Metal detecting holidays in England with the World's most successful metal detecting club.

Twinned with Midwest Historical Research Society USA

  • Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpences only

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    Elizabeth I was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Although she entertained many marriage proposals and flirted incessantly, she never married or had children. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, died at seventy years of age after a very successful forty-four year reign.

    Elizabeth inherited a tattered realm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics) doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to the problems - France had a strong footland in Scotland, and Spain, the strongest western nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of the realm. Elizabeth proved most calm and calculating (even though she had a horrendous temper) in her political acumen, employing capable and distinguished men to carrying out royal prerogative.

    Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest. Elizabeth lacked the fanaticism of her siblings, Edward VI favored Protestant radicalism, Mary I, conservative Catholicism, which enabled her to devise a compromise that,basically, reinstated Henrician reforms. She was, however, compelled to take a stronger Protestant stance for two reasons: the machinations of Mary Queen of Scots and persecution of continental Protestants by the two strongholds of Orthodox Catholicism, Spain and France. The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. Mary, in Elizabeth's custody beginning in 1568 (for her own protection from radical Protestants and disgruntled Scots), gained the loyalty of Catholic factions and instituted several-failed assassination/overthrow plots against her cousin, Elizabeth. After irrefutable evidence of Mary's involvement in such plots came to light, Elizabeth sadly succumbed to the pressure from her advisors and had the Scottish princess executed in 1587.

    The persecution of continental Protestants forced Elizabeth into war, a situation which she desperately tried to avoid. She sent an army to aid French Huguenots (Calvinists who had settled in France) after a 1572 massacre wherein over three thousand Huguenots lost their lives. She sent further assistance to Protestant factions on the continent and in Scotland following the emergence of radical Catholic groups and assisted Belgium in their bid to gain independence from Spain. The situation came to head after Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain; the indignant Spanish King, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England. However, the English won the naval battle handily, due as much to bad weather as to English naval prowess. England emerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for later English imperial designs.

    Elizabeth was a master of political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of the monarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonize Parliament. She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council, who were constantly perplexed by her habit of waiting to the last minute to make decisions. She used the varying factions (instead of being used by them, as were her siblings), playing one off another until the exhausted combatants came to her for resolution of their grievances. Few English monarchs enjoyed such political power, while still maintaining the devotion of the whole of English society.

    Elizabeth's reign was during one of the more constructive periods in English history. Literature bloomed through the works of Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare. Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh were instrumental in expanding English influence in the New World. Elizabeth's religious compromise laid many fears to rest. Fashion and education came to the fore because of Elizabeth's penchant for knowledge, courtly behavior and extravagant dress. Good Queen Bess, as she came to called, maintained a regal air until the day she died; a quote, from a letter by Paul Hentzen, reveals the aging queen's regal nature: "Next came the Queen in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow... she had in her ear two pearls, with very rich drops... her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging." This regal figure surely had her faults, but the last Tudor excelled at rising to challenges and emerging victorious.

    PENNY: 0.5 gram
    THREEHALFPENCE: 0.75 g
    HALF GROAT: 1.0 g
    THREEPENCE: 1.5 g
    GROAT: 2 g
    SIXPENCE: 3 g
    SHILLING: 6 g

     

    Initial mark Date Used

    Lis

    1558-1560
    Only hammered silver groats ( 4 pences) issued under this mint mark

     

    Cross Crosslet

    1560 - 1561

    Only hammered silver groats ( 4 pences) issued under this mint mark

     

    Martlet

    1560 - 1561

    Only hammered silver groats ( 4 pences) issued under this mint mark

     

    Star

    1560 - 1566

    Milled silver coins only

     

    Pheon

    1561 - 1565

    1564 1562
    1562 1561
    1561 1561
    1561 1565
    1562 1561
    1562 1565
    1561 1563
    1561 1561
    1561 1561
    1562 1564
    1562 1561
    1562 1561-5
    1561-5 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence - Pheon mint mark 1561
    1561 1562
     
    1561  

     

    Rose

    1565

    1565 1565
    1565 1565
    1565 1565

     

    Portcullis

    1566

     
    1566  

     

    Lion

    1566 - 1567

    1566 1566
    1566-7 1566
       
       

     

    Coronet

    1567 - 1570

    1568  
    1569 1567
    1567 1569
    1569 1567
    1567 1567
    1568 1568
    1570 1568
    1569 1567
    1567-70 1567
    1567-70 1569
    1569 1569
    1569 1569
    1567-70 1569
    1567-70 1567
    1567 1569
    1567 1567 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence
    1569 1568
    1568 1569
    1568 1568
    1567-70 - Coronet mint mark 1567-70 - Coronet mint mark - 3rd and 4th issue

     

    Castle

    1569 - 1571

    1571 1571
    1570 1571
    1571 1571
    1571 1569

     

    Ermine

    1572 - 1573

    1572 1572
    1572 1572
    1572 1572-3
    1573 1573
    1573 1573
    1572 1573
    1573 1573
    1572 1573
    1572 1573
     
    1572  

     

    Acorn

    1573 - 1574

    1573 1573
    1572 1573
    1572 1572
    1573 1573

     

    Eglantine

    1573 - 1577

      1577
    1573 1575
    1575 1575
    1574 1575
    1575 1574
      1575  1575
     1575 1573- 77
    1574 1575
    1575 1575
    1577 1575
    1575 1573
    1573-1574 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence - acorn mintmark 1575

     

    Cross Greek

    1578 - 1579

    1578 1578
    1578 1578
    1578 1578
     
    1579  
       

    Cross Latin

    1580 - 1581

    1580 1580
    1580 1581
    1580 1580 -double stuck head
    1581 1580
    1580 1581
     
    1581  

     

    Sword

    1582

    1582 1582
     
    1582  

     

    Bell

    1582 - 1583

    1582 1583
    1582 1583
    1583 1583
     
    1582  

     

    A

    1582 - 1584

    1582  
    1583 1583
    1582 1583
    1582-4 1584
    1582-4 1583
    1584 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence 1582

     

    Escallop

    1584 - 1586

    1584 1585
     
    1584  

     

    Crescent

    1587 - 1589

    1589 1587
    1589 1587

    Hand

    1590 - 1592

    1592 1591
    1590-2 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence - hand mint mark 1590

    Tun

    1591 - 1595

    1595 1593
    1592 1593
    1593 1592

     

    Woolpack

    1594 - 1596

    1594 1595
    1594-6 1595

     

    Key

    1595 - 1598

    1596 1595 - 1598

     

    Anchor

    1598 - 1600

    1599 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver sixpence - Anchor mint mark

     

     

    0

    1600

       

     

    1

    1601 - 1602

       

     

    2

    1602

     

    1602 1602

    1601

     
       
    Unknown dates with illegible mint marks
       
       

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