This is a cross and crosslets penny from the reign of King Henry II (1154 - 1189), which I bought February 8, 2004. The type is known as "Tealby", from the village in Lincolnshire where more than 5000 were discovered in 1807. It is believed to be a type B, but the coin, as is typical of the type, is difficult to interpret.
The reverse legend that can be seen is ...RI.ON.S:EDM.... for the moneyer Henri at the mint of Bury ST. EDMUNDS. Interestingly, this Tealby has a nice clear mintmark at 8 o'clock. The coin is intact, no splits, cracks etc. It has a nice dark tone as befits it's age. It is Spink no: 1338, and weighs 1.34 grams (20.68 grains).

The Plantagenets (1154-1485) - King Henry II ascended the throne in 1154 as the first of the Plantagenet dynasty. For the first few years of his reign the coins of King Stephen continued to be produced, but in order to restore public confidence in the currency a new standard and type of coin was introduced in 1158 - this is often referred to as the Tealby penny after a hoard of such coins which was found at Tealby, Lincolnshire in 1807.

A total of 31 mints were employed in this recoinage - Bedford, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Colchester, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Ilchester, Ipswich, Launceston, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Pembroke, Salisbury, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Thetford, Wallingford, Wilton, Winchester, and York - but once the recoinage was completed only 12 mints were allowed to remain active. This marks the beginning of the gradual decline in the number of mints used to strike English coins.

While the Tealby coinage was acceptable in terms of weight and silver quality, the overall quality of production was dreadful, so in 1180 a new style of coin, the short-cross penny was introduced. Despite being fairly ugly, the style remained more or less unaltered until 1247, which gave both the coinage and the state a sense of stability. The practice of placing the moneyer's name and mint on the reverse continued, though the reduction in the number of mints enabled stronger quality control to be applied.

The Tealby coins bear the obverse inscriptions HENRI REX ANG, HENRY REX AN, HENRI R ANG, HENRI REX, HENRI REX A, or HENRI REX - Henry King of England, or King Henry, while the Short-cross pennies are inscribed HENRICUS REX. Short-cross coins were minted at Carlisle, Exeter, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Wilton, Winchester, Worcester, and York.

During the reign of King Richard I (1189-1199) the short-cross coinage continued unchanged, even to the extent of still being inscribed HENRICUS REX! Ricardian coins were minted at Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Exeter, Lichfield, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Winchester, Worcester, and York.

King John's coins (1199-1216) continued the short-cross series, still inscribed HENRICUS REX! John's coins were minted at Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Exeter, Ipswich, Kings Lynn, Lincoln, London, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Rhuddlan, Rochester, Winchester, and York.

In King Henry III's long reign (1216-1272) the short-cross penny continued in use until 1247. By then, however, through no fault of the moneyers' there was a problem in that many of the coins in circulation were underweight. This was caused by the illegal practice of clipping silver off the edge of the coin, which was made easier by the cross on the reverse not extending to the rim thus giving people no clear indication of exactly how big the coin was supposed to be.

In 1247 therefore, a new long-cross penny replaced the short-cross coin, which made it more obvious when the coin had been clipped. Apart from the change in the size of the cross, the rest of the design did not substantially change, and the long cross made it easy to cut the coin into halves or quarters for change. Because of the introduction of the new coinage it was necessary to reopen many of the old mints to supply sufficient coins. Short-cross Henry III pennies were minted at Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Durham, London, Winchester and York. Long-cross pennies were produced at Bristol, Bury St Edmunds, Canterbury, Carlisle, Durham, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, Ilchester, Lincoln, London, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Wallingford, Wilton, Winchester, and York.