1 Groat - Edward VI 1st period, Tower mint

Edward VI's first coinage period inherited the catastrophic debasement policy of his father, Henry VIII, who had systematically stripped the silver content of English coinage from the early 1540s onward to fund wars and cover chronic fiscal shortfalls. By the time Edward came to the throne in 1547, the groat had fallen to a fineness that would have been unrecognizable to any Tudor minter from a generation earlier. Contemporary merchants complained openly, and foreign exchange rates punished English currency abroad.

The third and final debasement period under Edward, beginning 1551, would briefly make even this coin look respectable by comparison before Northumberland's government reversed course entirely.