Rare hoard of 'angel coins' found in hospital grounds

15 July 2002

History lessons for NHS managers? On display for the first time - Rare hoard of 'angel coins' found in hospital grounds.

On display for the first time from Monday 15 July 2002, a rare hoard of Tudor gold coins in the Museum of London could perhaps prompt today’s NHS managers to reconsider their spending strategies.

The seven ‘angels’, found last year by Museum archaeologists in the grounds of what was once the hospital of St Mary Spital, had been buried during London’s acute medical funding crisis and impending hospital closures brought about by the Reformation in 1538. Despite being well documented in contemporary literature, only one coin of this type is believed to have been previously discovered in London.

Dating from a time when hospitals emphasized spiritual rather than medical care, the coins were considered a powerful charm against evil. At a special ceremony, Tudor kings and queens gave angels pierced with a hole to be worn round the neck of selected victims of the skin disease scrofula, or King’s Evil.

To superstitious minds, the powers of the monarch combined with the motifs on the coin presented the possibility of relief or cure from a particularly unpleasant illness, against which the medicine of the time was little help.

The coins take their name from their design, which features the archangel St Michael trampling on the devil in the form of a dragon and an inscription in Latin ‘Henry by the grace of God King of England and France’.

The other side bears a ship, a sun and a rose, with a Latin motto meaning ‘By Thy cross, save us, O Christ, our Redeemer’. Together, the coins would have been worth just under three pounds – a large sum that would have paid for bed and board at a smart inn for a week.

It is unlikely to be a coincidence that of all Tudor coins this issue was found within an institution that housed the sick. The hoard seems a perfect product of a time when illness was considered divine punishment for sin. Yet exactly how it came to be buried or lost unfortunately remains unknown, and we are unlikely ever to discover whether the find reveals careful budgeting by hospital management or a superstitious act pending a national health crisis.

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Judith Holmes 020 7814 5502
Mairi Allan 020 7814 5511