8 Testerns - Elizabeth I

The English East India Company received its royal charter on December 31, 1600, and was almost immediately authorized to export up to £30,000 in foreign silver coin to finance its first voyages. These testerns were struck not as domestic currency but as trade instruments — specifically intended for exchange in the spice markets of the East Indies, where English woolens had no value and only bullion could open doors. The Company struck them at the Tower Mint under license, a concession the Crown granted reluctantly and hedged with strict accounting requirements.

The denomination itself echoes an obsolete English unit by then largely gone from domestic use, a deliberate archaism that may reflect the involvement of older Mint officials in the design process.