Sovereign: Mary Enthroned (obverse); Shield of Royal Arms on a Tudor Rose (reverse) (1553): Art, History and Details

Sovereign: Mary Enthroned (obverse); Shield of Royal Arms on a Tudor Rose (reverse) (1553) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Upon ascending the throne, Mary announced that she would restore the coinage to its full value. This sovereign of thirty shillings is of standard gold, 23 carats, 3 1/2 grains. The fine silver pieces of the reign were in metal, 11 oz. fine. These coins are thus of the same fineness as were those of Edward VI; the silver is, in fact, 1 dwt. poorer. This coin is rare and similar to another in the collection from Edward VI, 1969.177. Mary I was the only Tudor monarch to include dates on a sovereign. Roman numerals at the end of the obverse inscription read 1553.

Object facts

• Title: Sovereign: Mary Enthroned (obverse); Shield of Royal Arms on a Tudor Rose (reverse)
• Date: 1553
• Culture: England, Mary, 1553-1554
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.179

A detail from the museum

Mary I, Queen of England from 1553–58, was also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" to her opponents.

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.