Sovereign: Henry VII (obverse); Shield of Arms in Tudor Rose (reverse) (1504–9): Art, History and Details

Sovereign: Henry VII (obverse); Shield of Arms in Tudor Rose (reverse) (1504–9) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The coinage of Henry VII is the first step from medieval to modern coinage. In 1489 a special commission was issued for the striking of a new gold coin called the sovereign, weighing 240 gs. This is the first use of the name in the English series. These early sovereigns can boast of an artistic achievement never before realized on an English coin, and perhaps never since.

Object facts

• Title: Sovereign: Henry VII (obverse); Shield of Arms in Tudor Rose (reverse)
• Date: 1504–9
• Culture: England, Henry VII, 1485-1509
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 4.1 cm (1 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.169

A detail from the museum

Sovereigns are large, thin gold coins that feature portraits of the respective monarch; here Henry VII is sitting on a throne.

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.