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The reign of Henry I is notable for the deteriorating standard of coin manufacture and lots of forgeries were made. In 1124 Henry held an Assize of Moneyers (a kind of trial) at Winchester where dishonest moneyers who made poor quality coins were punished.

Coins are struck using two dies - one for the front and one for the back.
A pair of dies is made for every different coin design and designs were changed regularly as a control measure. Coins struck using a combination of old and new dies are called "mules". They are very important to people who study coins as they help to organise the coinage into order so that experts can tell when the coins were made and how often the design was changed.

This exceptional "mule" comes from the mint at Thetford. It was very expensive to make dies so using an old die with a new die could be an attempt by the person in charge of the mint to save money, an emergency measure while two new dies were being made or even just a mistake. Coins made like this are extremely rare.