Long cross penny
1247– ・ silver ・ 13th century ・ England
The type brought in by Henry III in 1247, who was troubled by clipping, the shaving away of a coin's rim. The cross on the back was carried out to the edge, so that if the cross did not reach the rim, the evidence of clipping showed at a glance. It was an invention against clipping that turned the design itself into an instrument of inspection. A piece of the wisdom of a medieval England that went on fighting a quiet enemy.