Shakespearean Shove-groat Shilling

389, Lot: 1232. Estimate $100. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TUDOR. Edward VI. 1547-1553. AR Shilling (33.5mm, 5.71 g, 6h). Fine silver issue. Tower (London) mint; im: y. Struck 1551. Crowned and mantled facing bust; rose to left, XIII (mark of value) to right / Coat-of-arms over long cross fourchée. North 1937; SCBC 2482. Fair/Fine, toned, pierced, edge curved and obverse worn for use in shove-groat game. An interesting Shakespearean artifact.

Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat shilling.
Henry IV, Part II. II.iv.207

Pistol, did you pick Master Slender’s purse
– Aye, by these gloves, did he, or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else, of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovelboards that cost me two shilling and two pence apiece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.
The Merry Wives of Windsor. I.i.160

“Both of these quotations have to do with the game of shove-groat or shovelboard in which a smooth coin was slid along a polished board into different compartments at the far end. This tavern game still persists under the name “Shove ha’ penny.” The favorite coin for the game was a worn (hence smooth) shilling of Edward VI, which apparently in Shakespeare’s time sold for a premium of, “two shillings and two pence apiece.” The Edward shilling wore evenly and thus was well suited for the game. Shove-groat shilling and Edward shovelboard were, then, popular appellations for this coin.” J. Eric Engstrom, Coins in Shakespeare: A Numismatic Guide (Hanover, 1964), p. 40