Sovereign of Twenty Shillings: Edward VI (obverse); Crowned Shield of Royal Arms (reverse) (1550–53): Art, History and Details

Sovereign of Twenty Shillings: Edward VI (obverse); Crowned Shield of Royal Arms (reverse) (1550–53) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The initial mark tun, a small barrel, shows that his piece was struck in the Tower mint and dates it from 1551–53. It was struck in 22 carat gold. The initial mark appears at the top of the reverse of the coin.

Object facts

• Title: Sovereign of Twenty Shillings: Edward VI (obverse); Crowned Shield of Royal Arms (reverse)
• Date: 1550–53
• Culture: England, Edward VI, 1547-1553
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 3.7 cm (1 7/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.178

A detail from the museum

The young king Edward VI, shown wearing armor, was between 13 and 16 years old when this coin was struck.

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.