Halfcrown: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse) (1592–95): Art, History and Details

Halfcrown: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse) (1592–95) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This is the second type of gold halfcrown, showing the queen in ornate style. She often wore elaborate and luxuriously decorated dresses, many of them heavily bejeweled as seen here. The mint mark, visible just above the crown on the reverse, is a tun or barrel. This helps identify the date the coin was issued as the mint mark changed every few years.

Object facts

• Title: Halfcrown: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse)
• Date: 1592–95
• Culture: England, Elizabeth I, 1558-1603
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.184

A detail from the museum

First issued in 1549, the halfcrown is the equivalent of two shillings, six pence. It was discontinued in 1970.

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.