1/2 Groat - Edward VI 1st period, Southwark mint

Edward VI's first coinage period inherited the systematic debasement his father had accelerated from 1544 onward — a fiscal measure to fund wars with France and Scotland that gutted the silver content of English currency to levels not seen since medieval emergency issues. The Southwark mint, opened by Henry VIII in 1543 specifically to increase debasement output, continued striking under the new reign with the same degraded alloy.

Contemporary merchants and foreign traders quickly learned to discount English coin by touch and color alone. The copper content bleeds through on circulated survivors.