I don’t want this blog to only feature the spectacular finds, the ones a quick search of ‘finds of note’ would bring up. So this week I want to talk about a common find that gives an insight into the mind of a queen.

One of my favorite talking points in my handling collection is a James I penny, a coin that illustrates a lot about the politics of the time. Today, inspired by SUSS-1A84C1 I recorded last week,  I wanted to draw your attention to the legend on the Mary I coins issued in the 10 months (1553-4) she reigned alone before her marriage: ‘VERITAS TEMPORIS FILIA’; ‘Truth is the daughter of time’. Here is a less worn version:

Mary I has a controversial reputation, not least down here in Lewes. Raised a Roman Catholic and for much of her early childhood her father’s (Henry VIII) official heir she never accepted his ‘divorce’ from her mother, Katherine of Aragon. By declaring the marriage illegal the ‘divorce’  (actually an anullment) made Mary illegitimate and removed her from the line of succession, she had many dark years of virtual imprisonment and relative poverty. Later her father, and parliament, legally acknowledged her place in the succession, after her brother Edward VI, although she was still officially illigitimate, and her living conditions improved. Her reign was controversial for attempts to re-introduce the Catholic faith, including persecution of Protestants.

The legend therefore refers to the vindication of her view that she was the legitimate heir to her father and therefore should be Queen. It also refers to the restoration of the ‘true faith’, Catholicism. Time, by bringing her to the throne, had shown her view to be the ‘true’ one. The pleasing fact that Truth, like many Roman personifications, is a female adds to the aptness of the legend.

The audience of a coin legend and how they are selected is a large discussion and one you’ll be glad to hear I am not going to go into here. This coin however reminds her subjects, powerful and ordinary, other kingdoms and, of course, future readers like us, of the power of providence to bring about the restoration of her ‘true’ claim to the throne and through her the ‘true faith’, despite usurpers and the Protestant and patriarchal forces ranged against her, not least her own father.