EDWARD V, APRIL 9 TO JUNE 26, 1483.
On the 20th of May, after Edward IV’s death, Sir William Hastings was appointed Master
and Worker of the Mint, and so Warden of the Exchange, for life, with all the profits of
the office and without paying any rent to the king, according to the form of an indenture
to be made between the king and him. This indenture was never executed; but Ross of
Warwick, who wrote early in Henry VII’s reign, says, in a passage quoted by Ruding, “In
the new king’s name the laws were, as usual, administered, the money then made was
struck and fashioned in his name, and in his name all the usual forms were observed
which his dignity as king required.” It seems therefore that money was actually struck in
his name; and even had this passage not existed, it would perhaps have been reasonable
to attribute to him certain very rare angels and groats of the same type as his father’s but
having for MM the boar’s head, which is well known as the badge of the Protector
Gloucester, afterwards Richard III, but which is not known to have been used by any
other of the descendants of Edward III, by whom it had been originally adopted.
Gloucester was never in such power or favour at his brother’s court as to make it likely
that his badge should be placed upon his brother’s coins, whereas none would have been
more likely to have been placed on those of his nephew during his own protectorate.
The only angel we know with this MM is of identically
the same type as the later ones of Edward IV, and reads
EDWARD x DI x GRA x REX ANGL x Z x FRANC ::
Rev. PER CRVCEM TVA SALVA NOS XPC REDEMP :
MM obv. boar’s head, rev, rose and sun united. (42), MB.
No other denominations of gold coins with the boar’s head MM are known. All those
which have the rose and sun MM are sometimes attributed to Edward V, but the rose and
sun was the well-known cognizance of Edward IV, and is therefore as likely as the boar’s
head is unlikely to have been placed on his own coins; and though the dies of Edward IV,
with his last MM, are very likely to have been used, as on the above coin, in conjunction
with the new ones of Edward V, and also, as we shall see was the case, with those of
Richard III, it is very improbable that more than one new MM can have been authorized
for the coinage during the very short reign of Edward V.
Edward IV (1461-1483) |
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Richard III (1483-1485)
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