English: Two gold coins found c. 150m apart. Both are early issues of Edward III, a leopard issued in 1344 and a noble issued in 1351-2.

Catalogue

1. Gold leopard (half-florin) of Edward III, third coinage period, issued Jan to July 1344. North 1106. Found doubled (folded in half). Weight 3.51g.

2. Gold noble of Edward III, fourth coinage, pre-Treaty Series C, issued 1351-2. North 1144. Found doubled (folded in half). Weight 7.69g.

Discussion:

Both coins were found folded in half, so not all their details are visible. Neither have much wear, apart from some scuffing caused by agricultural activity. The noble (coin 2) was worth 6s. 8d. and the leopard (coin 1) was worth 3s.

The leopard was struck as one of the first three denominations through which Edward III sought to introduce a gold coinage to England early in 1344. This coinage failed, it seems because the mint charges were too high and the value assigned the coins overvalued gold against silver. New coins were introduced to replace them from July 1344, in a process of adjustment that went on until 1351.

Mint records indicate that a little over £30,000 of gold coin was produced across these months. Nevertheless, all these initial denominations (florin or double-leopard (6s.), leopard (3s.), and half-leopard, or helm (1s.6d.)) are known today from very small numbers of surviving examples and none come from the context of recorded hoards that help assess how long they remained in currency. Three examples of the leopard (coin 1) exist in public collections, two in the British Museum and the third in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The two coins were issued within 10 years of each other and represent high denominations, with a notional combined face value of 9s.8d. It seems unlikely that they represent separate losses, and indeed there may have been more coins originally in the deposit. The gold standard used was over 23 carats fine, about 96% pure gold.

It seems likely that both coins went into the ground at the same time, either as part of a purse loss or as part of a concealed hoard. Assuming these coins were deposited together, this find would appear to be the first to indicate that some leopards remained in use into the early years of the Fourth Coinage period.

Although gold coins did not circulate with much intensity, from their condition it seems unlikely that they went into the ground very many years after issue, and we might suggest a date of loss or concealment circa 1351-75.