Overview
The Treason Act 1415 (4 Hen. 5. Stat. 1. c. 6) was an act of the Parliament of England which made clipping coins high treason, punishable by death. (The Treason Act 1351 (25 Edw. 3 Stat. 5. c. 2) had already made it treason to counterfeit coins.) The act was repealed by the Treason Act 1553 (1 Mar. Sess. 1. c. 1), but was revived by the Clipping Coin Act 1562 (5 Eliz. 1. c. 11). The act originally only protected English coins, but was later extended by the Coin Act 1575 (18 Eliz. 1. c. 1) in 1575 to cover foreign coins "current" within England. By this time the Coin Act 1572 (14 Eliz. 1. c. 3) had already made it misprision of treason to clip foreign coins not current within the Realm. Another act in 1415, the Forgery Act 1415 (4 Hen. 5. Stat. 1. c.
7), extended the jurisdiction to try this category of treason to all justices in the realm, instead of just the select few known as the King's justices. The Coin Act 1575 (18 Eliz. 1. c. 1) also abolished (for coin clipping only) the penalties of corruption of blood and forfeiture of goods and lands. The acts were repealed by section 1 of the Coinage Offences Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 34).
See also
*Coin Act 1696 *High treason in the United Kingdom *Treason Act