ENGLISH FAKES AND FORGERIES THE STUART PERIOD TO THE RESTORATION

In issue seven of Coin Collector we discussed contemporary copies of the English hammered coinage produced up to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I. In this article we will consider counterfeits of the English hammered coinage of the 17th century, from the reign of James I (1603-25) to the last coins struck by hand, belonging to the start of Charles II’s reign in the early 1660s.

One feature of this period was a widespread shortage of small change which led to the import of large numbers of German jettons manufactured in Nuremberg in the early 17th century (figure 1). Very many are found by metal detectorists and in the early years of the Stuarts England must have been awash with them. Later, from 1649 until about 1670, private traders and