ENGLAND, HENRY VI (FIRST REIGN, 1422-1462), GROAT, pinecone-mascle issue of 1431-32/3, Calais mint, mint mark IIIb (cross fleury) / 5 (plain cross), mascle after Rex, pinecone after POSUI and SIE, mascle before LA. Authenticated, encapsulated and graded "UNC DETAILS (CLEANED)" by NGC. Weight 3.66 grams. Whitton 28, North 1461, S 1875
Professionally cleaned by the conservators at NGC prior to encapsulation to remove some light organic residue, revealing a particularly attractive example of this issue, struck on a full round flan, and in virtually mint state, with an excellent portrait and strong legends on both obverse and reverse, probably one of the finest examples surviving of this particular issue.
This coin was struck at the height of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). During the period when it was struck and first circulated, Henry VI was crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris on 16/12/1431 (the only English king to have been crowned King of France in France), having previously been crowned King of England at Westminster on 5/11/1429, and Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake on 30/5/1431 at Rouen in Normandy.
Henry VI (1421-1471) was only 8 months old, the youngest person ever to sit on the English throne, when he succeeded to the throne following the death of his father, Henry V, on 31/8/1422, and succeeded to the French throne following the death of his maternal grandfather, Charles VI, shortly afterwards on 21/10/1422. Whilst Henry remained a minor the two kingdoms were ruled by a regency council, during which English power and influence in France reached its zenith. Henry, unlike his father, proved to be a weak and ineffective ruler, and following a succession of military defeats, most of his possessions in France were back in French hands by 1453 and Calais was Henry's only remaining territorial outpost in France. The fact that Calais lacked natural defences necessitated the construction and manning, at great expense, of extensive fortifications, paid for by the series of coinages struck at Calais, including that of 1431-1432, to meet those costs.
