Gold penny

The gold penny was a medieval English coin with a value of twenty pence.

Until the reign of King Henry III of England (1216–1272), any need in England for coins worth more than one penny , at the time a silver coin, was met by the use of Byzantine or Arabic gold and silver coins which circulated among merchants and traders. However as commerce increased, so did the need for higher value coins. In 1257 Henry instructed his goldsmith, William of Gloucester, to produce a coinage of pure gold.

The Gold penny was introduced, with a value of twenty pence. The coin's obverse showed the king enthroned, with the legend HENRICUS REX III (King Henry III), while the reverse contained a long cross extending to the edge, with a flower in each quarter, and the moneyer's name in the legend, thus WILLEM ON LUND (William of London).

The gold penny was not popular. Carte, in his history of England, says that the citizens of London made a representation against them on 24 November 1257, and that "the King was so willing to oblige them, that he published a proclamation, declaring that nobody was obliged to take it (the gold penny), and whoever did, might bring it to his exchange, and receive there the value at which it had been made current, a halfpenny on being deducted, probably for the coinage".