 1272 and 1307. The quality of the coin is not brilliant, but as Yoda said, "look this good when you are 800 years old, you will not"

This is one of the periods of English history that I'm really interested in - and links in to a point of time in my family history that I have quite a lot of information about.

Best story of this time concerned one of my ancestors, John. John had lost his parents, and in those days you were not able to inherit until you reached the age of 21. The Abbot of Furness Abbey (in Lancashire) was appointed to look after his possessions until he reached 21. In brief, John didn't like this, and got very drunk with a group of friends "with whom the ardour of friendship over-rode all other considerations" and they "had the temerity to forcibly eject the Abbot" from his lands. It finishes off with "the matter was brought to the attention of the King who promptly restored the young John to a true sense of his proper position" Sums up my family to a tee :-)