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A New Henry VIII Halfpenny
by Mike R. Vosper.
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On Tuesday 22nd of November 1999, I was on my usual purchasing tour to find new coins for my stock and clients, when on one particular visit, a Henry VIII coin was pointed out. This had been spoken about at the beginning of November and at the time, the annulet in the centre of the reverse cross had been mentioned. My immediate thoughts were of the 3rd Issue Halfpenny of London, which exhibits a "Holbern" type bust with a pellet in annulet in the centre of the cross on the reverse. On closer inspection though I was excited to find that the obverse was of the 2nd Coinage, as the bust exhibits the classic medieval crowned bust (in this case, arched). I could also see the ending of the obverse legend, SPI (for h.D.G.ROSA SInA SPInA). This confirmed to me that the obverse was indeed a 2nd Coinage die of Henry VIII. Unfortunately the mint mark was not visible, though I suspect it should be a Lis?
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Turning my attention to the reverse with its annulet, I assumed it to be a 3rd Issue reverse die of London, thus making it a 2nd/3rd Issue "mule".When I arrived home though this was not the case, the obverse was as I originally suspected, but the reverse exhibited a cross (probably the guide marks for the laying out of the cross when the die was made) inside the annulet. This proved to be very strange because both the Seabys and Coincraft standard catalogues state ' Pellet in annulet in the reverse centre'. This specimen doesn't fit the criteria, so do we have a new and unpublished type?
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I believe this coin to be a "transitional" piece of some sort for the following reasons:-
1) The annulet in the centre of the cross only occurs during Henry's 3rd Issue, the reverse is probably an early transitional version without the pellet added. The addition of this pellet may signifies a true 3rd Issue Halfpenny?
2) The obverse die appears to be quite worn, whereas the reverse die was fairly fresh. This suggests that a 2nd Issue obverse die was re-used in the 3rd Issue, so as not to be wasted, and paired with an early 3rd Issue reverse die without this additional feature of a central pellet in the annulet.
CONCLUSIONS
I feel that the obverse die was too good to scrap (after all, if the mint could save money to keep it's and The Kings profit it would have done) when the 3rd Issue was instituted. A new reverse die was made in order to pair with the old obverse die, thus producing a new coin for the 3rd Issue having the earlier medieval obverse and a transitional reverse. I have not been able to examine any other 3rd Issue Halfpennies of London with this central pellet in annulet, but I can't help wondering if the pellet was added to the centre of this die and then used with it's correct "Holbern" obverse type.
This coin is now FOR SALE @ £750.00 (please quote cat. no. NNI/618)
I would be
very keen to receive any 
regarding information or suggestions as to what had happened so as to throw some light on the subject.
Mike R. Vosper.
