A selection of some of the
better / more interesting coins SOLD through
HistoryInCoins.com
in 2025
WTH-8138:
Edward
VI Hammered Silver DURHAM HOUSE Shilling.
Second debased issue, initial mark Bow, undated but
circa 1548-50. Durham House.
S.R. 2472. Old (unidentified) tickets from someone who
knew what they were doing: correctly identified as on the tickets...type 5 bust 2. See Bispham classification in BNJ 1985, table 4, pgs 138-9
& plate 2, #6. Bispham
gave Durham House dies a separate classification from the Tower dies. Thank you to Rich Mooney's numismatic
expertise (and Joe Bisphan's!) on this one. Only the second Durham
House shilling I have ever had and this one the better of the two. A rarer coin in very nice
grade for issue. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Ian Davidson (yellow ticket)
Ex ???
(old tickets)
WTH-8151: Edward VI Tudor Hammered Silver PORTRAIT
Penny. First period, April 1547 -
January 1549, a billon silver, or base silver issue. London
(Tower) mint, obverse legend starting E.D.G. (but with unusual mascles /
lozenges as stops). S.R. 2460. Billon silver was all about make a profit for
the king and government. Experiments in
creating a debased silver coin that would be accepted by the public (ie in an
age where very much the value of any coin was absolutely equivalent to the
value of the metal in said coin, that was then not going to be the case)
were undertaken in Ireland in the 1530's.
The temptation was too great in England and debasement
was started under that third coinage of Henry VIII and didn't stop until
1551. Several debased issues were
actually not accepted by the public and these had to be addressed, usually by a
revaluation. The obvious example of this
for Edward VI was the third issue base pennies and halfpennies which were so
debased, and so bad looking (the mint was seriously getting carried away at
this point, thinking they could do anything) that they were revalued as
halfpennies and farthings respectively.
One final thing: the base silver coins, blanched in acid by the mint to
improve their surface upon issue from the mint, soon became discoloured and
blotchy in use. The larger denominations
(Testoons and Groats), through wear on the high relief parts of their design,
revealed the inner (non-silver) content to a seriously fed-up public and also
to a not very pleased monarch. The
comptroller (from the misspelling and misuse of the word "controller,"
derived from the Latin word, "contrarotulator,"
which means "keeper of a duplicate roll" and not an American word as
some think it is) at the Tower and Southward during 1544-8, a certain Parson
Brock, was literally chided not only for presiding over the debasement as a
priest, but also for having given his monarch and sovereign a red, copper
nose! This penny, bearing in mind its
debased nature, has one of the very best portraits I've ever seen on a penny -
incidentally, although the silver content of the coinage was literally being
stolen by the authorities, the engravers were coming up with some of the best
designs thus far to go on the not-so-silver coinage! A rare coin and in this
grade, a lot rarer still. SOLD
WTH-8143: Exceptional Henry
VIII Hammered Silver First Coinage Groat.
Profile right of the King's father, Henry VII, initial
mark Crowned T - the excessively rare Tournai mint.
S.R. 2317.
Henry VIII rode victoriously into the city of Tournai
in Western Belgium
on September
25th, 1513, aged just 22, ten days after his
troops had first invested the city. The
sense of triumph was somewhat misplaced as in truth, the city was protected by
volunteers with no training and antiquated cannon that was much more a danger
to the user than the intended victim.
Coinage was minted from Tournai, in miniscule
numbers compared with back home in London,
with a very symbolic initial mark T with an English crown over it. S.R. dates the entire issue to 1513. Interestingly, the dies were thought to have
been shipped back to London
where the initial mark was overstruck with a portcullis, potentially meaning
that your relatively common first coinage portcullis groat was struck from the
famous Tournai dies!
It is rare indeed to find a Tournai groat but
to find one in this grade and, most importantly, with both initial marks as
clear as day, is extremely rare. Old
tickets here. A very rare offering
indeed. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Spink, September 1998 (£1,950) - that's x26 years
ago!
Ex Baldwins
Ex James P. Rosen collection
WMH-9180: Rare Henry IV Hammered Silver HALFGROAT. Light coinage, 1412-13
only, London mint, annulet (filled on the die to create a
very large pellet) to the left of the crown with a pellet to the right. It is interesting
to note that this die was cut specifically for Henry IV whilst the other Henry
IV halfgroat die ( annulet and pellet reversed) is
actually an altered Richard II die. The altered die omits FRANC from the legend
whilst the true Henry IV die includes it, albeit in an abbreviated form. S.R.1730. There was a severe shortage of
bullion in England with prices on the Continent significantly more, thus silver coinage
moved abroad by metaphorical osmosis.
What little remaining coinage there was suffered extreme wear through
circulation as well as at the hands of the clippers – a practise intensified
during this period by the silver crisis.
Halfgroats were struck in tiny quantities and thus it's not any great
surprise to any of us that they are an incredibly rare denomination today,
rarer in my opinion than Henry IV groats (certainly fewer die iterations),
although possibly not in terms of current market value. SOLD
WJC-9165: Charles 1st Hammered Silver Full
Crown with Important Provenance. The Welsh Plumes crown. Tower mint under the king, Gp.II, type 2b1, initial mark Plume, 1630-31, S.R. 2756. Provenance going back to 1916 when this coin
was illustrated in BNJ (Silver Coins of the Tower Mint of Charles, Part One,
The Crowns, pp 181-194 and plates 1-5 with plate 2, fig. 4 being this coin) by
Grant R. Francis - there are still hints of the red wax to be found on this
coin from that process. John William
Gaze owned this coin pre WW2 - his collection dispersed May 1935 just before
his death. Gaze was a Nottingham man who invented
the ring plug to go on WW1 shells but antithetical to that was his work at the
outset of the war: he designed the 'Scarlet Pimpernel' Red Cross flower, which
resulted in nearly £9,000 being raised for the purpose of purchasing motor
ambulances for the Army. They proved of great service in removing the wounded,
and as a slight acknowledgement of his services in this direction, the Mayor of
Nottingham, on behalf of the Buffaloes, presented Mr. Gaze with a gold jewel on
15 November 1917. Not resting on his laurels, it was Mr. Gaze
who originated the idea of the badge scheme, which was submitted to Winston
Churchill and later adopted for all war workers. See large image here for various details.
A very desirable coin for a variety of reasons. SOLD
Provenance:
1916 - Grant R. Francis submitted this coin for
illustration and reference in BNJ, "Silver Coins of the Tower Mint of
Charles, Part One, The Crowns"
1920 (24th March) sold through Glendinings,
lot 106 (£2,12,6), described at "A rare
variety"
1920 (24th March) bought by John William Gaze
1935 (22nd-23rd May) sold through Glendinings,
this coin not listed in their catalogue, presumed sold privately to Baldwin clients
pre-sale. See here
1985 - ex T. Matthews, sold to
the Haddenham Collection
2023 - ex Spink's dispersal of
the Haddenham Collection
2023 - ex HistoryInCoins, sold for £2,985 ...
2023
- ex John Williams' collection
WSC-9188: 1559 Scottish Mary
Queen of Scots Hammered Billon Silver Nonsunt. A twelve
penny groat struck in the second period, 1558-60, under both Mary and her
husband, Francis. It was an issue of half alloy (.5 fine) which was actually quite high
considering the Lions of the same date which were 23/24 alloy - basically base
metal. The obverse crowned heraldic dolphin is facing left
(it's my belief that left facing is the rarer of the two) so this is S.R.
5448. If you're scratching your head over the derivation of the term
"nonsunt", look
no further than the reverse legend. Rarely seen these days. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Spink (December 1967 - sold for £6)
WSC-9119: 1567 Mary Stewart Hammered
Silver Ryal or Crookeston
Dollar. Fifth period, 1567 only. Edinburgh mint. S.R.
5429. This was Mary's second
period of widowhood, which might lead you to believe that she was perhaps
unlucky in love but, considering the bigger picture, that was perhaps one of
her lesser problems. Henry Darnley was
assassinated 10th February 1567. This particular
year is a numismatic anomaly in that it saw an issue from Mary & Henry as
well as this single year issue from just Mary.
You would perhaps think that because Henry Darnley died only six weeks
into 1567 that the joint issue would be the rarest. In fact, that is not the case - this 1567
single monarch issue is the rarer of the two.
The reclining "9" at the end of the reverse legend was a
contemporary device for indicating a contraction - we would today use an
apostrophe. It's something you rarely
see but when it does pop up, it's usually associated with James VI / James 1st
coinage. There is a shilling of James
1st listed on this website with the very same feature. Some very old graffiti on
the reverse field. A rare issue, rarer so with the reclining "9" at the end
of the reverse legend. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Simon
Monks & Brian Reed (S&B Coins), 1996
Ex Baldwin's -
their ticket, incorrectly attributed
WSax-9183: Cnut Hammered Silver
Late Saxon Penny. B.M.C. VIII - Quatrefoil
type (1017-23), +ELBRHTGIP. S.R.
1157. Ipswich mint, moneyer Aetheberht. In
1014 the Danish fleet proclaimed Cnut king of England
but the natives thought otherwise and he was forced to leave. Interestingly, this shows Aethelred as not a
subservient and weak monarch; rather a decisive, fighting monarch. Perhaps the potential loss of his thrown was
a bridge too far?! Aethelred's
son, Eadmund Ironside,
continued the defiance towards the Vikings but upon his death on 1016, Cnut became undisputed king of England , a position which Cnut firmly consolidated a year later by marrying Emma of
Normandy, Aethelred's widow. History suggests that Emma and Cnut's marriage, though begun as a political strategy,
became an affectionate affair. During their marriage, Emma and Cnut had a son, Harthacnut, and a daughter, Gunhilda. An East Anglian Episcopal
mint coin with the usual atypical features often seen on coins from this part
of the country - pellets to the obverse, almost non-existent quatrefoil to the
reverse. Sold with a plethora of old tickets (see here). A very nice coin with
provenance going back 25+ years. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Sidney & Kenneth Harl collection
ex Coin Galleries, April 1999
WCom-6440: 1652 over 1
Commonwealth Hammered Silver Shilling. A 1651 obverse with a 1651
altered date (51 to 52) reverse. Also no stop after GOD making this an unlisted and unrecorded
variety (see www.sunandanchor.com).
SOLD
WMH-9184: Choice Henry II Tealby
Hammered Silver Penny. Short cross
"Cross & Crosslets" first coinage, +ALWIN.[ON.]LVND
- London,
class A (circa 1158-63) with no hair or collar.
S.R. 1337.
Immediately following on from Stephen. Henry of Anjou became Henry II upon the death
of Stephen - a monarch who had an extremely tenuous claim to the throne and who
only stayed as king because he agreed to let Stephen, Matilda's son, to ascend
upon his death - and even though an impressive 29 mints were opened to produce
coinage, the quality was just as poor, maybe even worse, as the Stephen
coinage. Of those 29 mints, only around
a third continued after Henry's recoinage to the voided short cross and come
the later long cross issues, far fewer than that. Graded at Good VF for
issue, if not a touch better. You
just do not see Tealby coins as good as this - even
the two northern mints of Newcastle and Carlisle, mints where you'd expect to
see better grade examples, are generally not as good as this coin. The July 2025 Noonan's sale witnessed about a
dozen Tealby pennies from a decent collection go
through the block. All were fairly
average for type with none coming remotely close to the quality of grade of
this coin. SOLD
WI-9182: A superb Irish James 1st Hammered
Silver Shilling. Second coinage, third bust with the square cut beard,
initial mark Martlet, S.R.6515.
The English James 1st coinage is generally abysmal, particularly the
sixpences, and the Irish seems to have fared no better. A quick look at the Spink / Sovereign Rarity
plate coins will show you just how good a coin this shilling is. SOLD
WSC-8145: James 1st Medieval Scottish Hammered
Silver Groat. First fleur-de-lis issue,
1406-37 but early on in that reign for this first issue. Edinburgh
mint. Sceptre to the
left - S.R. 5195. The price of silver rose steadily throughout Europe during this
period which caused problems with all of Europe’s coinage, not
least Scotland’s. Their solution was to issue billon “watered
down” silver for the lower denominations and to increase the value of the
groats (there were no halfgroats under James 1st) from fourpence
to sixpence. All the silver issues were poorly struck AND
experienced considerable circulatory wear and damage because there simply
wasn't enough coinage to go around - there was insufficient bullion at the mint
to issue fresh coin and what coinage there was in circulation often found its
way onto the continent (and thus the melting pot) as either a fourpence or sixpence coin here was worth much more in pure
bullion content. Coincraft states: "All
(groat) issues are rare, especially the ones from provincial mints. Coins were often poorly struck and are rarely
found in better than Fine condition." Old tickets here. This coin is
arguably overall better than the S.R.
plate coin, that being the vest best they could source
with all the leading collections they have access to. Rare. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Leland Scott collection
WAu-9046: 1602 James VI Hammered Gold Sword
& Sceptre Piece of 120 Shillings. Eighth gold
coinage (1601-4), struck in 22ct gold whilst James was still only James VI of Scotland. Edinburgh mint. Obv: +IACOBVS 6 D.G.R. SCOTORVM. S.R. 5460. It is
generally accepted that Scottish coinage is much more attractive than its
English counterpart, especially from the James V until 1603 period when James
ascended the English throne and, by necessity, the two country's followed a
more unified path in terms of coinage.
This Sword & Sceptre piece is absolutely no exception to that
aesthetic appraisal. As such, these
coins often turn up impaired; being found mounted or pierced in order to
display on the body in the form of jewellery.
Gold coins are also frequently found with bite marks and creases, often
straightened but always leaving a crease mark.
This coin is a superb example with none of that, although it has been
cleaned at some point in its 420 year life.
Scottish coins of quality are increasing in value seemingly overnight;
gold coinage much more so, which is the main reason I can no longer offer
Lay-Away on any gold coins. Here you
have both an investment opportunity together with a seriously attractive coin
to potentially go into your collection. SOLD
WTH-9157 : Rarer Denomination
1562 Elizabeth 1st MILLED Silver Tudor Threepence.
Tall narrow decorated bust with medium Rose, initial
mark Star, Tower
mint. S.R.2603, DIG 3/B(5ii) - the variety where the 5 in the date is complete and
NOT broken at the top horizontal. Two
points of interest on this fascinating coin:
1. The T in Elizabeth is a definite letter I.
This is a recorded error but never-the-less, on a milled or machine-made
coin (where they knew they had to seriously impress to not just supersede the
hammered coinage, but literally to survive at all against the way it had always
been for many, many centuries - nobody really likes change!), why so sloppy?
2. The 2 in 1562 is unlike others (the norm being a fairly
subtle connection of the lower horizontal to the diagonal. This looks suspiciously like an overdate to
me - a recycled 1561 reverse, altered at the die level to read 1562 but in the
process producing a chunky number 2 as a result of the original underlying
chunky number 1. Basically,
a 1562/1 coin.
The following, which I highlight at the top of the
main Elizabeth 1st page, is fact:
“85% of Mestrelle’s meagre experimental machine-made coins were
sixpences dated 1562. This leaves 15%
for all the other Screw-Pressed sixpences, shillings, groats, threepences,
halfgroats, threefarthings and the gold coinage.” This threepence was
a miniscule issue at the Mestrel press and a tinier
issue still when compared to the hammered threepences. Queen Elizabeth 1st
herself visited both mints (Upper & Lower Houses) upon the occasion of the
near completion of the recoinage on 10th July 1561. She met with Eloye Mestrelle and viewed his machinery. The visit was reported to be six hours in
length. Eleven years later, Eloye Mestrelle was dismissed from
the mint in 1572 and just six years after that, he was
executed (hanged) for counterfeiting. A rare milled coin, a rarer still denomination and a perhaps even
rarer coin in terms of the legend error and the potential overdate. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Tim Owen (his
older ticket)
WSax-9154: Excessively Rare
Viking Hammered Silver HALFPENNY. Coinage of the Viking Kingdom of York - St Peter
Memorial two line horizontal type HALF
penny. Phase 2, circa 910-920. Obverse: SCIIITRIM in two lines with three
horizontal pellets separating; crosses above and below. Reverse: EDORACE CI around a central Cross
Pattée. The legends in this phase are very blundered and the coins are of a lighter weight. S.R.1008, North 554. The St. Edmund memorial coinage, struck
during the Viking period in East Anglia (circa 895-918 AD), were silver pennies
issued in the Danelaw (not to be confused with Danegeld,
which came nearly 100 years later), a region under Viking control. These coins
commemorated St. Edmund, the King of East Anglia who was martyred in 869. Chipped
but still of the highest rarity. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Spink 74
ex
Norweb 39
ex
Tim Owen (his
ticket)
WCom-9170: 1650 Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth
Battle of Dunbar Military Reward. Silver, dated 3rd September 1650. A military reward, given out personally by
Cromwell, for participation in the Battle of Dunbar, a decisive engagement in
the English Civil Wars, in which English troops commanded by Oliver Cromwell
defeated the Scottish army under David Leslie, thereby opening Scotland to 10
years of English occupation and rule. Issued in gold and silver, depending upon the rank of the
recipient. Something of an iconic
depiction of Cromwell - Thomas Simon, the engraver, was dispatched by
Parliament to Scotland to take the
"...effigies, portrait or statue of the Lord General to be placed upon the
medal". It is recorded that
Cromwell himself did NOT want his portrait on the medals. In a letter, he said: “… I doe thinke I may truly say it will be verie
thankfully acknowledged by me, if you will spare the haveing
my Effigies in it”. Perhaps modesty, or more likely the realisation
that an effigy on a national medal perhaps smacked too much of monarchical
aspirations, something he was supposed to be vehemently opposed to, having just
beheaded Charles 1st and effectively dismantled the monarchy. Either way, Parliament ignored him and went
ahead and did it anyway. The reverse -
the Parliament assembled n one House with the Speaker - being perhaps even more
iconic than the obverse, was actually suggested as a design by Cromwell himself
in a letter to the Committee for the Army in February of 1650, some seven
months prior to the battle. Sold with old
tickets. Thomas Simon's signature appears as THO . SIMON. FE (obverse truncation), meaning it is Medallic
Illustrations (i) 392/14 and not 391/13 as on the
ticket. In 1760, the original dies, both
obverse and reverse, for the Dunbar Medals were discovered in Hursley, Hampshire, in the former residence of Richard
Cromwell - a wall was being dismantled and the medals were inexplicably found
inside the structure. They were re-struck
in the 18th century by the Royal Mint engraver Thomas Pingo. Born 1714, died 1776 so giving us a clear
window of 1760-76 for these re-issues.
This medal is one of those re-issues (the original 1650 military rewards
are valued at several thousand pounds each, should you ever be fortunate enough
to even see one). The dies were not
particularly well protected in the masonry and so exhibited rust and cracking
from the outset, something that quickly escalated due to exposure to the
elements, to the point where the reverse die broke, which perhaps accounts for
the uniface medals we occasionally see. If you look closely at this medal, the rusty dies manifests itself on some of the obverse legend. A particularly pleasing
example. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Drewry Family collection (purchased for £175 late
80's)
ex
CNG, 1997
WMH-8127: Henry 1st Norman
Hammered Silver Penny. B.M.C. XV, Quadrilateral on cross fleury type, 1125-35 only: +OS[B]ERN
ON
[G]IPE – Osbern of Ipswich. S.R. 1276. There are only x26 results for all Henry 1st
types minted at Ipswich
on the EMC database - including cut halves and historical entries with no
images - but only x6 are Henry 1st type XV Ipswich. One has a Winchester
mint signature which is impressive considering it's in the Ipswich
section and Osbern was not a moneyer at Winchester!) Sold with several
old tickets. A rare coin on an unusual
irregular flan. SOLD
WI-9146: 1690 Irish Gun Money
Full Crown. James II emergency Civil
War coinage of 1689-91. S.R. 6578. Overstruck
on the large Gun Money halfcrowns as by 1690, these were obsolete; replaced by
the small size halfcrowns. The obverse
of the Gun Money crown (and it is just the crowns) has similarities to the
earlier Charles 1st halfcrowns and crowns, which I’m sure was far
from accidental. It won’t have escaped
readers’ attention that Gun Money coinage is currently riding high in terms of
popularity. After fleeing from England
to France in 1688 – an effective abdication from the English throne – James II
landed in Ireland March 1689 in order to promote his Catholic cause, something
we are perhaps still living with today?!
He had insufficient funds to prosecute this war so the plan was to raise
money by issuing base metal coinage in place of what would previously have been
silver issues. This was a less subtle
example of the Quantitative Easing that we all witnessed a few years ago. This coinage was set up with an intention for
them to be exchanged for sterling coinage once the dust had settled. This never happened. The metal for these coins came from old
cannon, bells and various other scrap metals that were termed “Gun Money”. Old
tickets here. An uncommonly
"clean" example, bearing little or no evidence of the host halfcrown
coin. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
John Noel Simpson collection
ex
Spink
WI-7660: 1690 (May)
James II Irish Gun Money Half Crown. Small-sized halfcrown. S.R. 6580c. Limerick bust. After fleeing from England to
France in 1688 – an effective abdication from the English throne – James II
landed in Ireland March 1689 in order to promote his Catholic cause, something
we are perhaps still living with today?!
He had insufficient funds to prosecute this war so the plan was to raise
money by issuing base metal coinage in place of what would previously have been
silver issues. This was a less subtle
example of the Quantitative Easing that we all witnessed a few years ago. If today’s money had still been based on the
value of the coin in your hand being worth its face value in precious metal,
then the Chancellor in 2009 would perhaps have done something very
similar! This coinage was set up with an
intention for them to be exchanged for sterling coinage once the dust had
settled. This never happened. The metal for these coins came from old
cannon, bells and various other scrap metals that were termed “Gun Money”. SOLD
WSax-8032 (commission coin): Middle Saxon Kings
of East Anglia Hammered Silver Penny.
Aethelstan 1st, 825-40. Obverse and reverse small
crosses, both with wedges in the angles.
Obv: AEÐELSTAN RE, rev: AEÐELHELM
MO. North 446/3 (unrecorded moneyer for North -
only EADNOTH & MON for type, although the EMC database records three such
coins, but all with pellets in the angles as opposed to wedges), S.R. 951. Ipswich given tentatively as the mint town (see EMC). Completely fresh to the
market, coming out of a very long-held metal detectorist's
collection. The son of the finder
tells me that his father rinsed his finds under cold water for literally a
second and that was it. Attractively toned and very nice grade indeed. A rare opportunity to
acquire an outstanding Saxon coin that has never been messed around with. SOLD
WAu-8056: **Choice** Saxon
Merovingian Gold Tremissis. Wico in Pontio (Quentovic), c. 620-640. Tremissis (Gold, 13mm, 1.26g, 0h), Moneyer Dutta.
+VVICCO FIT Laureate bust to right. Rev. DVTTA MONET, Cross on three steps. Belfort
4959. NM II p. 55, 14. Prou 1125. Rare but rarer still being
centrally struck and such good grade. Clear and well
struck, good very fine or better.
The Merovingian Dynasty was based in ancient Gaul
(which is now France)
and dates from the middle of the 5th century AD. The coins were very much trading pieces and
many have been found in Britain
as Saxon trade between the Continent and Britain
was extremely robust. Similar examples
have been found as far west as Cornwall
and as far north as Northumbria. Ex Ian Millington (an expert on Anglo Saxon coinage), ex Silbury
Coins (their ticket), ex DNW. You will not find a better example of this
early Saxon gold coin. It really is a
choice coin. SOLD
WJC-9065: 1625 Charles 1st
Silver Pattern Halfcrown - reportedly one of only four known. Engraved by either Thomas Rawlins or Abraham van der Doort. Obv:
Bust of Charles, lovelock on shoulder, falling lace collar and armour, rev:
Cast and chased Royal Arms in garnished shield, the style imitating engraving,
very much along the lines of the work De Passe was
producing around this time. Listed in
Medallic Illustration as (i)373/267,
and clearly stated as:
"...probably a pattern for a
half crown".
The internet yields this:
The Charles I pattern
half-crown is one of the rarest examples assumed to be by Abraham Van der Doort. It shows the bust of
King Charles I with no crown and a lace collar on the obverse. Additionally,
the Royal Coat of Arms is on the reverse. In 1625 this coin was produced as a
prototype before beginning full-scale production. This was due to the intricacy
of the design and the decision that it would slow down coin production.
Ultimately the design for the 1625 half-crown is King Charles on a horse
holding a sword, with the other side depicting an oval quartered shield of
arms. The 1625 Charles I pattern
half-crown is spectacularly rare, with possibly only four currently recorded.
It would be a remarkable addition to any numismatic collection.
and
this:
Abraham Van der Doort and the 1625 Charles I
Pattern Half-crown
Monies, Medals & Militaria
Sale date August 22, 2024
Abraham Van der Doort is a talented artist
from the early 17th century. He is known for painting and designing medals and
coins. His documented catalogue of the King’s paintings, sculptures and coins
is impressive.
Not much is known of
the Dutch artist before he moved to England, but once here his talent was recognised and sought after.
He first worked with the royals, creating medal and coin designs, through which
his working relationships flourished.
In 1609, Abraham Van der Doort was tasked with being
Prince Henry’s ‘Curator of his cabinet of Medals and Coins’. After Prince
Henry’s death, he worked for Prince Charles I. Once Charles ascended to the
throne, Van der Doort
started producing new designs of the King for the Royal Mint. Charles
instructed the Dutch artist to make the designs for ‘his majesty Coynes and his assistance to the engravers’. The King
entrusted Van der Doort
with two posts for life: Provider of Patterns and Life Keeper of the Kings
Coins Collection.
Van der Doort was the first Surveyor
of the King’s Pictures. This meant that he was responsible for the care of the
Royal Household’s collection of pictures, specifically Charles I’s art collections.
Sadly, there is only
a small number of Abraham Van der Doort’s
work in today’s market. His most famous work is with the Juxon
Medal. This medal has very similar imagery to the rare 1625 Charles I pattern
half-crown, however, the designer of which is uncertain. The style techniques
and imagery however suggest that it had been designed by Van der Doort rather than Thomas
Rawlins.
Abraham Van der Doort in Auction
Lot 14
England, Ireland & Scotland. Charles I
AR Pattern Halfcrown
Price Realised August
: £1500 + buyer's commissions on top
An extremely rare and important
coin from this most interesting, not to mention vast area of numismatics. SOLD
WJC-9016:
1646 Charles 1st
Newark Besieged Silver Shilling. The final die in a three die run
(1645-6). The
besieged Royalists set up a mint and used salvers, flagons, drinking cups,
etc., fashioned into hand-cut lozenge-shaped planchets, striking half-crowns,
shillings, ninepences, and sixpences. Struck by the
royalist forces who surrendered Newark (just up the River Trent from Nottingham) on May 6,
1646, the day after King Charles I had fled the fortress in secret to surrender
himself personally to the besieging Scots, thus this coin would have been part
of the final batch. Interestingly, Newark
was actually besieged three times - first siege: 27-28 February 1643, second siege:
29 February to 21
March 1644 and this third siege, lasting from
26 November 1645
to 8
May 1646.
Evidence on the reverse of underlying host design,
especially around the date. S.R. 3143. A nice, honest example that's not been pierced and often
plugged, as most seem to be these days.
SOLD
WTH-9152: Henry VIII Tudor
Hammered Silver Round FARTHING. Second coinage, S.R.2363. Tower mint, 1526-44, initial mark Arrow in the legend; the
obverse legend should, in theory, read RVTILANS ROSA with DEO GRACIAS on the
reverse, but the reality is that this is a ridiculously tiny coin - the
smallest hammered coin ever issued in the UK
- where you're lucky to get anything at all in terms of legend! Here, you get plenty. Coincraft, of all
varieties of farthing, have this to say, which I think sums up this little
denomination nicely. Good provenance - see old tickets
here. Graded VF and again, nice to see the price
guides giving this coin an appropriate valuation of £1,000 in 2025. A very rare and sought-after coin but one
that comes with a warning - don't drop it because you'll never find it
again!! SOLD
Provenance:
ex
James Rosen collection
ex
Rasmussen (2003)
WMH-9120: Choice Edward III
Medieval Hammered Silver Groat. Fourth coinage, pre-treaty period, class
G. London mint. S.R. 1570. Initial
mark Cross 3(4), circa 1356-61.
There are several varieties for class G but this coin is unusual in that
it has neither the reverse quarter annulet or the
annulet under the bust. Better than the S.R. plate
example. An outstanding coin - choice. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Tim
Owen (his earlier colour ticket)
WMH-9121: High Grade Henry
VI Medieval Hammered Silver Groat. Rosette-mascle
issue of 1430-31 only. London mint. S.R. 1858. A
most unusual initial mark combination of Incurved Pierced Cross (obverse) and
Cross Patonce (reverse). The
excellent late Ivan Buck, in his seminal publication, Medieval English Groats (Greenlight Publishing, 2000), listed only incurved pierced
cross / plain cross and cross patonce / plain cross
as initial mark combinations for this rosette-mascle
issue. For the groats of Henry VI, as
well as the obverse and reverse 12 o'clock marks (commonly, yet incorrectly
termed a mint mark by many - these things never denoted where the coin was
actually struck so they're more correctly described as initial marks), we also
begin to see Privy marks, in this case rosettes and mascles, which were used to
differentiate between the various issues within a reign. The more observant will have noted that both
obverse and reverse are bereft of mascles.
Technically, the rosette-mascle issue was in
two parts: the very early rosette only issue, 1430 only, followed by the
rosette AND mascle issue of mid to late 1430-31. A very nice coin indeed
with many distinguishing attributes.
SOLD
Provenance:
ex Tim
Owen (his earlier colour ticket)
WJC-9153: Choice Charles 1st
Hammered Silver BRISTOL DECLARATION Halfgroat.
Civil War, Bristol mint, circa 1643-5. These Declaration coins are arguably one of
the best looking coins in the entire hammered series, at least in England. Here, you have that aesthetic appeal but crucially,
in miniature - this is literally the smallest denomination they did with
Charles 1st on the obverse and the full Bristol Declaration on the
reverse. All they sacrificed was the
date, which was replaced with the BR symbol.
My camera, or more likely my complete lack of any kind of photographic
skill, has provided an indifferent main image.
Here's
another,
equally mediocre, but taken using a camera phone so at least you can compare the
two. The reality is that the actual coin
in the flesh is better than the sum of both images. S.R.3026 (this coin
marginally better than their plate coin). Coincraft, on this
little gem, have this to say,
which I think sums up this denomination nicely.
The Coincraft plate coin is on a par with this coin. Morrison A-1. Brooker 1007 (this coin marginally better
than his plate coin). Very rare indeed -
ask yourself, how many Deceleration halfgroats to you see compared to the
larger denominations and then ask yourself how many you see in this
grade?! An outstanding
coin and very rare. SOLD
WCA-5387: 1689 Large William & Mary “Act of Toleration” Medal. An interesting medal that pretty much ignore
the Queen and displays only William on the obverse. Further, the medal commemorates the Act of
Toleration which effectively gave the green light to all religious dissenters
(and there were many) to come out into the open, free of reprisals, legal or
otherwise. I imagine it wasn’t quite as
simple as that! SOLD
WTH-7903: Henry VII Hammered
Silver Tudor Halfpenny. A very late type IIIc, London Mint, Spink 2245. The king's head being much out of alignment
with the king's shoulders is both interesting and amusing! A really nice example - I don't ever recall
having had better. SOLD
WI-5595:
Irish James 1st
Hammered Silver 6d. 1604-7, initial mark rose so 1606 –
1607. An extremely good grade example of
a usually poorly struck obverse issue. SOLD
WSC-9009: James V
Scottish Hammered Silver Stuart Groat. Second coinage (the first was just
gold), 1526-39. Type III, Spink
5378. Holyrood Abbey
Mint. James ascended the throne
aged just one year old. Coincidentally,
upon her father's death, Mary (the future Mary Queen of Scots), James's only
legitimate heir, was only seven days old when she ascended! You'd be challenged to source average or
lesser grade James V groats for under £1,000 these days - this coin is
definitely not one of those. A high grade
example of one of the most attractive hammered silver coins ever to be issued,
not just in Scotland
but in the entire British Isles. SOLD
WI-7839: 1601 Irish
Elizabeth 1st Hammered Copper Penny.
Initial mark Star. Most of these coins come out of the ground
(it is interesting to note that examples have been unearthed from the Jamestown
site in America,
along with later James 1st hammered silver coinage) and as a result the copper
corrodes. The entire Third Issue of
Irish coinage, 1601-02 only, was an emergency issue brought about by the need
to pay the large numbers of soldiers who were in Ireland. Their role was to defeat the “independent and
warlike” Irish of the North, under the leadership of O’Neil, and to
expeditiously “Shire” Ireland
and bring it under English rule, basically making Ireland
an extension of England. The Earl of Essex was in command of the
English troops but was recalled to England
where he was duly executed. His replacement,
Mountjoy, somewhat motivated by the fate of his
predecessor, did a much better job. Excellent grade. SOLD
WI-7414: 1683 High Grade
Irish Charles II Copper Halfpenny. Armstrong & Legge’s Regal Coinage, Spink 6575. Easily VF for issue (£400
in Spink 2020). Sold with a detailed information slip. SOLD
WMH-5916:
Edward 1st
Hammered Silver Round Farthing. London (LONDONIENSIS)
mint. Class 3de. S.1445A. A choice example. SOLD
WJC-7094: Charles 1st
Hammered Silver Shilling. Initial mark Book – Aberystwyth mint,
1638/9-42. Spink
2883. The mint at Aberystwyth had its beginnings in July 1637 when Thomas
Bushell had the idea of coining at the source rather
than sending the mined silver for coining to London. He petitioned that it would stimulate the
Welsh mining industry with predictions of increased output if the adits to drain water from the mines reached their capacity,
and suggested it could lead to other mines in England
being used for coining in a similar fashion. The Mint in London
was against the idea, but King Charles asked for Bushell
to visit and was persuaded by his charm to back him. The agreement was to set
up a mint in Aberystwyth
Castle
with the Crown taking a 10% share with overall supervision from the Warden of
the Mint, Sir William Parkhurst. Coins were struck at
0.925 fineness with Welsh plumes at Halfcrown, Shilling, Sixpence, Half-Groat
and Penny. Ex Spink, 25th
Nov 2011 – sold for £1,450. A very nice coin indeed. SOLD
WMH-8104: Henry IV / V
Hammered Silver Medieval SCOWLING BUST Groat.
Light coinage, London
mint, type B2a (there is now uncertainty as to whether types A and B of Henry V
should be given to Henry IV), initial mark Cross Pattée, no fleurs
over the crown and Quatrefoil after hENRIC - Spink
1762B. There is an interesting mention
of this very coin in BNJ 1997 (50), p.26.
See old tickets here and information sheet here.
High grade, impeccable provenance - Choice. SOLD
Provenance:
ex D. Mangaki collection...
Purchased
from Seaby 1956
ex Margaret Delmé Radcliffe
collection...
Dispersed Glendining's Action (1985)
Ex North Yorkshire Moor collection...
Dispersed DN W Action
(2019)
Ex Mike Vosper (2019 -
£1,250 ticket price)
WSC-9092: Rare
Scottish Alexander III Post Brussels A Hammered Silver Penny. First coinage,
1250-80 but right at the very end of this period. IOhAN of Berwick. Spink 5048. It was at this point in the rein that the
English introduced the new Edward 1st coinage, heralding the end of the voided
cross issues. The Scottish quickly
followed with the introduction of the Alexander III second coinage. The entire reign was prosperous, even though
Alexander succeeded his father at just seven years of age. The reign was cut short when Alexander rode
his horse off a cliff aged just 44 (the king, not the unfortunate horse). An extremely rare coin as evidenced by R.W. Kirton's annotation, being the first I've ever handled in
all the decades. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex R.W. Kirton collection (an excellent
numismatic researcher who amassed a comprehensive collection of Scottish
coinage)
WMH-8080: Edward III
Medieval Hammered Silver Penny. Fourth coinage, pre-treaty period of 1351-61 with French
titles, series F, London mint.
Initial mark Crown (I have never seen such a clear crown initial mark on
one of these pennies before), dating it accurately to 1356. An outstanding coin. SOLD
WMH-7268: Edward 1st
Medieval Hammered Silver HOARD Penny.
New coinage, class 3g, London mint, Spink 1393. Part of The Bercar
(Scottish) Hoard of 2014 saw x362 silver pennies unearthed by a group of metal detectorists. The
latest coin in the hoard was a class 15d, struck around 1327/8. Sold with an A4 information
sheet. This coin is one of the
very best of the x20 or so I managed to acquire. SOLD
WSC-7978: CHOICE William
1st, The Lion, Rare Early Scottish Hammered Silver
Crescent & Pellet Penny. Phase 1 Sterling,
cross potent sceptre head so bust 1, phase 1, circa 1174-80. Perth mint.
Spink 5024, Grierson, Coins of Medieval Europe
197; Burns 2 (fig. 30); SCBI 35 (Ashmolean & Hunterian) 31/A-32/A. Obv: [+ LЄ] R[Є
WI]LLAm, bust left with wide crown. Rev: + FO[LPOLT]
DЄ PЄR[T :], short cross pattee with
crescents and pellets in angles. Phase 1
coins are much the rarer of the crescents and pellets coinage, although to be
fair, they're all rare. It is interesting
to note that Spink do not acknowledge Perth
as an option for Phase 1 coinage: Edinburgh and Dun are the only options they
give. William gained the title "The
Lion" not through any particular act of bravery but rather through
changing the dragon on the arms of Scotland
with a lion. Old
ticket here.
Good VF (about as struck as it left the mint - remember, this issue was
contemporary with the English Teably coinage, and we
all know how dreadful that was) with attractive cabinet toning together with
the majority of the legends legible, something rarely seen on these early
issues. A very large,
unclipped flan. All that is secondary to the amazing depiction of William himself. You'll struggle to find another for sale and
if you do, it won't be as good as this one - even the Spink plate coin, with
all Spink's resources, is not as good as this coin. A very rare and desirable
coin indeed. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Baldwin,
bought by...
Richard A. Jourdan July
2007
WCA-5957:
1687 James II
Full Silver Crown. Interestingly modified to
incorporate x2 small blades. See
images here and here. SOLD
WMH-9116:
Edward 1st Hammered Silver Penny - a lovely example. Rose on breast - class 7a. London mint. Spink 1403. One of the most iconic Edward 1st New Coinage
types; better still with superb toning and a Very Fine grade. Edward 1st pennies are readily available but
this coin is in a different league to those.
SOLD
Provenance
ex
Northern collection, purchased...
ex
Sovereign Rarities (£200)
WI-7210: 1601-02 Elizabeth
1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.
Struck at the very tail end of the reign in order to pay the troops England
sent over to quell the “warlike” Irish of the North, led by O’Neill. The context was England’s
desire to “Shire” Irish land. The Earl
of Essex was sent over to lead the troops but he was recalled to London
where he was promptly executed. The
deceased Earl’s successor, Mountjoy, had a slightly
better campaign, based on the fact that he wasn’t executed upon his return to London. This coinage was very base, but not as base
as the pence of this issue, which literally contained no silver – a
revolutionary action (although Henry VIII got in there first with his “Old
Copper Nose” coins) when you bear in mind that the entire foundation of
currency was based on these coins actually being worth, in precious metals,
what they were circulating as. For
example, in medieval times, a penny coin literally contained silver to the
value of one penny. Spink
6508. This coin
very high grade for issue. SOLD
WI-7658: Edward 1st
Medieval Irish Hammered Silver Round Farthing. Early issues of 1279-84 (open C and
E). Dublin mint, Spink 6255. A tiny coin and therefore a
much magnified image. SOLD
WI-9033:
Edward
1st Irish Medieval Hammered Round FARTHING.
Second coinage, type 1, the rarer Waterford
mint - only Dublin
and Waterford
struck farthings and only Dublin
struck them for the late Edward 1st issue (the issue in between those two
struck no farthings). Spink
6256. A rare
coin. SOLD
WI-8009:
Irish Henry VII Hammered
Silver Geraldin Groat. Three Crowns coinage, type IV, Geraldine issue of August to October
1487 only. Kildare. Crude Saltires or
Crosses either side of the crowns, no "h" below - Spink 6432. The Fitzgeralds of
Kildare were a powerful family who took control for a brief period after
Lambert Simnel's abortive attempt to win the
crown. The reverse legend, DOMINUS
YBERNIE, means Lord of Ireland. This is
a rare issue and rarely, if ever, found in better than fine condition. Sold with a couple of
tickets. SOLD
WI-7868: Henry VII Irish Hammered
Silver Early Tudfor Groat.
Late portrait issue coinage of 1496-1505. "CIVI TAS DVBL InIE" reading - Dublin mint, Spink 6451. Initial mark Lis, broad portrait, very much double-punched, which was a
definite characteristic of this particular group due to issues with the shallow
nature of the dies. SOLD
WI-7140: 1558 Elizabeth 1st
Irish Hammered Billon Silver Groat.
First issue, preceding the 1561 fine silver issue, at
0.250 silver content. Spink 6504. Ex
Walter Wilkinson collection, accompanied by all his tickets.
The Walter Wilkinson collection was one of the best collections of
Elizabeth 1st coinage ever put together. Throughout the long life of the collection,
Walter was constantly buying in better grade examples to improve the
collection. This coin is a superb
example which I have certainly not shown through my poor images. It’s a VF coin, regardless of the atrocious
nature of the issue in general and the provenance is as good as it gets. SOLD
WSC-8989: Scottish 1708
Jacobite Medal - Map of Great Britain. Prince James, the Elder Pretender to
the throne.
MI ( ii) 312/133, by Norbert Roettier in AE metal.
An interesting medal depicting the British
Isles surrounded by ships at sea. The obverse legend reads literally
"Whose is this?", meaning "Whose image
is this?" and amplified out to something like "Whose image is
this? The King's. Render then to the King these Islands,
which are his." Struck in 1708
around the time of the Union
and distributed among the partisans of the exiled royal family, the medal
sought to build upon the unpopularity of said Union. As ever, France
was on hand to do anything to upset the British - they are her ships
surrounding the British Isles. Interestingly, although struck in 1708, they
were used politically again in reasonably high numbers by being distributed at
1711 and 1714 events. Obviously a design
that the Jacobites thought highly of and indeed, the reverse was a stroke of
genius in terms of its eye-catching, instantaneously understood message. SOLD
WSC-8019:
Choice 1558 Mary
Queen of Scots Hammered Silver Testoon. First period before marriage, 1542-58. Type IIIb
with the low-arched crown and no annulets below the M and the R, initial mark
Crown. Spink
5406. No muling
of the dates, which is unusual, and interestingly, clear evidence that the 155-
part of the date on the obverse was on the die with the final digit, in this
case an 8, being added later, and even some evidence that the same occurred on
the reverse as there is a cap between the first three and the final digits. Scottish coinage in general was a product of
miniscule mintage figures compared to south of the border with extant examples
disappearing even faster as a result of various currency recalls where coinage
would be taken in to go into the melting pot upon the death of every old
monarch to release silver for new monarch coinage. There was also a huge recall of coinage in
1707 as a result of the Act of Union: £142,180 face value of hammered Scottish
coinage and £96,856 face value of milled Scottish coinage was brought into the Edinburgh mint to be
melted down and recoined. Interestingly, £132,080 face value of foreign
(non English, Irish or Scottish) was also handed in, highlighting just how
bereft of physical coinage Scotland was at this time, and thus how rare
Scottish coinage is today. Once cleaned
but now retoning nicely. A very desirable coin
indeed. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Libertas collection, purchased Oct 1980
for US $850
WSC-7822: 1559 Scottish Mary
Queen of Scots Hammered Billon Silver Nonsunt.
A twelve penny groat struck in the second period, 1558-60, under both
Mary and her husband, Francis. It was an
issue of half alloy (.5 fine) which was actually quite
high considering the Lions of the same date which were 23/24 alloy - basically
base metal. The obverse crowned heraldic
dolphin is facing left (it's my belief that left facing is the rarer of the
two) so this is Spink 5448. If you're
scratching your head over the derivation of the term "nonsunt",
look no further than the reverse legend.
A small hole at 12 o'clock.
As the ticket states, rarely seen these days. SOLD
WSC-9108: Excessively Rare
David II Scottish Medieval Hammered Silver Round Farthing.
First coinage, first issue of early 1330's. Spink 5086. More
recent ticket here. Obverse: +DAVID:DEI.GRACIA
and reverse: REX SCOTORVM. Berwick
mint (tentative attribution) with initial mark Cross Pattée. The National
Museum
in Edinburgh
has no examples. The Hunterian
Museum
in Glasgow
has no examples. The Ashmolean
Museum
in Oxford
has no examples. Coincraft, of this
issue, state: "...of
the highest rarity". 99.99% of the coins in that guide have been
given a value. This is one of those
extremely rare instances where the cataloguers do not assign a value, they simply state "ex. rare". R.W. Kirton, a leading light
in Scottish numismatic research and a man not associated with the use of
hyperbole, on his ticket states: "Of extreme rarity".
He also states that the reverse die is unrecorded. Rarity aside, let's focus
in on grade. A problem-free coin with a
strong bust, virtually complete lettering (even with the corresponding flat
areas, a result of the moneyer's slightly angled strike, those odd letters are
just about discernable) and steel-grey toning.
A quick Google search will show you a museum
copy of Spink 5086. It will be directly
copied from the very best coin available.
It's a dreadful coin. As far as I
can ascertain, this is one of the best, and possibly the best example
known. Choice all day
long. SOLD
Provenance:
ex R.W. Kirton collection (an
excellent numismatic researcher who amassed a comprehensive collection of
Scottish coinage)
WMH-9102: Stephen Norman
Kings Hammered Silver Penny - Rare Mint.
Almer (actually Aethelmaer,
a solid Saxon name for a Norman moneyer!) of Chester:
+ALMER:ON:CES. Old tickets here.
Spink 1278.
B.M.C. I, Cross Moline
“Watford”
type. A rarer northern mint (£1,000 in
Spink) and a coin well struck for once. VF for issue. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Michael Trenerry (1986 and 2023)
WMH-7939: Stephen Norman
Hammered Silver Rarer Mint Penny. Cross Moline or B.M.C. 1 type, 1136-45. [+S]APINE.ON.HAST – Hastings
mint town. Very few recorded examples,
especially complete coins and in this grade, recorded. The apparent crack at 1 or 2 o'clock
on the reverse actually isn't a crack at all, rather a planchet flaw which was
there prior to the strike. Its
corresponding obverse location is at 4
o'clock.
Ex Bispham collection (an acknowledged expert
in late Norman,
early medieval coinage), ex Baldwins
- see
old tickets here. It is perhaps full circle in that at the
Battle of Hastings the Normans
took control of England
and then this penny, minted at Hastings,
witnessed the end of the Normans
period upon Stephen's death. SOLD
WI-9077: Irish Henry
VII Hammered Silver Tudor Groat. A class 1, late portrait issue, circa 1496 - 1505. Dublin mint.
Smaller head, Spink 6453. See here for old
tickets. Uncommon. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Spink
Old 1995 ticket
WTH-7883: 1567 Elizabeth 1st
Milled or Machine-Pressed Silver Sixpence with Excellent Provenance.
Initial mark lis, small
crude bust, Spink 2599. Borden
& Brown 37 (O1/R1) - type 7c. The
following, which I highlight at the top of the Elizabeth 1st page,
is fact: “85% of Mestrelle’s
meagre experimental machine-made coins were sixpences dated 1562. This leaves 15% for all the other
Screw-Pressed sixpences, shillings, groats, threepences, halfgroats, threefarthings and the gold coinage.” It doesn’t take a statistician to see that
for Spink to state that a 1567 milled 6d is commoner than a 1562 6d is beyond
ridiculous. (I don't tend to buy 1562
machine pressed sixpences as they are invariably overpriced). Queen Elizabeth 1st herself
visited both mints (Upper & Lower Houses) upon the occasion of the near
completion of the recoinage on 10th July 1561. She met with Eloye Mestrelle and viewed his machinery. The visit was reported to be six hours in
length. Eleven years later, Eloye Mestrelle was dismissed
from the mint in 1572 and just six years after that,
he was executed (hanged) for counterfeiting.
Old
tickets here:
Ex CEJ 1945 and residing in the same family until recently. A rarer date coin. SOLD
WMH-8128: Stephen Norman
Hammered Silver Penny. An exceptional coin.
Cross Moline
“Watford”
type B.M.C. I, Ð[VR]STAN:ON:EVE – Thorsteinn of York. Spink 1278. Of the x5 examples recorded on the EMC
database, this coin is the best. Dark toning, full flan, well centred, strong
portrait, excellent legends – you will struggle
to find a better example for type or mint available today. SOLD
WMH-7396: William II “Rufus”
Hammered Silver Norman Penny. Cross fleury
and piles issue (B.M.C. V) of 1098 – 1100 only. +ASCIL.ON.[L]I[N]CO. Lincoln mint.
Spink 1262.
Extra image here.
This final issue is the rarest of all five William II types, being only
9% of all recorded coins, including fragments and mules, for EMC + SCBI. The EMC alone has type V at 8% with the nest
rarest, type IV, at 10%. Further, the
money and type combination is also rare.
SOLD
WJC-9094:
Stuart
De Passe Token - James 1st with Charles 1st.
Circa 1625 - 1629/30. From a series of Medalets issued by Simon van de Passe
(1595-1647) depicting the kings and queens of England.
It is generally accepted that they were issued as gaming tokens. The dies were cleverly sunk to imitate a
hand-engraved appearance and indeed, the uninitiated even today will readily
state hand-engraved when asked. They
were not; they were machine-pressed.
There is a commoner Charles 1st De Passe token
with his wife, Henrietta Maria, on the reverse but this token, issued when
Charles 1st was on the throne, is unusual in that it
depicts two monarchs. Mitchener 4784. Rare. £245
WCom-6439: 1651
Commonwealth Hammered Silver Shilling. A straight 51 obverse and
reverse but no stop after THE making this the rare E.S.C 984. SOLD
WJC-7503: 1604 James 1st
Hammered Silver Dated Sixpence. First Coinage, second bust,
initial mark Lis. Spink 2648. A common date but the rarer
first coinage type. Ex Wootton collection. SOLD
WG-9081: 1797 George
III Copper Cartwheel Penny BOX. At
40mm in height, this box is comprised of a cartwheel penny as base and another
for the lid, together with a copper tube for the body of the box imitating x10
more cartwheel pennies. The base coin is
fixed. The top pushes into / pulls out
of the copper tube in a most pleasing fashion.
Possibly a very early 1800's apprentice piece. If you're looking for something numismatic,
tactile, useful and quirky, look no further!
SOLD
WG-9082: 1797 George
III Copper Cartwheel Penny SMUGGLER'S BOX. At first glance, a standard 1797
George III cartwheel penny. Look closer
though and you'll see that this coin cleverly unscrews to reveal a hidden
cavity inside. Possibly a very early
1800's apprentice piece. Another story
I've heard is that these were used to hide a gold guinea inside so that, for
instance, if you were taking a horse & coach trip in Georgian times and
were held up by a highwayman, he would not really be interested in a paltry
penny. These things have always been
termed "Smuggler's Boxes" so clearly there was an element of
smuggling involved here, although what you could physically smuggle inside one
of these things back in the early 1800's is beyond me! Crucially, the thread mechanism on this coin
is in perfect working order - virtually every other example I've
previously had has been problematic on the thread. A couple of people have been asking me to
source one of these pretty much since Covid - this is
the first I've had in all that time! If
you're looking for something numismatic, tactile, useful and quirky, look no
further! SOLD
WG-9083: 1797 George
III Copper Cartwheel Twopence SMUGGLER'S BOX. At first glance, a standard huge
1797 George III cartwheel twopence. Look closer though and you'll see that this
coin cleverly unscrews to reveal a hidden cavity inside. Possibly a very early 1800's apprentice
piece. Another story I've heard is that
these were used to hide a gold guinea inside so that, for instance, if you were
taking a horse & coach trip in Georgian times and were held up by a
highwayman, he would not really be interested in a paltry penny. These things have always been termed
"Smuggler's Boxes" so clearly there was an element of smuggling
involved here, although what you could physically smuggle inside one of these
things back in the early 1800's, even in a coin of this size, is beyond
me! Crucially, the thread mechanism on
this coin is in perfect working order - virtually every other example
I've previously had has been problematic on the thread. Further, this is a very different method of
manufacture to examples I've previously seen - the thread is set much further
into the coin resulting in a very sturdy design indeed. A couple of people have been asking me to
source one of these pretty much since Covid - this is
the first I've had in all that time! If you're
looking for something numismatic, tactile, useful and quirky, look no
further! SOLD
WSC-9044: John Baliol
Scottish Hammered Silver Long Cross & Stars Penny. Second coinage, smooth surface issue, circa 1292-6. Berwick mint. Obv: +IOhANNES DEI
GRA, bust left. Rev: +REX SCOTORVM, long
cross with x4 mullets or stars of six points in
angles. Spink 5071.
John Baliol was “chosen” out of thirteen competitors
for the Scottish throne upon the death of Alexander III. The English king, Edward I, was the
arbitrator. John Baliol’s
four year reign ended in 1296 with his abdication when Berwick, Edinburgh, Perth, Roxburgh and Stirling all fell to the
English. Unlike the first issue John Baliol pennies, very few specimens of this coinage have
been found recently with metal detectors.
Both very rare and desirable in this grade. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Mike Vosper
WI-9078: John (as Lord)
Irish Medieval Hammered Silver Halfpenny.
Listed in reference books as pennies but circulated at halfpence (the
halfpennies duly circulated as farthings).
Second DOM[inus]
coinage with the rarer obverse legend ending DOOM, c.1185/1190 and no later
than 1208/9. Dublin mint; Norman as moneyer. With a cross potent as opposed to a cross
pommée reverse, this is a Group 1b coin, Spink 6205. Prince John (his father still being very much
alive at this point) was given Lordship of Ireland in 1177. He finally visited in 1185 which coincided
with the first (excessively rare) issue.
This later issue followed on from that.
In 1208, John became king, so heralding the third "Rex"
coinage. See here for old
tickets. An outstanding coin -
choice. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Spink
ex
Hartland collection of English coins
ex
Baldwins,
1955, where is sold for the very high price of 15 shillings
WTH-7884: 1568/7 Elizabeth
1st Milled or Machine-Pressed Silver Sixpence with Excellent Provenance.
Initial mark lis, small
crude bust, Spink 2599. Borden
& Brown 40 (O2/R1) - type 7c, this exact coin cited and illustrated. The following, which I highlight at the top
of the Elizabeth 1st page, is fact:
“85% of Mestrelle’s meagre experimental machine-made coins were
sixpences dated 1562. This leaves 15%
for all the other Screw-Pressed sixpences, shillings, groats, threepences,
halfgroats, threefarthings and the gold coinage.” It doesn’t take a statistician to see that
for Spink to state that a 1568/7 milled 6d is commoner than a 1562 6d is beyond
ridiculous. (I don't tend to buy 1562
machine pressed sixpences as they are invariably overpriced). Queen Elizabeth 1st herself
visited both mints (Upper & Lower Houses) upon the occasion of the near
completion of the recoinage on 10th July 1561. She met with Eloye Mestrelle and viewed his machinery. The visit was reported to be six hours in
length. Eleven years later, Eloye Mestrelle was dismissed
from the mint in 1572 and just six years after that,
he was executed (hanged) for counterfeiting.
Old
tickets here:
Ex Spink 1958 and residing in the same family until recently. A rarer date and better
grade coin. SOLD
WSC-9087: 1567 Mary
Queen of Scots Large Hammered Silver Ryal. Second widowhood,
struck Edinburgh,
Spink 5429.
Old tickets here.
Counterstamped due to revaluation (30s to a hefty 36s, 9d) in 1578 - see
page 76 of Spink. It is interesting to
note that 1567 was a year that both Mary and James VI issued coinage
although it should be noted that the Mary date was but a fraction of the James
VI date in terms of output. About VF. A most desirable coin.
SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Spink, 1980's (May Sinclair tickets)
WTH-9091: Elizabeth
1st Hammered Silver Tudor Shilling. Sixth issue,
initial mark Woolpack (1594-6), Spink 2577. An interesting and rarer
variety with the obverse legend reading ELZAB. Excellent grade - just look
at the state of most extant Elizabethan coinage from late in the issue. The Spink plate coin - presumably the best
known example - is only marginally better.
Beautifully toned, high grade and rare thus. SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Tim Owen (older colour ticket)
WI-8174: 1690 Irish James
II Emergency Pewter Money Halfpenny.
Issued as part of the Gun Money Civil War coinage, but
very much on the tail-end when the supply of “latten” or scrap base metal was
very in dire shortage. Things were
getting so bad that a warrant was issued for the coining of two guns
(presumably obsolete ones) from Dublin
castle. It then got worse still: writing
to Mary of Modena, James II's
wife in France, the duke of Tyrconnell (the lord
lieutenant of Ireland) included in a list of 'things we cannot subsist
here without' a request that 'forty guns may be sent us to coine into money'.
At the same time that brass latten was becoming almost impossible to source, the public were coming to the very end of their
already thinly stretched patience with this non-money. Their contempt for the coins and those who
had issued them was unlimited, and they talked of 'their Tinkerly Treasure' and 'their brass imaginary
coin made only valuable by the magic of their priests'. This was never more so than during the Pewter
Money period. In January 1691, the Irish
finally admitted that nothing was going to restore the value of their emergency
coinages. They announced that the brass
& pewter would be withdrawn from circulation on 15 March. Those who had
emergency coinage were to bring them to the treasury where they would be given
receipts which would entitle them to full repayment when James was restored to
his throne. Most people knew that neither
was likely to happen. This pewter issue,
the “successor” to Gun Money, had a copper alloy plug. It was incredibly susceptible to both wear
and corrosion. Very few examples remain
extant and hardly any of them are in anything like this grade. Type I, Spink 6591. Readers may be interested to know that the
rare 1690 pewter money halfpenny issue in silver is all a later re-strike,
probably done in France
some time later. What little precious
metals they had at this time went to pay the troops in France
because they refused to accept the Latten or Pewter coinage. Further, all silver and gold Gun Money proofs
are again later re-strikes using genuine dies.
A particularly pleasing reverse, better than that of the Spink plate
coin and overall, on a par with that coin, it being the very best they could
source with their huge resources. Rare and rarer so in this grade. SOLD
WAu-9023:
Edward VI Tudor
Hammered Gold Half Sovereign. Although struck within the early period of
Edward's reign, they all bear the name AND portrait of his father, Henry
VIII. A youthful portrayal of Henry - a
strange choice of depiction, bearing in mind Henry was not only elderly but
also dead at this point! - with sceptre. Initial mark Arrow. Lozenge stops on the obverse; broken
quatrefoils on the reverse. Spink 2391,
Schneider 660, North 1865. Always a
problematic issue, the dies poor and the end product rarely, if ever, struck up
properly. See here for weight and tickets. This coin above average for
issue. SOLD
Provenance
Ex Michael Trenerry
WAu-7940: Henry VII Hammered
Tudor Gold Angel. Type IV, rarer Greyhound
Head initial mark (1502-4), Spink 2185.
This is the first Greyhound Head angel I have had. Very much the new dies type - angel with both
feet on the dragon as opposed to the old type with just one foot. A nice, presentable rarer initial mark
hammered gold angel, ex mount, for well under £2,000 (possibly even cheaper if
you take up the Coin News advert challenge?!)
Good look in finding any other Angel, for any monarch, for sale at under
£2K these days. SOLD
WTH-7603: Philip & Mary
Hammered Silver Billon Penny. P.Z.M. etc, London
mint, initial mark Half-rose & castle, Spink 2510A. Circulated as a halfpenny. I’m not normally one to get overly excited by
grade but even I have to admit that this coin is superb - central striking both
sides, exceptionally high grade for issue – choice. Ex Lancashire collection. You‘ll struggle to find
better. SOLD
WMH-8104: Henry IV / V
Hammered Silver Medieval SCOWLING BUST Groat.
Light coinage, London
mint, type B2a (there is now uncertainty as to whether types A and B of Henry V
should be given to Henry IV), initial mark Cross Pattée, no fleurs
over the crown and Quatrefoil after hENRIC - Spink 1762B. There is an interesting mention of this very
coin in BNJ 1997 (50), p.26. See old
tickets here and information sheet here.
High grade, impeccable provenance - Choice. SOLD
Provenance:
ex D. Mangaki collection...
Purchased
from Seaby 1956
ex Margaret Delmé Radcliffe
collection...
Dispersed Glendining's Action (1985)
Ex North Yorkshire Moor collection...
Dispersed DN W Action
(2019)
Ex Mike Vosper (2019 -
£1,250 ticket price)
Ex Mike Hallam
collection
WRS-8999: Roman
Silver Legionary Denarius: Legion II - Extraordinary Provenance. Roman
Imperatorial coinage, post Second Triumvirate, Mark Antony. Struck Autumn 32 to
Spring 31 BC. RSC 27, Sear 349. Legionary denarii is the modern name for a
series of Roman silver denarius coins issued by Mark Antony
in the eastern Med
iterranean
during the last war of the Roman
Republic
from 32 to 31 BC, in the lead up to the Battle of Actium. They were struck for one purpose only - to
pay the legionary soldiers. This coin is
Legion II - present in the British invasion force of the imperial propraetor Aulus Plautius in AD43, during which it was placed under the
command of the young legionary legate Titus Flavius Vespasianus,
later to become emperor. Twenty Three
legions were honoured in this "Legionary" denarius issue. The coins were struck in reduced silver
content (!) and so survived the rigours of circulation much better than
standard denarii. This meant that they
continued to be used in circulation and would have been present on the invasion
force of AD 43. The entire legion apart
from a small caretaker force, plus detachments of Legio
VI Victrix and Legio XX
Valeria Victrix, was put to work on the construction
of Hadrian’s Wall. Part of the very famous Helmingham Hoard of 2019 - the largest mixed hoard of
British Iron Age and Roman coins ever found in Britain.
This hoard was deposited AD 46-7, only 3 or 4 years after Legion II
landed. Sold with an
impressive array of tickets & literature here and here.
The large A4 double-sided glossy document makes very interesting reading
as it attempts to focus in on the individual who deposited this hoard into the
ground. A very good coin for issue,
bearing in mind its nearly 80 years in circulation, but more than that, true
history in a coin! SOLD
Provenance:
ex
Helmingham Hoard of 2019WMH-8059: An Excellent Henry V Long Cross
Hammered Silver Penny. Initial mark Pierced Cross, York mint, mullet
& lis by crown, annulet in reverse quarter -
Spink 1791. For a York mint coin, this
is a remarkable, bordering on exceptional example, all the more so because this
coin was struck from LOCAL DIES. I have
only ever had London mint coins as
good as this before. Henry V of the Battle of Agincourt fame: I pray thee, wish not one man more. By
Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; It
yearns me not if men my garments wear; Such outward things dwell not in my
desires: But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul
alive. This is obviously Shakespeare's
interpretation on Henry's St Crispin's Day speech but it's generally believed
that Henry V gave a rousing speech to his men, who, remember, were vastly
outnumbered, just before they defeated the French. Centrally struck both sides,
good legends, minor clipping only, strong detail throughout. This would have stood out when it was minted
in amongst all the other coins that were poorly struck and from indifferent
local dies. Rare. SOLD
WSC-9031:
Charles 1st
Scottish Hammered Silver Twelve Shillings - A Hugely Significant Coin. Third coinage, 1637-42, Type IV
Falconer issue, the rarest (and final) Type IV issue with the bust wholly
within the inner circle. Spink 5563. So, two things:
1)
This coin has been centrally pierced as part of the 1696 Great Re-coinage,
largely overseen by Sir Isaac Newton at the mint. Hammered coinage in England was phased out
at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and was officially ended in 1662
with the introduction of Charles II milled silver coins. Whilst no more hammered coins were minted
post 1662, the old hammered coinage was still legal tender; hammered and milled
running side by side, although much of the former was battered and bruised
through shear over usage, not to mention underweight through clipping. In 1696, although hammered coinage was still
popular with the public, it was decided that enough was enough – all
circulating hammered coinage was to be assessed by the mint. Anything under weight was to be exchanged for
the new milled coinage and anything of the correct weight was allowed to
circulate for a few years more. This
latter cohort was identified as “still legal” (crucially, these pierced coins
were not legal currency, rather they were officially sanctioned to pass
as lumps of bullion only, so technically still actual money, but not legally)
by the addition of a central punch or piercing administered by the mint. There were problems, as one would perhaps
expect with such a huge national undertaking:
a. Due to the mint’s
promise of a like-for-like value replacement, regardless of condition, many
enterprising individuals, before submitting for exchange, clipped their
hammered coinage further still, retaining the silver shavings to be utilised
for effectively what was free money later on.
b. As a direct
result of this extra clipping, together with the high cost of minting the new
milled coinage, the government lost a great deal of money – nearly £3
million.
c. The timing was
appalling – the new milled money was not ready in time for an exchange. Riots threatened and there was great public
unrest until the government bridged the period by issuing paper notes.
d. The infamous Window
Tax, of which we’re all still cognisant of today, was introduced specifically
to pay for this near £3 million financial black hole. There have been some bad government taxes
over the years, but a window tax?!
Bearing in mind there were not actually that many hammered coins that
passed the grade in 1696 (the process was actually 1696-99), together with the
fact that post 1699, whenever a pierced hammered coin passed through the hands
of officialdom, it would inevitably be withdrawn, it’s perhaps easy to see why
these coins are rare. You really don’t
see than many of them. Georgian and
Victorian gentlemen collectors would not be interested in pierced coins (these
were the people who mutilated the Cromwell crowns by smoothing over the
infamous die flaw because they couldn’t live with them as they were!!), which
is another reason why these extremely interesting coins are so rare.
2) The 1696 Great Re-coinage of 1696 was absolutely an
English move and yet this coin is very much Scottish! What would have happened was that this coin
would have been traded down from Scotland
to England,
thereby losing it's Twelve Shillings denomination,
instead circulating as a simple English Shilling. The central piercing of coins of the correct
weight was perhaps the least worst idea they came up with - it was incredibly
unpopular with the man in the street (piercing a coin had always been a mark of
non-currency, the best examples being the English centrally pierced jettons). London
was the focus of this great endeavour but officials were sent out into the
Shires to perform the deed. I'd imagine
this coin was the work of a mobile mint official somewhere north of London.
I have never seen or even heard of a Scottish coin connected with the
1696 Great Re-coinage before - the Irish
Charles 1st Blacksmith halfcrown I put up on the website a few years back was
centrally pierced not because of 1696 but simply to denote it wasn't legal
currency. However, there is a single
Scottish reference I've managed to source, and it is just a single reference in
amongst all the English extant examples: The Punched Hammered Coinage of
1696 (Galata 2019) by Garry Charman
lists a Scottish Charles 1st twelve shilling piece, centrally pierced, as a
result of the Great Recoinage, and would you believe it, the coin was also the
rarer type IV, Spink 5563! Not the same
coin though. A very
rare coin indeed. SOLD
WTH-9061:
1551 Edward VI Tudor Hammered FINE SILVER Halfcrown.
Walking horse with plume, initial mark y, Spink 2479. Tower (London) mint.
Extra montage image here, of the coin in the hand and taken
with a camera phone, illustrating the countless overstamps and corrections to
mainly the reverse lettering, but also the obverse. Some are smaller, less bulky letters over
original larger letters (eg all the letters of REX),
whilst others are clearly the correct letter over something entirely different
(eg the S of POSVI and the E of DEVM). I suspect that not only was this the first
date, first initial mark and first issue but that it was indeed the very first
die pair where they had to iron out all the mistakes. An interesting coin. SOLD
WI-9060:
Rarer Edward VI Irish Tudor Hammered Silver Groat or
Sixpence. Posthumous (Henry VIII) old
head coinage, 1547 - 1550. CIVI
TAS DVB LINIE - Dublin
mint. Initial mark the
oh-so-rare BOAR'S HEAD. The final type IV issue
(small right facing bust; very much in the style of the English Tower groats) and so nearer to 1550 in date. Spink 6488. Struck in the name of Henry VIII and with the
old head portrait of Henry VIII, even though by the time this coin hit the
streets of Ireland,
Henry had been dead for nearly three years.
The reason for the old king's details on the coinage was not, as most
people understand, simply because Edward was too young to do "kingly stuff",
or because people still loved the old king, or even that the Irish were slow
off the mark - it was actually done to con the people, or rather to carry on
conning the people, but conning them just a little bit more. Actual Henry VIII base coinage, struck
towards the end of his reign, was very debased as a
way of making money for the mint, and therefore the country, after Henry had
all but emptied the country's coffers.
The English ministers planned to bring the currency of England
(not Ireland!)
back up to .925 alloy from little better than copper
and indeed they did this in 1551 with the English fine silver issues. To pay for this, the Irish debased coinage
would continue for a further x4 years after the death of Henry and crucially,
having the old king's name and portrait on the coins would, it was thought,
trick the public into accepting the poor coins.
Remember, the coin in your hand back then was supposed to be the face
value in silver, so much so that the coin itself was largely irrelevant - all
you needed was a penny's worth of scrap silver to purchase a penny loaf of
bread. These debased coins were far from
being worth their face value in metal.
The bit where the English ministers conned the people just a little bit
more was in making the silver content of the Edward VI coinage just a little
bit better than the worst of the Henry VIII coinage BUT they increasing the
face value from a groat (fourpence) to a sixpence
WITHOUT upping the metal content.
Basically, same coin but a revaluation.
To further rub salt into the wound, whilst in 1551 the English were
enjoying the bright shiny fine silver coinage of .925 alloy,
the Irish, in 1552, having suffered in order to pay for the English fine silver
halcyon days, suffered further by having their coinage reduced even more to
.250 fine! So here we have a coin that
is Henry VIII and / or Edward VI and a denomination of 4d and / or 6d! More importantly, we have here the BOAR'S HEAD initial mark,
the first I have ever seen, let alone handled.
Sold with two old tickets (illustrated) and another
old dealer ticket incorrectly ascribing this coin as Spink 6487. A rare offering. SOLD
WI-7661: 1690 (August)
James II Irish Gun Money Half Crown. Large-sized halfcrown. Spink 6579b. After fleeing from England to
France in 1688 – an effective abdication from the English throne – James II
landed in Ireland March 1689 in order to promote his Catholic cause, something
we are perhaps still living with today?!
He had insufficient funds to prosecute this war so the plan was to raise
money by issuing base metal coinage in place of what would previously have been
silver issues. This was a less subtle
example of the Quantitative Easing that we all witnessed a few years ago. If today’s money had still been based on the
value of the coin in your hand being worth its face value in precious metal,
then the Chancellor in 2009 would perhaps have done something very similar! This coinage was set up with an intention for
them to be exchanged for sterling coinage once the dust had settled. This never happened. The metal for these coins came from old
cannon, bells and various other scrap metals that were termed “Gun Money”. SOLD
WI-9066: 1690 Irish Gun
Money Full Crown. James II emergency Civil
War coinage of 1689-91. Spink 6578.
Overstruck on the large Gun Money halfcrowns as by 1690, these were
obsolete; replaced by the small size halfcrowns. The obverse of the Gun Money crown (and it is
just the crowns) has similarities to the earlier Charles 1st
halfcrowns and crowns, which I’m sure was far from accidental. It won’t have escaped readers’ attention that
Gun Money coinage is currently riding high in terms of popularity. After fleeing from England to France in 1688
– an effective abdication from the English throne – James II landed in Ireland
March 1689 in order to promote his Catholic cause, something we are perhaps
still living with today?! He had
insufficient funds to prosecute this war so the plan was to raise money by
issuing base metal coinage in place of what would previously have been silver
issues. This was a less subtle example
of the Quantitative Easing that we all witnessed a few years ago. This coinage was set up with an intention for
them to be exchanged for sterling coinage once the dust had settled. This never happened. The metal for these coins came from old
cannon, bells and various other scrap metals that were termed “Gun Money”. SOLD
WTH-7601: 1589 Elizabeth 1st
Jetton – The Defeat of the Spanish Armada.
This event is iconic in the annals of Tudor history. Obviously this happened in 1588 but design,
production and distribution takes time.
MI 153/128, Eimer 63, Van Loom 388/2.
Well toned and perhaps somewhat harshly graded at GVF. Ex Baldwin’s.
SOLD
WTH-8074: Edward VI Base
Shilling Counterstamped with an Elizabeth 1st Portcullis Revaluation Mark.
An Edward VI base shilling from the Third Period
(1551), clear initial mark Lion, the final date letter of the Roman alphabet
clearly shown as L, so MDL or 1550.
Counterstamped between 1oth October 1560 and 8th November
1560 with a
Portcullis to signify a revaluation to fourpence-halfpenny. Spink 2546. The question of recoining
the large amount of debased currency in circulation in the first two years of
Elizabeth’s reign led a committee of the Privy Council to recommend the city of
London provide magistrates to check the coin in circulation in market places,
and to stamp Edward VI shillings of 8:2 and 6:2 fineness with a portcullis,
enabling them to be current for fourpence-halfpenny,
and those of 3:2 fineness with a greyhound, thus current for twopence-farthing. The stamping began on 10 October 1560
(i.e. almost at the end of the lis-marked first
coinage, which ceased on 8
November 1560) and was undertaken country-wide,
with the die-sinker John Lawrence providing sufficient punches to the
corporations of 42 towns. These counterstamped coins were allowed to circulate only
until the early Spring of 1561. Old
auction cutting here. Let's be honest, this is an ugly coin, but
you must remember that the entire point of this 1560 counterstamping exercise was
to target worn and damaged Edward VI coinage with the ultimate aim of
removing this troublesome coin from circulation, so only the "bad"
ones were ever counterstamped - you're never going to see a "good"
one. Aesthetics aside, this is an
excessively rare, numismatically important Elizabeth 1st coin, described by
some as THE rarest of all the issues - the Greyhound c/s is rarer and the undated
sixpences are rarer still, in my opinion, but never-the-less I'm sure you get
the point. The Bishopsteignton
(Devon)
example sold September 2020 through Spink for just a smidgeon under £10,000
after commissions. The Walter Wilkinson
example - so poor that at auction it received a grade of "mediocre" -
was estimated at between £4,000 and £5,000 but because there was so much
Elizabeth 1st material released onto the market that day courtesy of that
superb and enormous collection, it only sold for £2,600 after commission in
2020. I'm aware of only one other for
sale and that's just under £5,000.
Ignore this and you'll probably never see another come up! SOLD
WTH-7600: 1599/8 Elizabeth
1st Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark Anchor over
Key, Sixth issue, Spink 2578B. 1599
as a date represents a frequency of 0.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of
Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard
coins. *** 1599 is the third rarest of all forty two dates
*** There was an economic
depression during the final years of the sixteenth century, a factor hugely
relevant in the rarity of this coin.
This led to a situation where there was an oversupply of dies, resulting
in not only date alterations (we see 1599/8/6, 99/8 [this coin] and 99/6) but
also initial mark changes, in this case it was Anchor for 1599 overstruck on
Key for 98. This scenario only started
in 1598 as prior to that date, we see very little, if any overdating
– even 1597 was a straight date. More
interesting still, this coin is the rarer AN over KY in ANG error. Ex Ewerby Hoard. Not a particularly pleasing coin but
nevertheless hugely interesting, very rare and benefiting from coming from that
well known, recent hoard – and by the way, this large hoard was very much made
up of worn coins from circulation with apparently zero consideration given for
any part of it to be “nice coins” – these were the coins available to the
individual who put that hoard together at that time. This 1599 is fairly representative across the
board in terms of grade, showing us that the general coinage in circulation in
the 1640’s – the given date of this hoard – was poor. It’s frustrating when people demand high
grade, choice sixpences and complain that all see are “battered, low grade”
examples. The Chris Comber and Walter
Wilkinson Elizabeth 1st collections had their fair share of coins
looking like this, even after many decades of collecting and upgrading. A rare coin. SOLD
WTH-7708: 1589 Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver Tudor Sixpence. Sixth issue, initial mark
Crescent, Spink 2578A. 1589 as a
date represents a frequency of 0.5% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of
Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.5% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard
coins. 1589 is the seventh rarest of all forty two dates. Very nice grade for such a
late issue. SOLD
WTH-8030: 1598 Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark Anchor, Sixth
issue, Spink 2578B. 1598 as a
date represents a frequency of 0.1% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of
Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard
coins. *** 1598 is the second rarest of all forty two dates
*** There was an economic
depression during the final years of the sixteenth century, a factor hugely
relevant in the rarity of this coin.
This led to a situation where there was an oversupply of dies. 1598 exists only as a straight 1598 but the
dies were used in subsequent years because so few coins were struck in 1598
that the existing dies were still fresh as a daisy! We see later 1599/8/6 and 1599/8 coins to
illustrate this. The more astute among
you may well be wondering how a 1598 coin can have an anchor as an initial mark
when anchor was 8th
Feb 1599 to 30th April 1600. Some may suggest the change from Julian to
Gregorian calendars? Although the
Gregorian calendar was adopted widely in 1582, it wasn't until 1752 that it was
adopted in the UK
- on that day, Wednesday
September 2nd 1752 was promptly followed by Thursday September
14th, and New Year's Day was moved from March 25th to January 1st. So it wasn't the Gregorian calendar but the
truth lies in that last statement: New Year's Day was moved from March
25th to January 1st. In 1598,
the year ended March 24th, thus initial mark anchor (8th Feb 1599
to 30th
April 1600) and a date of 1598 was perfectly
acceptable. Ex Ewerby
Hoard. Not a particularly
pleasing coin but nevertheless hugely interesting, very rare and benefiting
from coming from that well known, recent hoard – and by the way, this large
hoard was very much made up of worn coins from circulation with apparently zero
consideration given for any part of it to be “nice coins” – these were the
coins available to the individual who put that hoard together at that
time. This 1598 is fairly representative
across the board in terms of grade, showing us that the general coinage in
circulation in the 1640’s – the given date of this hoard – was poor. It’s frustrating when people demand high
grade, choice sixpences and complain that all see are “battered, low grade”
examples. The Chris Comber and Walter
Wilkinson Elizabeth 1st collections had their fair share of coins
looking like this, even after many decades of collecting and upgrading. A very rare coin indeed in
the sixpence series. SOLD
WTH-8992: 1571/0
Elizabeth 1st MILLED or MACHINE PRESSED Silver Sixpence. Large, crude bust with ear showing,
initial mark Castle over Lis, Spink 2600. The rarest date in the
"milled" series by a country mile. Queen Elizabeth 1st herself
visited both mints (Upper & Lower Houses) upon the occasion of the near
completion of the recoinage on 10th July 1561. She met with Eloye Mestrelle and viewed his machinery. The visit was reported to be six hours in
length. Eleven years later, Eloye Mestrelle was dismissed
from the mint in 1572 and just six years after that,
he was executed (hanged) for counterfeiting.
Eloye Mestrelle's
experiment effectively came to an end on 1st September 1568
when his kinsman, Philippe Mestrell was charged with
counterfeiting Burgundian gold coins. Unfortunately for Eloye
Mestrelle, he was implicated in the crime. Philippe Mestrell
was found guilty in January 1569 and subsequently executed at Tyburn. Eloye Mestrelle was successful in
suing for a pardon but that really was the beginning of the end. He wasn't allowed anywhere near gold, for
obvious reasons, and was restricted with milled silver to such an extent that
we see this coin with a previously unheard of retrograde N, an awkward portrait
of the Queen and a general low grade set of dies all round. This date was not a patch on his earlier
work, of which he was well aware as he adopted the ongoing initial marks of the
hammered series (for this year it was Castle) rather than continuing with his
own marks. Old
tickets here. Walter Wilkinson,
on his original distinctive ticket, gives this RRR rarity which is only one
less R than the fabled undated sixpence to which he gave a rarity of RRRR. A great rarity in Elizabethan coinage
with a back story to match and a provenance that is quite remarkable. If you need a 1570 milled 6d for your
collection, this is surely the one to get!
SOLD
Provenance:
Ex Seaby
(1959)
Ex R. Carlyon-Britton
collection (1971)
Ex B.R. Noble collection, dispersed
through...
Glendining's Auction, 11-12 December 1975, lot 582
Ex Covent Garden collection, sold to...
Ex Chris Comber collection, sold 1986
to...
Ex Walter Wilkinson collection dispersed
through...
DNW Auction 148, 18-20th September 2018, lot 519
WTH-8994: 1600/159-
Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence. Sixth issue, initial mark 0, bust
6B - Spink 2578B. For the vast bulk of
Elizabethan coinage, little or no foresight had been used regarding dates and
initial marks, resulting in glaring overdates when the old dies were used again
(recycled) in subsequent years, for example the famous 1578/7/6. There are many others. The penny dropped at the mint, eventually,
that perhaps sinking dies but omitting initial marks and with only partial
dates (those to be added when the dies were brought into use), might be a good
idea. Amusingly, this practice was
adopted in, wait for it, 1599 - the most inappropriate time possible because
the following year was 1600 with three digits changing as opposed to usually
one and rarely two! Rather than throw
away the prepared 159- "future-proof" dies, they decided to alter the
middle two digits from -59- to -60-. The
first digit (thankfully!) didn't need changing and all they had to do was add the 0 to the end of the date, as well as add the initial
mark in the gap provided. Thus we have
1600 over 159- coins. Interestingly,
these 159- dies were also used in 1601 but even after adding the final digit
and changing the middle two, they discovered that the first and last digits
were so far apart in time that they were actually from different punches and so
different! Demand for English coin was
much in decline at this period so these were tiny mintages: 1600 as a date represents
a frequency of 0.4% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins
and 0.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins. 1600 is the fifth rarest of all forty two dates. I have to say that I don't see 1600 as being
as abundant as that, and I'm far from the only person saying that. A rare coin indeed. SOLD
WTH-8118: Unrecorded 1588 -
final 8 over sideways 8 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Tudor
Sixpence. Sixth issue, initial mark
Crescent, Spink 2578A. Note the
two 8's are low down, indicating both final digits were added to a finished
15-- die. In some instances, only the
final 8 has been added to a 158- die.
This was a time of austerity where relatively few coins were struck; the
thought being that these dies could be used over several years without
the need to overdate. However, much more
important is the final 8, it being overstruck over a sideways 8. Messrs. Brown, Comber & Wilkinson, the
undisputed leading experts on all things numismatically linked to Elizabeth
1st, in their research paper (published 2006, updated 2012), state that there
is but a single 1588 variety recorded - of all the other dates in this series
(1561 - 1602), 1597 and 1588 are the only dates to have a single type,
everything else having multiple dates, overdates, various errors etc, etc. And yet this coin is ex Chris Comber
collection - clearly an addition to his collection (all three of them
were actively adding to their collection right up until the end) post the 2012
update to their research. Completely unrecorded and
unique at this point in time. Interestingly,
the same employee at the mint who thought a sideways 8 was a good idea to add
to a 15-- die was probably still employed in 1589 when he again thought a
sideways 9 was an equally good and acceptable idea! 1580 also has an 8 over a sideways 8. After 1589, no more errors of this nature are
recorded thus we can assume that he was either cured of his sideways view on
things or moved out! 1588 as a date
represents a frequency of 0.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth
1st coins and 0.2% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins. 1588 is the fourth rarest of all forty two dates. The famous Spanish Armada date and although
only 4th rarest in the “league table”, this date is arguably the
most sought after of all dates. A very important coin.
SOLD
WMH-7873: Edward III
Medieval Hammered Silver Groat - a Rare Error.
Pre-Treaty, series C, 1351-52, London
mint although this coin has the very rare CIVI TAS DON DON reverse mint reading.
Spink 1565 var.
Ivan Buck in his seminal work on English hammered groats doesn't mention
this and I don't ever recall seeing one before, either. A great rarity. SOLD
WTH-8160: Edward VI Hammered Billon
Silver Shilling. Second (debased) issue,
January 1549 to April 1550. Bust 5, initial mark y.
Dated 1550 so a rarer late dies coin. Tower (London)
mint, Spink 2466B. An exceptionally good portrait, being better than the Spink plate
coin. Easily VF
for issue. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Martin Hewitt, his tickets (2005, sold for £250)
ex Spink (their ticket)
WTH-6894:
Henry VII
Hammered Silver Tudor Groat. Type IIIc
with IIIb bust. Spink 2199. London
mint. Very clear
initial mark Greyhound’s Head, 1502-1504.
A very nice, desirable coin. SOLD
WCA-5416: 1694 William & Mary Silver Proof Farthing. Plain edge. Heavier than usual and with
some wear so was obviously in circulation as currency. Contemporary planchets fault on reverse at 12
o’clock. Unlisted in Peck. To illustrate just how rare these
silver proofs are, this was a random example I had to hand – see here.
Rest assured, this will not cost you the £4,000+ ticket price after
commission!! Extremely
rare. SOLD
WMH-8149: Richard II Medieval Hammered Silver Groat. Type II
(retrograde Z preceding FRANC), London mint, Spink
1679. There was a distinct lack of
available bullion at this period to make coinage: Lord Stewartby (English
Coins 1180-1551, published 2009) states that ...during the reign of Richard II
(even at the end of Edward III), and most definitely going through the
subsequent reign of Henry IV, silver was haemorrhaging out of England to the
Continent at an alarming rate which was compounded by the fact that the country
was far from awash with silver in the first place - the price of silver on the
Continent was greater than in England and cross-channel merchants were quick to
take advantage. There are recorded
accounts showing the absolute dearth of both coinage in circulation and
available bullion during the reign of Richard II and Henry IV: in the Annals of
the Coinage of Great Britain, Rudding recounts a
licence issued to D.B. Goldsmiths of London to melt down groats, halfgroats and
pence to the sum of £100 in order to make a silver vessel for the use of
Margaret, Countess of Norfolk. Another
illustration was the meeting of Mac Murrough, an
Irish chief and the Earl f Gloucester in 1399. The chief arrived on a horse and being asked
how much such a wonderful horse had cost, he replied "four hundred
cows", it being the case that there was no physical money available so
bartering was the only means of trade.
Further, the actual groat dies were not really up to the mark in terms
of depth - Richard II groats are nearly always wishy-washy in appearance (just
look at the Spink plate coin - the best they could source with all their
collector contacts) and probably were if you were lucky enough to have one
fresh out of the mint in the late 1300's.
This is a remarkably good grade coin, being by far the best I've ever
had. Sold with an old
dealer ticket with £1,200 price.
A quick browse of past sales of type II groats will show you that far
lesser grade coins sold for well into four figures. A very desirable coin
indeed. SOLD
WTH-8123: High Grade 1602
Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.
Seventh issue, initial mark 2 – the last ever date in the lengthy
Elizabeth 1st sixpence series.
Interestingly, the obverse initial mark 2 is overstruck on an earlier
initial mark 1. Spink
2585. 1602 as a date represents a
frequency of 1.9% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins
and 2.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins. Outstanding grade for a
coin so late in the series. Ex Chris Comber collection.
SOLD
WAu-9018:
Celtic Iron Age
Full Gold Stater - Tasciovanus. Catulvellauni tribe, 25 BC - AD 10 Hidden faces type with
the obverse being Hidden Faces - crossed wreaths, one curved, back-to-back,
crescents at the centre with faces in the angles. The reverse has a horse in flight, right, a bucranium and a solar device above. TASCIAVAN is supposed to be above nut it
rarely is. Hook-like devices are found
below the horse but this coin has an extra object below, described as a
"bunch of grapes" on the ticket.
See here for
weight. Again, Tasciovanus
appears to have had ties with Rome as his coinage,
especially the later issues, use increasingly Romanised designs. Tasciovanus was an
excellent king but unusually, his greatness is perhaps overshadowed by that of
his son, Cunobelinus.
It is ironic that the hard work, strengthening and consolidation of the Catulvellauni by Tasciovanus
literally paved the way for Cunobelinus to shine so
illustriously. Spink 214, ABC 2553, Van
Arsdell 1680, BMC 1591-1603. An outstanding and thus desirable coin. SOLD
WAu-7996:
Rare Celtic Gold
Broad Flan Type Quarter Stater. Ambiani tribe - imported from Gaul or specifically,
the modern day Rouen area of France, circa 3rd
century BC to the mid 1st century AD.
These were the first coins to be used in Britain. Gallo-Belgic
"Broad Flan" type with a rather impressive flamboyantly wreathed head
facing right on the obverse and a somewhat stylised horse on the reverse, again
facing right. Spink 6, ABC 28 (listed
"Rare") - Ancient British Coins (ABC) by Chris Rudd, the go-to
reference for Celtic coins since 2010, taking over from Van Arsdell. From an old collection - the collector does
not want to be named on the internet but is willing for me to disclose his name
and town to the buyer for provenance. See here for old tickets etc.
SOLD
Ex J.Follws collection
Ex Chris Rudd (sold for £500 back in the day)
Ex Northern collection
WTH-7955: Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver UNDATED Sixpence. Initial mark Lion, 1567,
Third & Fourth issues, Spink 2562A.
Comber, Wilkinson & Brown (2006, updated 2012) in their seminal
publication on Elizabethan coinage list only three examples recorded, one of
which is held by the British
Museum
(ref CT-2201). My understanding is that
in the decade following on from the update, there are now four examples
recorded: the British Museum example, initial mark Lion, 1st February 1567 to
30th June 1567 [the CT-2201 coin], initial mark Coronet, 1st July 1567 to 28th
February 1570, initial mark Ermine, 19th April 1572 to 30th October 1573, and
this coin, another initial mark Lion, sold to the Comber collection in 2010
and, for whatever reason, not included in the 2012 update. Comber, Wilkinson & Brown do not go into
any details regarding the undated issues, save only to suggest that the reverse
dies on all sixpences were initially prepared with no date, that being added
later. That doesn't quite add up and to
be fair, Comber, Wilkinson & Brown do caveat their suggestion by stating
that overdates are known for most dates during this period. No Comber ticket (as is often the case - his
collection was vast and very much a work in progress right up to the end) but
Comber did annotate the earlier ticket with the maximum "RRRR". The more observant of you will see that
chronologically, an undated sixpence is missing from the initial mark Castle
period, there being two undated sixpences before initial mark Castle and one
after. It does seem a stretch to me that
these undated coins are simply down to carelessness at the mint - perhaps one,
but three? With an estimated Elizabeth
1st survival rate today of between four and ten coins per die, we might
conceivably look forward to the day when some lucky metal detector unearths
"Lucy", the missing link; an undated CASTLE sixpence?! Regulars will smile wryly, being all too
aware that I frequently bang on about 1597 being the rarest dated
sixpence. And so it is, but if you're an
Elizabeth 1st sixpence collector, the 1597 is as nothing compared to the rarity
of the legendary undated sixpence!! You
will likely never see another one of these for sale ever again. Ex Chris Comber collection,
purchased DNW 2010. You'll need
to be quick on this one! SOLD
WTH-7959: 1574 Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark obverse Eglantine; reverse
Eglantine over Acorn. One of the
clearest initial mark counterstamps you're ever likely to see. Bust 5A, Third & Fourth issues, Spink
2563. What is of great interest here is
the obverse initial mark, it being originally an Acorn reverse die (1st November 1573
to 25th
May 1574) recycled for use as an Eglantine
coin (29th
May 1574 to 13th July 1578). There is no overdate evident although the
final digit, a 4, shows every indication of being added after the
die was cut, ie the reverse die was prepared with 157- in place with the final
digit to be added to correspond with whatever year it was when the die was
finally put into production. The
original Comber ticket highlights the overmark, attributing a very impressive
"RR" rarity rating to the coin.
Such initial mark overstamps are recorded and, as you'd expect, are very
rare indeed. There is a similar coin
listed on this site with Initial mark obverse Eglantine over Ermine which is
rarer still. Ex Brown,
ex Wilkinson, ex Chris Comber collections. A very rare coin indeed
with the added benefit of being endowed with attractive toning and better
grade. SOLD
WTH-7470: 1601
Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence. Seventh Issue,
initial mark 1, Spink 2585.
1601 as a date represents a frequency of 0.6% for the 2,716 recorded
single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.7% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth
1st hoard coins. 1601 is the tenth rarest of all
forty two dates. These
later date coin, and you don’t get much later than this, other than the
obvious, were nearly always poorly struck, often using dies of a lesser
standard compared to the start of the reign.
This coin is stunning, easily being the best grade example I’ve ever
had, or probably seen. If it wasn’t for
the damage, it would be a four figure coin.
SOLD
WTH-7956: 1587/6/5 Elizabeth
1st Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark Crescent, Bust
5B, Sixth issue, Spink 2578. This
is the much rarer 7 over 6 over 5 overdate (there is
evidence of a high 5's lower crescent), this being a recorded overdate, along
with the 1587/6. Both overdates are equally
rare with the straight 87 being most commonly encountered. 1587 as a date represents a frequency of 0.9%
for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.0% for all
5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.
1587 is the
twelfth rarest of all forty two dates, but do please bear in
mind that 12th rarest is for a straight, non overdate 1587. Ex Lingford
collection, purchased from Lingford by Baldwins
in 1951, ex Chris Comber collection.
SOLD
WTH-7957: 1577/6 Elizabeth
1st Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark Eglantine,
Bust 5A, Third & Fourth issues, Spink 2563. The overdate couldn't be clearer. It may be of interest to read that this is
such a rare date that there are only these 1577/6 overdates recorded, ie there
are literally no straight 1577 coins, meaning that all 1577 sixpence reverse
dies were recycled from earlier years. 1577
as a date represents a frequency of 0.4% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of
Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.4% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard
coins. 1577 is the sixth rarest of all forty two dates. Nice grade and attractively toned thus a very
rare coin. Ex Chris
Comber collection. SOLD
WTH-7958: 1575 Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark obverse Eglantine over Ermine;
reverse Eglantine. Bust 5A, Third &
Fourth issues, Spink 2563. There is no
evidence of this date being 1575/2 as suggested in one of the unidentified
tickets and indeed, that combination currently does not exist as a recorded
overdate. What is of great interest is
the obverse initial mark, it being originally an Ermine die (19th April 1572
to 30th
October 1573) recycled for use as an Eglantine
coin (29th
May 1574 to 13th July 1578). No Comber ticket (as is often the case - his
collection was vast and very much a work in progress right up to the end) but
the old, unidentified ticket states "Eglantine over Acorn?" and then,
in another hand, "highly unlikely".
In my opinion, this coin was originally a much earlier Ermine - the two
upper horizontals being evident either side of the counterstamped
Eglantine. Such initial mark overstamps
are recorded and, as you'd expect, are very rare indeed. There is a similar coin listed on this site
with initial mark obverse Eglantine over Acorn; reverse Eglantine. Comber attributed a rarity value of
"RR" to that coin (this one would be rarer still), which illustrates
just how atypical these coins are. This
coin, initial mark obverse Eglantine over Ermine is rarer because of the
greater separation of time between the two marks. Bust 5 was introduced July or August 1573 on
Ermine dies thus this is a very late Ermine obverse die, altered to Eglantine, and
then paired with a mid-production Eglantine reverse. Ex Chris Comber
collection. A
very rare coin indeed. SOLD
WSax-7974: Edward the
Confessor Hammered Silver Saxon Penny.
Pointed helmet type, B.M.C. VII, c.1053-6 only. +STIRCOL ON EOFER - York
mint. Spink 1179. An outstanding well struck example, being the
best I've ever handled, slightly impaired by the ragged flan. Easily a four figure coin otherwise. SOLD
WTH-7977: Philip and Mary
Hammered Silver Tudor Groat. Initial mark Lis, 1554-58.
Spink 2508.
Mary was the only child of Henry VIII (her mother was Catherine of
Aragon) to survive to adulthood. Mary
quickly and efficiently disposed of Lady Jane Gray – proclaimed Queen when
Mary’s younger brother Edward VI, died at age 9 – by beheading her, a process
not unfamiliar to her, being the daughter of Henry VIII!! Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain was
entirely political – his close aid once wrote: "The marriage was concluded
for no fleshly consideration!" Ex Lingford (December 1948) collection,
ex Chris Comber collection. SOLD
WI-7735: 1543 Henry
VIII Irish Hammered Silver Harp Groat. Third Harp
issue, 1543 only. 0.833 silver
fineness, which interestingly, in view of Henry VIII’s
penchant for progressively reducing the silver content of his coinage
throughout the reign, is actually a HIGHER silver content compared to the Second
Harp issue of 1540-42. Rest assured
though, the fourth issue was 0.666, the fifth 0.500 and the sixth 0.250. Initial mark Tudor Rose. Spink 6481. A very nice grade coin indeed, possibly
edging the Spink plate coin. SOLD
WTH-7802: 1562 Elizabeth 1st
Machine Screw-Press Silver Threepence.
Tall bust with no ear showing, initial mark Star, medium
rose, Spink 2603. A
much rarer denomination with only x4 different dates. I again refer the reader to the factual
statement at the top of the Elizabeth 1st page, highlighted in
yellow, which will comprehensively illustrate just how rare this denomination
is. Spink sold a
similar example some time ago for £1,140 after commissions. It should be noted that in that auction,
Spink misidentified the coin by attributing it as Spink 2604. It was Spink 2603. Probably only the 3rd threepence I have ever had.
SOLD
WTH-7804: 1580 Elizabeth 1st
Hammered Silver Tudor Sixpence Fifth issue, initial mark Latin or Long
Cross, which was in use 1st June 1580 to 31st December
1581 so much more prevalent of 1581 coins.
Further, there are overdates recorded – 1580/79, of which this coin is
decidedly not – so it’s a fair assumption to date this coin to the latter
months of the second half of 1580.
Interestingly, no 1580 dies were recycled post this date. Likely to have been part of a hoard at some
point as the coin has been historically cleaned and the grade is
outstanding. Note the reverse, which as
good as you’ll ever see on one of these.
The coin is probably not far off “as struck” with the obverse being a
tad under-struck, coupled with some slight double striking. Even taking grade out of the equation, this
is a particularly well made specimen, especially as 1580 is at the point where
quality of the dies and the actual end product started to fall off the
cliff! There is a scratch to the neck
which could be as a result of recovery from the ground, or perhaps a test
scratch to ascertain authenticity because the coin was probably a stand-out
example when it hit the streets. Just
speculation, though. 1580 as a date
represents a frequency of 3.7% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth
1st coins and 4.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins. Spink 2572. A very desirable coin. SOLD
WCom-7854: 1649 Commonwealth Hammered
Silver Shilling. Initial mark Sun,
struck London (Commonwealth coinage, particularly the early, larger
denominations, was fairly London-centric in their circulation anyway), Spink
3217. It is interesting to note that being
the very first date in Cromwell's "non reign",
the design was perhaps more style over substance. In subsequent years, although clearly not in
1650, more thought was put into the die design in order to produce a better
all-round coin - no pun intended. To all
intents and purposes, this 1649 design is unique to this single year, albeit
extremely subtle to the uneducated eye!
I strongly recommend you browse the excellent Sun & Anchor website
which is dedicated to Commonwealth coinage.
Regarding the reference on the ticket to the "Shove Groat"
game: until fairly recently, and it may even still be going somewhere today,
shove hapenny was a pub game. I'm aware of Edward VI fine silver shillings
being used where the coin was always obverse down, thus attracting much more
wear that side. Incidentally, these
coins, and coins of a similar period as well, are sometimes marked in the
fields with graffiti - this is thought to be players of this parlour game
putting their own identifying marks on their "gaming coins". Shakespeare actually refers to Edward VI
shillings being used in this way (The Merry Wives of Windsor) and the famous
Stuart, self-named "Water Poet", John Taylor, wrote several lines
about the Edward VI shove shilling game in his "Travailes
of a Shilling" work (London, 1621).
However, I think it's a stretch to say this Commonwealth shilling has
lived a life of "Shove Groat"
(groats were an earlier iteration of this game which were very much superseded
by shillings): there was no obvious obverse on these coins (Cromwell was
adamant he was not to appear monarch-like by having his portrait on coinage, at
least until he had a change of heart in 1656! and 1658!) and I'm aware of no
evidence that in a time when Edward VI coinage would still be circulating,
especially outside of London, Commonwealth coins were used for this act. It was the obverse or head being face down
that was the important thing in the game, other than winning!! So, probably nothing to do with any of the
above (!), but none-the-less, a rarer, sought after year. SOLD
WSC-7744:
1625 Charles 1st
Scottish Hammered Silver Six Shillings.
First coinage, first date in series, Spink 5543. This is an excessively rare issue – Charles’
Scottish coronation didn’t happen until 1633 and no new dies were produced
until then. Dies of James VI were
altered, under an official directive, and coinage was issued as Charles 1st
using the old, modified dies
This resulted in the Twelve Shilling and Six Shilling coins
literally having a bust of James VI on the front with just a quick name change
to the legend and a tweak or two to the beard.
This Charles 1st Six Shilling issue, along with the James VI
Six Shilling issue, often goes well under the radar with many people think
these coins are simply English dated sixpences.
I refer the reader to the Scottish James VI section of this website for
extra information. You might be thinking
that this isn’t much of a coin to look at and just looking at it, you’d be
correct. However, nice grade examples do
not turn up simply because this issue was generally poorly struck using
modified, often worn-out dies. The Spink
plate coin is a £5,000+ coin. This is
one of the rarest Charles 1st Scottish silver coin issues, if not
the rarest. I’d be surprised if this
coin didn’t attract a buyer very quickly.
SOLD
WAu-7765:
1710 Queen Anne
Full Gold Guinea. Post Scottish union, third draped bust, Spink 3574. 8.36g. It won’t have escaped your notice that with
Queen Anne gold coinage in particular, when they do come up, they are almost
always HALF guineas. It really is hard
work finding full guineas. Very light ex
mounting marks at 11, 12 and 1 o’clock but again, find
one that doesn’t these days. However,
they really are minor and do not detract.
Sold with a ticket that made no mention of mount
marks. SOLD
WSC-9059: James VI Scottish
Hammered Silver Eightpenny Groat. Coinage of 1583-90, being before James VI
took on the English throne after the death of Elizabeth 1st in
1604. Edinburgh mint.
An issue of 0.25 fineness. OPPID EDINB legend with
hairline inner circles, Spink 5512.
An excellent example for type. SOLD
WAu-7999: Extremely Rare Celtic
Unrecorded Quarter Stater. North Thames Region, Eastern. The x33
uninscribed coins found predominantly in the Eastern part of the North Thames
Region, especially Essex, can not be comfortably attributed to the Trinovantes nor the Catuvellauni.
They are all extremely rare (Van Arsdell only listed x7). Current attribution has this coin in the
"Cantian-inspired gold and silver types"
category. Obverse plain field apart from
a single "S" shape in the centre (the main image did not really
highlight the "S" so I've added another image here) - reverse
"S" symbols are thought to represent lightning flashes
rather than letters although this "S" is not inverted / the reverse
depicts a tree-like trophy on a triad of ringed pellets with various motifs
surrounding. Spink not listed, ABC 2249
(listed "Extremely Rare") - Ancient British Coins (ABC) by Chris
Rudd, the go-to reference for Celtic coins since 2010, taking over from Van
Arsdell. From an old collection - the
collector does not want to be named on the internet but is willing for me to
disclose his name and town to the buyer for provenance. See here for old
tickets etc. SOLD
Ex Chris Rudd (sold for
£650 back in the day)
Ex Northern collection
WMH-9037: Edward V or Richard III
Hammered Silver Medieval Groat. Type
2a, reading EDWARD DI GRA REX ANGL Z FRANC.
London mint, initial mark Boar's Head 1
struck over Sun & Rose 1. Spink 2155. Obverse
dies in the name of Edward with an underlying Sun & Rose 1 initial
mark. In 1483, on 12th February, the
Cinquefoil coinage of Edward IV's type XXI ended. The new mint master, Bartholomew Reed,
entered into an indenture with the king and thus Sun & Rose 1 was
introduced. Edward died on the
9th April 1483
but Sun & Rose 1 continued through the very short reign of Edward V and
into the reign of Richard III. This
ended on 20th July when a new indenture was prepared by Robert Brackenbury to introduce the Boar's Head mark. The dies were prepared very soon after
Richard III ascended the throne on 26th June 1483.
Boar’s Head initial mark - the White Boar was the personal device or
badge of Richard III and dear to his heart.
Richard III was the last of the medieval monarchs, losing to Henry Tudor
on Bosworth
Field, or
as is now the current thinking, on a field a few short miles from that famous
location. The famous
"King in the Carpark."
Whist Richard was no saint (I think some poor decisions and a ruthless
streak that they all had at that time was about as bad as it got), he probably
wasn't a ‘child killer’, ‘murderer’, or ‘usurper’, at least no more than any
other medieval monarch. Don't believe
all that Shakespeare tells you!! So here
we have a coin struck from an obverse die that was very much part of the Holy
Grail of Edward V's coinage but modified by the addition of Richard III's beloved Boar’s Head initial mark, but crucially
leaving the old regnal name intact.
Coincraft place this coin under the Edward V category whilst Spink place
it under Richard III. Incidentally, as a
Richard III groat, it is the rarest type, other than the York example - the last one of those I
saw go through auction achieved £7,000 before
commission. An extremely
rare coin indeed. SOLD
Provenance:
ex Spink (sold August 2014 for £3,010)
ex Frank Limouze collection (dispersed 2024)
WMH-7711:
William 1st
Hammered Silver Norman Penny. B.M.C.
1, Profile left, cross fleury
issue of 1066-68. +BRIHTNAR ON PIN – Britmar of Wallingford (Oxford).
Spink 1250.
A rare Norman mint. Only two other examples recorded on the EMC /
SCBI database, making this the third and one of those is unconfirmed. This is a better coin than the other
confirmed example. Ex Seaby (sold for £275 in 1979), ex Royal Berkshire
Collection – see
tickets. Nicely
toned, good VF. A superb coin going all the way back to the actual Norman invasion
– Harold’s arrow to the eye, the Bayous Tapestry etc. SOLD
WI-9034: Excellent Edward VI Irish Tudor Hammered Silver Groat or
Sixpence. Posthumous (Henry VIII) old
head coinage, 1547 - 1550. CIVI
TAS DVB LINIE - Dublin mint. Initial mark P. The final type IV issue
(small right facing bust; very much in the style of the English Tower groats) and so
nearer to 1550 in date. Spink 6488. Struck in the name of Henry VIII and with the
old head portrait of Henry VIII, even though by the time this coin hit the
streets of Ireland, Henry had been dead for nearly
three years. The reason for the old
king's details on the coinage was not, as most people understand, simply
because Edward was too young to do "kingly stuff", or because people
still loved the old king, or even that the Irish were slow off the mark - it
was actually done to con the people, or rather to carry on conning the people,
but conning them just a little bit more.
Actual Henry VIII base coinage, struck towards the end of his reign, was
very debased as a way of making money for the mint,
and therefore the country, after Henry had all but emptied the country's
coffers. The English ministers planned
to bring the currency of England (not Ireland!) back up to .925 alloy from little better than copper and indeed they did
this in 1551 with the English fine silver issues. To pay for this, the Irish debased coinage
would continue for a further x4 years after the death of Henry and crucially,
having the old king's name and portrait on the coins would, it was thought,
trick the public into accepting the poor coins.
Remember, the coin in your hand back then was supposed to be the face
value in silver, so much so that the coin itself was largely irrelevant - all
you needed was a penny's worth of scrap silver to purchase a penny loaf of
bread. These debased coins were far from
being worth their face value in metal.
The bit where the English ministers conned the people just a little bit
more was in making the silver content of the Edward VI coinage just a little
bit better than the worst of the Henry VIII coinage BUT they increasing the
face value from a groat (fourpence) to a sixpence
WITHOUT upping the metal content.
Basically, same coin but a revaluation.
To further rub salt into the wound, whilst in 1551 the English were
enjoying bright shiny fine silver coinage of .925 alloy,
the Irish, in 1552, having suffered in order to pay for the English fine silver
halcyon days, suffered further by having their coinage reduced even more to
.250! So here we have a coin that is
Henry VIII and/or Edward VI and a denomination of 4d and/or 6d! More importantly, we have here an excellent
grade example with an unusually clear initial mark. Superior to the Spink
plate coin in terms of edge and legends. A rare offering. SOLD
Provenance
Ex Tim
Owen
WTH-9028: 1586 Medal Beseeching
Help From Elizabeth 1st. A dated
Jetton or Medalet from the Low Countries imploring Elizabeth 1st step in
and help with the trouble Belgium was having with Portugal.
As ever with these pieces, symbolism abounds: two handcuffed (Belgian)
hands reaching for the compassionate heart of Elizabeth 1st and England.
MI(i)134/89. Sold with an old Netherlands' ticket.
The first example of this medalet I've
seen. SOLD
WI-9050: Henry VIII with Anne
Boleyn Hammered Silver Irish Groat. Issued in commemoration of Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, the
second and probably most famous of his six wives. Spink 6472. The rarer First (1st) Harp Issue, 1534-40 and
the rarest of the three wives mentioned on silver coinage, irrespective as to
what Spink claim. Dated
to 1534-5, in commemoration of a marriage that lasted just three years,
produced the future Queen Elizabeth 1st but ultimately ended in Anne losing her
head, quite literally, because she could not produce a male heir. This issue is at 0.842
silver fineness with later issues going the same way as that of the
English silver coinage under Henry, ie downhill. This is only the third Anne Boleyn groat
I've had, the first I remember selling within minutes of it being listed. Sold with an old
(unidentified) ticket. A rare coin and in exceptional grade for issue. SOLD
WI-7266:
Irish Henry
VIII Hammered Silver Groat. Issued in commemoration of Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour. Spink 6473. The rarer First (1st) Harp Issue, 1534-40 but this coin dated 1536-7 in commemoration of
Henry’s marriage. Subsequent wives to
see their names (initials) in lights, or specifically on Harp groats, were Anne
Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Anne of Cleves seems to have been overlooked by Henry and by the
time of Catherine Parr, he seemed to have realised that perhaps the coinage
couldn’t keep up with his marriages.
This issue is at 0.842 silver fineness with
later issues going the same way as that of the English silver coinage, ie
downhill. See here for old tickets
– ex Spink, ex Bosworth. Rare. SOLD
WI-7575:
Rare Type 1
1722 George 1st Irish William Wood’s Copper Halfpenny. Slabbed
under NGC and graded by them as AU 50, meaning about Uncirculated. Spink 6600. Extra images here and here. Rare in this grade, rarer
still being this first issue. Incidentally,
when you visit the NGC page for this coin, it states that the current market
value, something it helpfully does for all NGC slabbed coins, is £658, although
bizarrely, EF grade in Spink 2020 is £1,200 in EF and NGC seem to think this
coin is a grade above EF?! Contemporary
planchet faults at 12 o’clock and 3
o’clock, otherwise a
wonderful coin in both rarity and grade.
SOLD
WI-8101: 1690 Irish Gun Money Full
Crown. James II
emergency Civil War coinage of 1689-91.
Spink 6578.
Overstruck on the large Gun Money halfcrowns because
by 1690 these were obsolete; replaced by the small size halfcrowns. Much original halfcrown detail still evident
on the reverse, which is what sets this coin above nearly all others - I don't recall ever having seen the
original host date of 1689 being not only so visible but literally next to the
new date of 1690 before! The
obverse of the Gun Money crown (and it is just the crowns) has similarities to
the earlier Charles 1st halfcrowns and crowns, which I’m sure was
far from accidental. It won’t have
escaped readers’ attention that Gun Money coinage is currently riding high in
terms of popularity. After fleeing from
England to France in 1688 – an effective abdication from the English throne –
James II landed in Ireland March 1689 in order to promote his Catholic cause,
something we are perhaps still living with today?! He had insufficient funds to prosecute this
war so the plan was to raise money by issuing base metal coinage in place of
what would previously have been silver issues.
This was a less subtle example of the Quantitative Easing that we all
witnessed a few years ago. This coinage
was set up with an intention for them to be exchanged for sterling coinage once
the dust had settled. This never happened. The metal for these coins came from old
cannon, bells and various other scrap metals that were termed “Gun Money”. Although not looking high grade, it actually
is - it's the soft strike resulting in the halfcrown detail being visible which
accounts for this. A
very good and desirable coin indeed.
SOLD
WSC-9051: 1694
Scottish William & Mary Silver Five Shillings. Conjoined
heads to the left, WM monogram on the reverse. Spink 5665 but the much rarer variation where the second V in GVLIELMVS is
an inverted A. I have
never seen this variety before although Spink do list it. The exact mintage of this date and denomination was just 3,496 between
5th Jan to 5th Dec 1694. This is tiny and just shows you how little Scottish
coinage in general was minted. That,
coupled with the remarkable grade this coin is in - Scottish coinage was in
such short supply that it was constantly being used / circulated / worn; never
being hoarded - illustrates just how rare this coin is. SOLD
WCom-9048:
1653 Oliver Cromwell
Silver Medal. A cast medium sized
silver medal by T. Simon to commemorate the elevation of Cromwell to the
position of Lord Protectorate on 16th December 1653. Old
tickets here. The portrait of Cromwell was copied from a
miniature by Cooper which was held by the Duke of
Devonshire, their seat still being Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. The British Museum holds a gold example of this medal. The reverse die of this medal broke across
the middle very early on and wasn't replaced, thus resulting in a very limited
mintage. Medallic
Illustrations (i) 409/45 and Eimer 188b. Some original mercury
gilding evident on the reverse. A rare medal. SOLD
Provenance:
Ex "Numismata
Cromwelliana", the property of a gentleman
WAu-9025: Charles 1st Hammered
Gold SCOTTISH Eighth Unit. Third coinage, 1637-42, Briot issue,
right at the start of this coinage.
Spink 5538.
An EF grade coin, far surpassing the plate coin Spink put up, with all
the vast resources at their fingertips.
Some interesting political graffiti lightly behind the king's head
("6" - obviously someone back in the day making a point as to the
Scottish heritage of both the coin and the king) which is barely discernable
and would polish out if desired. An outstanding coin with equally impressive provenance. See here for all the old
tickets and here
for weight. An exciting and very rare
Scottish hammered gold offering. SOLD
Provenance
Ex Mark Rasmusson (2013),
sold to
Ex Maurice Bull collection,
dispersed to
Ex Noonans
(Feb 2023 where it sold for £4,128 including buyer's commission)
WAu-8088:
Charles II
Restoration Period Hammered Gold Crown.
First issue, initial mark Crown, circa very early in the 1660-62
hammered period. Obverse 3, reverse 3 dies. Spink 3303, North 2757, Schneider 389, Bull 114 (plate coin). Pierced and plugged (immediately to the left
of the obverse initial mark / around the letter R of the reverse – die rotation
10h). I bought this as a nEF, unplugged coin because even though I’d looked closely,
I did not spot the plug. In honesty, I still
can’t place it with any high degree of certainty as it’s a top rate job. If the paperwork (which came to me after I’d
bought the coin) stating the presence of the plug were to become disassociated
from this coin, I doubt anyone would ever notice – the workmanship is that
good. This extremely late hammered
coinage period of 1660-62, even though it spanned three issues, was very much
treading water and just really getting anything out there that would reassure
the public of the Restoration of the monarchy and the demise of the
Commonwealth. The quality of coinage in
general was not good and did deteriorate through the issues – you only have to
look at the hammered halfcrown issues to see that. Everyone at the mint was aware that hammered
coinage was dead in the water and that milled coinage was coming (indeed, Blondeau was getting everything together, ready for
production of his new milled coinage, literally as this coin was being minted)
so the dies were mediocre at best, as was the actual execution of the
coinage. And yet look at the state of
this coin, especially the obverse! What
a tremendous coin! Something else to
bear in mind: Blondeau needed all the silver and gold
he could get his hands on for the onset of milled coinage, and the country was
still teetering on bankruptcy after the Commonwealth, so very little bullion
was actually put into the hammered years.
A very rare, attractive and desirable coin. SOLD
