How to identify a Henry VIII coin
Henry VIII struck four distinct coinages. Tell the young profile bust, mature profile, debased Holbein facing portrait and posthumous issues apart.
Henry VIII reigned for thirty-eight years and managed to strike fourvisually distinct coinages in that time — one of them famous enough to have its own nickname (“the Great Debasement”) and another that wasn’t struck by him at all. If you’ve picked up a Henry VIII coin and you can’t work out which coinage it belongs to, this is the article for you.
Why there are four coinages, not one
Tudor monarchs reformed the coinage whenever fiscal reality demanded it. Henry VIII inherited his father’s portrait dies in 1509, struck his own mature profile portrait from 1526, and then crashed the silver standard in 1544 to fund his French wars. After his death in 1547, his son Edward VI carried on striking coins in Henry’sname for another four years — the so-called “posthumous” issues that get mistaken for Henry’s lifetime third coinage by almost everyone the first time they encounter one.
| Coinage | Dates | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| First | 1509–1526 | Young profile bust right. Bright fine silver. Bust of Henry VII reused; only the legend changes to HENRIC VIII. |
| Second | 1526–1544 | Mature profile bust right. Still fine silver, a fuller authoritative face. Multiple sub-types over eighteen years. |
| Third (the debasement) | 1544–1547 | Full-frontal facing crowned bust — the Holbein portrait. Debased silver, surface often coppery where the wash has worn through. |
| Posthumous (struck by Edward VI) | 1547–1551 | Continues the third-coinage facing portrait and Henry's legend, but with Edward VI initial marks. Even more debased. |
First coinage (1509–1526)
For the first seventeen years of his reign Henry VIII essentially carried on with his father’s coinage. The profile bust used on early shillings is the same one cut for Henry VII — only the VIIIin the legend tells you the king has changed. The silver is good (0.925 sterling), the weights match the medieval standard, and the initial marks include castle, pheon, portcullis, rose, escallop and the Cardinal’s hat that Wolsey used at his York mint.
If your coin is bright silver, light-faced, with a right-facing profile bust and standard weights for the denomination, you’re almost certainly looking at first coinage. The give-away is the portrait: it’s plainly a younger man, and there’s no beard.
Second coinage (1526–1544)
From 1526, Henry was finally given his own portrait dies. The bust is still right-facing profile but the face is broader, more mature, and more authoritative. The standard remains fine silver. Initial marks include sunburst, lis, arrow, pheon, and T-over-rose (Cromwell, from 1535).
Second-coinage groats and halfgroats are the most common detectorist finds of the Henry VIII series in standard silver. The bust is unmistakeable once you’ve seen a few of them: round, jowly, and looking quite a lot like the late portraits we’re all familiar with.
Third coinage (1544–1547) — the Great Debasement
This is the famous one. To pay for his wars in France and Scotland, Henry slashed the silver content of his coinage from 0.925 sterling down to 0.500 or worse. The new coins were silver-washed over a much baser alloy — and when the wash wears through, the copper underneath shows. A “silver” coin with a clearly coppery cast is third-coinage almost without exception.
The portrait changed too. Henry abandoned the right-facing profile and adopted a full-frontal crowned bust based on Hans Holbein’s court portraits — what we now think of as the iconic Henry VIII silhouette. Full face, full beard, broad shoulders. This is also when the testoon (shilling) appears for the first time, at around 32mm.
Third-coinage diagnostics
- Facing bust, not profile. If you’ve got a right-facing profile bust, it’s first or second coinage, not third.
- Coppery surface tone— either obviously reddish or with a coppery glint where the silver wash has worn.
- Larger denominations possible. Testoon (shilling) and groat both exist; the testoon is unique to this coinage.
- Initial marks: S, E (Southwark), Hen H (Tower), T or TC (Bristol).
Posthumous Henry VIII (1547–1551)
Edward VI continued striking coins in Henry’s name for four years after his death. Same Holbein facing portrait, same HENRIC 8legend — but with initial marks unique to Edward’s reign (martlet, arrow, swan, grapple, lion, pheon over rose). The silver is often even worse than the lifetime third-coinage issues. PAS catalogues these as “Edward VI posthumous coinage of Henry VIII” rather than as straight Henry issues.
If you see Henry’s facing portrait but with Edward’s initial marks, that’s why — it’s the king on the coin, not the king who struck it.
Quick decision flow
- Is the bust profile (right-facing) or full-frontal facing? Profile = first or second coinage. Facing = third or posthumous.
- If profile: young face = first; mature broad face = second.
- If facing: check the initial mark. S, E, Hen H, T or TC = lifetime third coinage. Martlet, arrow, swan, grapple, lion, pheon over rose = posthumous.
- Look at the silver itself. A clearly coppery surface confirms third coinage or posthumous either way.
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