Dating hammered silver from fabric alone
Module, weight, surface and reverse design will place 90% of UK hammered coin finds inside a 100-year window — often before you read the legend.
Hammered silver coins were struck in Britain for over a thousand years — from the late Anglo-Saxon broad penny reform of 973 to the last hammered Charles II issues of 1662. Within that span you can usually narrow a fresh detector find to a hundred-year window using nothing but module, weight, shape and reverse design. Here’s the triage.
The five-second check
Before reading a single letter of legend, run through these five observations. Together they place 90% of hammered finds inside a clear period.
- Module (diameter). Compare to the table below.
- Weight, if you have scales.
- Fabric. Bright silver? Debased / coppery? Crude base alloy?
- Shape. Round? Half-moon (cut halfpenny)? Wedge (cut farthing)? Pierced?
- Reverse pattern. Short cross? Voided long cross? Solid long cross? Quartered shield?
Module → denomination
| Diameter | Likely denomination |
|---|---|
| 9–13 mm | Farthing, late Tudor/Stuart penny |
| 13–16 mm | Halfpenny, late Tudor/Stuart penny |
| 16–20 mm | Penny (Anglo-Saxon through Edwardian), halfgroat, late Tudor sixpence |
| 20–24 mm | Threepence, smaller groat, half-noble |
| 24–28 mm | Groat, sixpence, larger Roman sestertius |
| 28–34 mm | Shilling, noble |
| 34–42 mm | Halfcrown, crown |
Module is unusually reliable for hammered coinage because the broad penny standard was deliberately maintained across reigns. A 19 mm silver disc is a penny whether it was struck in 1100 or 1300.
Reverse design → period
This is the single most powerful clue. Each major reverse pattern belongs to a tight window:
| Reverse pattern | Period |
|---|---|
| Short cross with pellets in each angle | Short Cross series, 1180–1247 |
| Voided long cross (parallel lines), 3 pellets per angle | Henry III long cross, 1247–1279 |
| Solid long cross, 3 pellets per angle | Edwardian sterling, 1279–c.1485 |
| Long cross with mascles, rosettes, annulets, pinecones in angles | Lancastrian / Yorkist privy marks, 1399–1471 |
| Long cross fourchee over quartered royal shield | 1544–1660 (Henry VIII 3rd, Edward VI fine, Mary, Elizabeth, Stuart hammered) |
| Crowned royal shield over a cross | Stuart hammered, 1604–1660 |
| Cross-on-steps | Some sceattas (Series D), some Stuart issues |
The Norman and Plantagenet penny progression
From the Conquest to the Tudors, the silver penny was the unit of account. Weights drifted downward over time as silver got scarcer:
| Period | Penny weight | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Late Anglo-Saxon (973–1066) | 1.30–1.50 g | Edgar reform; broad-penny standard |
| Norman (1066–1158) | 1.30–1.46 g | BMC types; recoinage every 2–4 years |
| Tealby (1158–1180) | 1.30–1.46 g | Cross-Crosslet reverse, crude flans |
| Short Cross (1180–1247) | 1.40–1.45 g | Immobilised HENRICVS REX across four kings |
| Long Cross voided (1247–1279) | 1.40–1.45 g | Henry III |
| Edward I broad (1279–1307) | 1.30–1.45 g | Solid long cross; reform 1279 |
| Edward III (1327–1377) | 1.17 g | Lighter standard |
| Henry IV light (1399+) | 0.97 g | Module shrinks |
| Edward IV light (1464+) | 0.78 g | Module shrinks again |
| Henry VII / VIII first (1485–1526) | 0.78 g | Continued light standard |
Anglo-Saxon → Norman transition
Late Anglo-Saxon broad pennies (973–1066) and Norman pennies share the broad module (18–22 mm) and a similar weight. What changes is the iconography. Anglo-Saxon issues run through types named for their reverses: Cnut’s quatrefoil, short cross, pointed helmet; Edward the Confessor’s expanding cross, sovereign-eagles, pyramids, hammer cross; Harold II’s PAX type. After 1066 William I introduces his own types (profile-left, bonnet, canopy, two-stars, sword, profile-right, pax-and-stars).
Short Cross (1180–1247)
The Short Cross is a peculiarity: although it was introduced by Henry II in 1180 and continued through Richard I, John and Henry III, the legend on the obverse stays as HENRICVS REXthe whole time — the “immobilised legend”. You cannot tell the four kings apart from the obverse legend alone. Class number (1–8) and moneyer + mint on the reverse are what distinguish them.
Long Cross voided (1247–1279)
Henry III’s 1247 reform replaced the short cross with a voided long cross— two parallel lines forming a cross that extends to the edge of the coin. Three pellets in each angle. This pattern is uniquely Henry III. The cross length and the voided (rather than solid) style are the categorical discriminators.
Edward I → Henry VII solid long cross
Edward I’s 1279 reform introduced both the front-facing bust and the solid long cross simultaneously. The solid-long-cross design with three pellets per angle then runs essentially unchanged through Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, the Lancastrians and Yorkists. Privy marks in the reverse angles (mascles, rosettes, annulets, pinecones, leaves) are what date Lancastrian and Yorkist issues.
Tudor and Stuart big-shield reverses
From Henry VIII’s third coinage (1544) onwards, the big-flan silver denominations adopt the long-cross-fourchee-over-quartered- shield reverse. The shield design itself separates Tudor from Stuart:
- Tudor shield: lions and fleurs-de-lis only, alternating in four quarters.
- Stuart shield (1603+): quarters 1 and 4 show the Tudor pattern in miniature; quarter 2 is the Scottish rampant lion; quarter 3 is the Irish harp.
When the period is genuinely ambiguous
Some coins refuse to give up their period from fabric alone. The most common cases:
- A worn penny with a long-cross-and-pellets reverse but no visible legend — could be Edward I through Henry VII. Default to “broad Edwardian penny, c.1279–1485”.
- A small bronze with an indistinct portrait and no legible legend — could be a worn Roman AE4 or a Restoration farthing. Patina colour usually distinguishes them (green-brown vs red-brown).
- A half-moon-shaped piece of silver — a cut halfpenny from either Short Cross (1180–1247) or Long Cross (1247–79). Attribute to the surviving cross pattern.
Try DetectID on a real find
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