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6 Pence - Elizabeth I Milled issue, Lis

Issuer England
Year 1567-1568
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Shape Round
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Obverse script Latin
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Reverse description A quartered royal shield of arms — England and France quarterly — superimposed over a long cross fourchée that extends to the inner circle, dividing the legend. The regal date appears in two parts above the shield, split by the cross, reading 15 67. A lis mintmark precedes the reverse legend, which encircles the entire design within a beaded inner circle. The heraldic execution reflects the precise engraving capability afforded by the milled production process.
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Additional information

Elizabeth I's milled coinage was produced under the direction of Eloy Mestrelle, a French mechanic who introduced screw-press technology to the Tower Mint around 1561. The experiment was short-lived. Mestrelle was dismissed by 1572 — later hanged for counterfeiting — and hand hammering resumed as the dominant production method for decades. These milled sixpences, struck across just a handful of years, represent the only sustained attempt at mechanized coin production in England until the Blondeau experiment under the Commonwealth nearly a century later.

The lis mintmark places this piece firmly in the 1567–68 window of the milled series.

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