1 Shilling - Elizabeth I 2nd issue

The second issue of Elizabeth I's coinage emerged from a deliberate recoinage program begun in 1560 to retire the debased silver introduced under Henry VIII and continued sporadically through Edward VI and Mary. The debased coinage had circulated at face value despite containing as little as 25% silver, creating chronic instability in domestic trade and damaging English credit abroad. Elizabeth's government, guided largely by Thomas Gresham, withdrew the old coinage by proclamation and restruck it at sterling fineness.

The second issue is distinguished from the first by its use of a wire-line inner circle on both faces — a small but diagnostically important detail for attributing worn examples to Spink 2555 rather than the closely related 2550.