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Sovereign Counterfeits: The Trial of the Pyx

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Simon Wortham
Simon Wortham*
Affiliation:
University of Portsmouth, England
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Extract

On 9 May 1611 James I broke with a royal custom that had been established for more than a century of Tudor rule. He attended the trial of the pyx at the Royal Mint in the city of London. This yearly ceremony was for the formal testing of sovereign moneys. It was designed to ensure that the manufacture of various denominations conformed to current standards set by the crown. While his Tudor predecessors had allowed previous trials to continue unattended by majesty, James's presence at the pyx in 1611 provided the occasion for a striking display of royal power.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , Summer 1996 , pp. 334 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1996

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