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Halfcrown: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this 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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineHalfcrown: Elizabeth I (obverse); Crowned Shield of Arms (reverse), 1592–95. England, Elizabeth I, 1558-1603. Gold; diameter: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1969.184