257 



2. Obv. HENRIC VIII. DOR AGL Z FRA. 



Rev. civiTAS EBORACi. DevicG and mm. on obverse and 

 reverse, same as No. 1.^ 

 Half-groat, same coinage. 



1. Obv. HENRIC VIII. Di gra REX AGL. Profile and arched 



crown. MM. a lis, on both sides. 

 Rev. CIVITAS EBORACI. The shield between T and W ; a 

 cardinal's hat between two keys, below. ^ 



2. Obv. HENRIC VIII. D G R AGL z R. Profile and arched 



crown. MM. a cross, on both sides. 

 Rev. CIVITAS EBORACI. The shield between T and W J a 

 cardinal's hat below. ^ 



The groat types attributed to Archbishop "Wolsey are pecu- 

 liarly interesting. It is well known that on his being impeached 

 in parliament, one of the charges brought against him was, that 

 of his pompous and presumptuous mind, he had enterprised to 

 join and imprint the cardinal's hat under the king's arms in the 

 king's coin of groats made at the city of York, which like deed 

 had not been seen to have been done by any subject within the 

 realm before this time.* " At first sight," Mr. Ending observes, 

 *' it appears that the ofience consisted in placing the cardinal's 

 hat upon the money ; but this could not have been the case, as 

 the smaller coins upon which it was also impressed are not 

 noticed. His fault seems to have been the presuming to strike 

 larger coins than his predecessors had done, and the daring to 

 mark them as his own coinage by the stamp of the cardinal's 

 hat ; for he is, so far as I have been able to discover, the only 

 prelate who ventured to issue groats from his mint."^ But it 



' Ruding, pi. 7, No, 16. One specimen in the British Museum. 



2 Euding^ Supp. pi. 4, No. 16. 



3 Hawkins, pi. 30, No. 397. Ruding, pi. 7, No. 19. 



* Pari. Hist., Vol. III., p. 62. The poet has expressed the charge more forcibly 

 and intelligibly in two lines : 



That out of mere ambition you have cans' d ' 



Tour holy hat to be stamp' d on the king's coin. 



Henry VIII., Sc. ii., Act 3. 



* Ending, Vol. I., p. 306. 



