Cloth Seal, Alnage, County Portcullis, York, Image & Found by Darren Jessett.
Found in ?, 20mm.
Crowned portcullis 3x3 lattice, (S'VLN'PAO'VEAL'I C)O'EBOR? fleur-de-lis around // missing
One disc from a two disc crown over portcullis county alnage seal. The county named in the inscription has been interpreted as EBOR - for Yorkshire but this is not certain. See GEOFFREY EGAN, PROVENANCED LEADEN CLOTH SEALS, p.51., "This group is one of the largest recorded. The basic design is: crown over chained portcullis (usually with a lattice of 3 X3 squares with various abbreviations, usually for 'sigillum ulnagii pannorum venalium in comitatu... ' (seal of alnage of saleable cloths in the (Lombardic) county of... ) in Lombardic letters. ... Five of the seals with Lombardic lettering have a fleur de lis at the start of the legends. If this fleur can be compared directly with mintmarks on coins - since the engravers of matrices for the seals may also have worked on the dies for coins - it may indicate a date between 1554 & 1560, though a fleur mark is also known on coins of some earlier reigns."
