Selby Abbey and the Coins of Henry I

Visiting Selby Abbey earlier this year, I thought, this is very grand for a small town like Selby. My aunt Alexi quickly reminded me that, in fact, Henry I was born here and the place was once more important. The abbey was founded under William the Conqueror and celebrated its 950th anniversary in 2019.


Notice the contrast between the early semicircular arches and doorway and the later Gothic pointed arches.


Norman doorway with five orders of shafts with waterleaf capitals and striking chevron designs


Selby Abbey was the first Norman Abbey in the North, founded by Royal Charter of William the conqueror and his wife Matilda around 1069. The Charter bestowed lands (Selby, Brayton, Snaith, Flaxley, Rawcliffe, and other places), privileges, and legal immunities (tax exemptions) upon the new foundation. It served to officially establish the Benedictine Abbey and grant it royal protection. Motivations for the grant are thought to have included the birth of William and Matilda's youngest son, later King Henry I, in Selby in 1068, and also a desire to atone for the brutal, even genocidal, "Harrying of the North".

Characteristic Norman architecture still visible includes doorways with multiple orders of shafts and columns with chevron decoration, and round-topped windows.

A silver penny (shown below) minted at nearby York provides a profile portrait of Henry I and, on the reverse, a complete rendering of the mint name York as follows:

EVERƿIC, for Eoferwic

ƿ is the wynn rune, borrowed into Old English to represent a 'w' sound and largely replaced by the w character introduced by the Normans, so this is a late appearance. The outer inscription names FORNI the moneyer. According to the corpus of Early Medieval Coin finds at Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, this is ‘A new type for the York moneyer Forn.’ This is an earlier minting, from between 1112 and 1124.


A remarkable silver penny of Henry 1st, minted in York, the inner reverse inscription EVERƿIC names the York mint, the outer inscription naming the moneyer FORNI. The coin shows the official 'snick' designed to demonstrate the quality of the metal.


Henry famously held an 'Assize of the Moneyers' over Christmas 1124 at Winchester due to concern about the quality of the coinage. Many moneyers were punished. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described severe sentences of mutilation, though some of the convicted may have escaped with fines. Version E (Peterborough Chronicle) carries the following account:

"In this year King Henry sent to England from Normandy before Christmas,’and ordered that all the 
moneyers who were in England should be mutilated - that each should lose the right hand and be castrated That was because the man who had a pound could not get a pennyworth at a market And Bishop Roger of Salisbury sent over all England and ordered them all to come to Winchester at Christmas. When they got there, they were taken one by one and each deprived of the right hand, and castrated All this was done before Twelfth Night, and it was done veryjustly because they had ruined all the country with their great false-dealing, which they all paid for."

Reportedly, of the 150 moneyers summoned, 94 of them were convicted and brutally punished. The number of mints in England was reduced from approximately 54 to 21.

Another penny of Henry I (Type 15), this one minted after the assize (1125-1135) is shown below. It lacks the official snick of the earlier issues. Only the first four letters of the York mint name can be read on this coin, being EVER[ƿIC].



Henry I silver penny (Type 15) post-dating the assize of the moneyers. 

I always enjoy cases like this where an artefact provides a connection to the history of a place.




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