Half Pound: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse) (1601): Art, History and Details

Half Pound: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse) (1601) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The design of this rare piece is similar to another in the collection of Elizabeth I, 1969.184. However, the initial marks denote it was struck in 1601. Elizabeth I is shown finely dressed and around her is her abbreviated title, Elizabeth by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland. On the reverse is the shield of arms of England showing lions and the fleur-de-lis. Although Elizabeth was officially titled Queen of France, the title was a hollow one. Calais, England's last French territory, was lost in the reign of Mary I. This version of the coat of arms lasted until James I who added the arms of Scotland and Ireland.

Object facts

• Title: Half Pound: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse)
• Date: 1601
• Culture: England, Elizabeth I, 1558-1603
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.9 cm (1 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.186

A detail from the museum

Elizabeth I was the last of the five monarchs from the House of Tudor.

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.