Angel: St. George Slaying the Dragon (obverse); Ship with Shield of Arms and Cross (reverse) (1483–85): Art, History and Details

Angel: St. George Slaying the Dragon (obverse); Ship with Shield of Arms and Cross (reverse) (1483–85) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This coin is similar to the angel of Henry VI, 1969.167, but from completely different dies. Between the second reign of Edward IV and the reign of Richard III, Edward V, at the age of 13, reigned briefly from April 9 to June 22, 1483. Richard, Edward's uncle, caused the boy to be imprisoned in the Tower where he and his younger brother were murdered at the instigation of Richard. Their bodies were buried under a staircase and lay undiscovered for 200 years. Richard, who had been Protector during the reign of Edward V, was crowned king. The initial mark, half-rose and sun, once thought to indicate the coins of Edward V, was been assigned to those of Edward IV. The only coins of Edward V which can definitely be attributed to his reign are those with the mink mark boar's head that was also the mark of Richard III. Only five examples of gold angels of Edward V exist.

Object facts

• Title: Angel: St. George Slaying the Dragon (obverse); Ship with Shield of Arms and Cross (reverse)
• Date: 1483–85
• Culture: England, Richard III, 1483-1485
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.8 cm (1 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.168

A detail from the museum

The reverse side shows an English galley, the monogram R, and a rose representing the House of York.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Emery May Norweb. English Gold Coins, Ancient to Modern Times, On Loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art from the Norweb Collection. [Catalog. 1968.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.