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This extremely rare silver penny of the Yorkshire baron, Robert de Stuteville, is also the best surviving example known. Here we see him as a mounted knight in armour, wearing a pointed war helmet and brandishing a huge sword, galloping along on his horse. This coin is struck in Robert's own name; the inscription around the edge tells us who he is. Stephen's reign was defined by civil war and anarchy and the style of the king's own coins was very poor. Wealthy barons, like Robert de Stuteville, struck their own coins to finance their support of, or opposition to, King Stephen.

Robert's family figures prominently in the history of early medieval England. As one of Stephen's supporters, he was among the leaders at the Battle of the Standard in 1138 where Stephen defeated David I, King of Scotland.

Stephen was a weak leader and many of the barons took the law into their own hands. His reign has been described as "the nineteen year winter" because the ordinary people suffered unrest and poverty, high taxes and exploitation. Wars were financed by wealthy people who used them as a way to make even more money and become more powerful.