Penny - Civil War Angevins, Empress Matilda

Matilda's pennies were struck during the anarchy of Stephen's reign, when England had no functioning central mint authority and baronial allegiance determined whose name appeared on the die. She controlled the Bristol and Oxford mints intermittently, though attribution of surviving pieces to specific mints remains contested. Her capture of Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141 briefly made her the dominant power in England — she was styled "Lady of the English" rather than queen, never having been crowned.

That coronation never came. London expelled her the same year, and Stephen was exchanged for her half-brother Robert of Gloucester after his own capture at Wherwell.