Identifying a Short Cross Penny

Henry III Short Cross Penny

I was looking through some old ID records I had, and came across a Henry III Penny, which needed identifying. I thought those who follow this blog, may be interested in my thought process.

So where do we start? Well as always I take a quick glimpse of both sides, the Obverse and the Reverse. It is the Reverse which in this instance gives us most of the information required. Not only does  it show us a Short Cross, but it also tells us that the Moneyers name begins with LED.

As there was only one Moneyer in this coinage beginning with LED and he came from London and was called Ledvlf, it is plain sailing from there on in.

The classes he minted were in the reign of Henry III, and were 7b and 7c.

At this time I check over the Obverse more closely. It has the normal Henricvs Rex inscription but the most important part in relation to Class is relating to the monarch himself. The curls do not have any pellets in them, and this class is renowned for eyes being incomplete from the use of broken punches. As can be seen on the coin, this couldn’t be more true.

The coin is one of the latest of Henry III coins, before he scrapped the Short Cross coins in favour of the Voided Long Cross variety.

Copyright Steve Rice