1 Penny - Mary

Mary I's penny coinage was struck during a reign consumed by the effort to reverse two decades of Henrician and Edwardian religious settlement. The silver itself reflects that turbulence — fineness had been debased catastrophically under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and Mary's mints were still working through the consequences, producing issues of inconsistently recovered fineness in the early years before any systematic reform could take hold.

Spink 2494 distinguishes this type from the later milled experiments that never reached circulation. These hammered pieces are the workhorses of a reign that lasted barely five years.