Elizabeth I was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Although she entertained many marriage proposals and flirted incessantly, she never married or had children. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, died at seventy years of age after a very successful forty-four year reign.

Elizabeth inherited a tattered realm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics) doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to the problems - France had a strong footland in Scotland, and Spain, the strongest western nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of the realm. Elizabeth proved most calm and calculating (even though she had a horrendous temper) in her political acumen, employing capable and distinguished men to carrying out royal prerogative.

Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest. Elizabeth lacked the fanaticism of her siblings, Edward VI favored Protestant radicalism, Mary I, conservative Catholicism, which enabled her to devise a compromise that,basically, reinstated Henrician reforms. She was, however, compelled to take a stronger Protestant stance for two reasons: the machinations of Mary Queen of Scots and persecution of continental Protestants by the two strongholds of Orthodox Catholicism, Spain and France. The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. Mary, in Elizabeth's custody beginning in 1568 (for her own protection from radical Protestants and disgruntled Scots), gained the loyalty of Catholic factions and instituted several-failed assassination/overthrow plots against her cousin, Elizabeth. After irrefutable evidence of Mary's involvement in such plots came to light, Elizabeth sadly succumbed to the pressure from her advisors and had the Scottish princess executed in 1587.

The persecution of continental Protestants forced Elizabeth into war, a situation which she desperately tried to avoid. She sent an army to aid French Huguenots (Calvinists who had settled in France) after a 1572 massacre wherein over three thousand Huguenots lost their lives. She sent further assistance to Protestant factions on the continent and in Scotland following the emergence of radical Catholic groups and assisted Belgium in their bid to gain independence from Spain. The situation came to head after Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain; the indignant Spanish King, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England. However, the English won the naval battle handily, due as much to bad weather as to English naval prowess. England emerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for later English imperial designs.

Elizabeth was a master of political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of the monarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonize Parliament. She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council, who were constantly perplexed by her habit of waiting to the last minute to make decisions. She used the varying factions (instead of being used by them, as were her siblings), playing one off another until the exhausted combatants came to her for resolution of their grievances. Few English monarchs enjoyed such political power, while still maintaining the devotion of the whole of English society.

Elizabeth's reign was during one of the more constructive periods in English history. Literature bloomed through the works of Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare. Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh were instrumental in expanding English influence in the New World. Elizabeth's religious compromise laid many fears to rest. Fashion and education came to the fore because of Elizabeth's penchant for knowledge, courtly behavior and extravagant dress. Good Queen Bess, as she came to called, maintained a regal air until the day she died; a quote, from a letter by Paul Hentzen, reveals the aging queen's regal nature: "Next came the Queen in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow... she had in her ear two pearls, with very rich drops... her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging." This regal figure surely had her faults, but the last Tudor excelled at rising to challenges and emerging victorious.

PENNY: 0.5 gram
THREEHALFPENCE: 0.75 g
HALF GROAT: 1.0 g
THREEPENCE: 1.5 g
GROAT: 2 g
SIXPENCE: 3 g
SHILLING: 6 g

Brilliant find - First ever milled silver test pieces made

1560-1 Elizabeth 1st milled silver sixpence- 6 ponted star mint mark

Elizabeth I (1558-1603), silver milled coinage by Elloye Mestrelle, undated earliest pre-production issue (1560-61),crowned bust left in elaborate dress and ruff, bust type A entirely within legend, initial mark mullet both sides, outer toothed circle and legend surrounding both sides, * ELIZABETH. D. G. ANG. FRAN. ET. HIB. REGINA, rev. long cross fourchée over quartered shield of arms, POSVI DEVM. AD IVTORE M. MEVM,

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Elizabeth by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland"; and on the reverse "I have made God my helper."

The mint mark of mullet (five-pointed star) was reserved only for use on the pre-production patterns, the currency milled pieces using the six-pointed mint mark of star. Though no original indentures or documentation survives for the production during the milled coinage by Mestrelle, writers Borden and Brown worked out in 1983 the sequence of dies used for the milled coinage, this represents the beginning being an example of the first milled coin ever produced in this country, the earliest issue struck in either December 1560 or January 1561.

Elloye Mestrelle likely arrived from Paris with his family in 1559, and along with his sibling Philip was already a skilled engraver. It is thought that he came to England to sell his skills to the Mint, as the Queen was concentrating her energy into the recoinage, having ascended the throne the year before. He may well have lost employment engraving in France, as the first mention of him is in a pardon by Queen Elizabeth of 24th March 1561 where he is forgiven for any treasons, felonies or offences before his arrival at the Mint dating before 1st March 1559. He seems to have secured a contract during 1560 at the Mint and was known to be acquiring materials for his machinery in June of that year.

Lis

Cross Crosslet

1560 - 1561

Martlet

1560 - 1561

Star

1560 - 1566

Pheon

1561 - 1565

Rose

1565

Portcullis

1566

Lion

1566 - 1567

Coronet

1567 - 1570

Castle

1569 - 1571

Ermine

1572 - 1573

Acorn

1573 - 1574

Eglantine

1573 - 1577

Cross Greek

1578 - 1579

Cross Latin

1580 - 1581

Sword

1582

Bell

1582 - 1583

A

1582 - 1584

Escallop

1584 - 1586

Crescent

1587 - 1589

Tun

1591 - 1595

Woolpack

1594 - 1596

Key

1595 - 1598

Anchor

1598 - 1600

0

1600

1

1601 - 1602

2

1602

1601

See Elizabeth 1st hammered silver small change - 1/2,1, 2 and 3 pence silver coins

See Elizabeth 1st hammered gold and silver large denomination coins - 4,and 12 pence