This week’s fresh listings:

This page is to be updated every Tuesday and will contain all the latest Coin, Medal & Token listings for that particular week.

The more observant of you may have realised that I no longer keep previous "Fresh Listings" coins on this page.

All for sale coins can be found via the category grid on the front page. Most sold coins are now accessible via a new link on that same category grid.

Additions to www.HistoryInCoins.com for week commencing Tuesday 27th January 2026

This week, two similar hand-cut "Lozenge" coins, minted at two different British castles that were besieged during the

English Civil War by Oliver Cromwell's "Roundheads" supporters.

WJC-9261: 1646 Charles 1st NEWARK Besieged Hammered Silver Shilling.  Emergency coinage whilst supporters and troops of Charles 1st were besieged in Newark in 1646.   The desirable later year of 1646 with Newark spelt correctly. S.R.3143.  1646 was within the third siege of Newark during the Civil War.  It was the actual town of Newark that was besieged, not just the castle, although then and now, the castle lies in the heart of the town.  On 26 November 1645, Scottish and Parliamentarian troops launched a twin attack on Newark. The Scots besieged Newark from the north; Parliamentarian forces besieged from the south. The garrison refused to capitulate and aggressively defended the town. During the harsh winter, the Scots built up siege works which were manned by 16,000 men. They also tried to dam the River Deven (a tributary of the famous River Trent which literally laps up the side of the present day castle walls) to starve the town’s grain mills power. Despite this sustained attack, Newark held out.  Townspeople who survived later recounted that they were forced to eat horses and dogs because food was so scarce. The town was blighted by the plague. These silver Newark siege pieces - sixpences, shillings, ninepences and halfcrowns - were emergency money; literally cut from the silver pate at Newark Castle and then stamped with the dies.  Circular coins would have been difficult to hand cut, hence the diamond shape.  Examples with original underlying designs / gold gilding from the silver plates have been recorded.  The town only surrendered at the order of Charles 1st, who was himself forced to order the surrender as part of the conditions for his own capitulation. Newark finally surrendered on 8 May 1646, thus this later date coin was clearly only struck for four months.  It is interesting to note that soldiers from the Newark garrison fought at the famous battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644).  Remarkably well centred for this issue, both obverse and reverse (this was a rushed, emergency issue which resulted in the majority of coins being regularly off-struck) with an interesting "wobble" on both the obverse right diagonals where the person in charge of cutting up the silver plate presumably utilised a vaguely straight edge to save himself at least one cut and then for whatever reason, had to cut very slowly on the adjacent diagonal.  The Brooker collection contained only one example dated 1646 - a smaller but thicker flan, pierced & plugged.  Newark siege pieces are increasingly rare and as collectors will be aware, when they do turn up, the vast majority are pierced (siege pieces were often kept as touch-pieces to be worn around the necks of loyal supporters), damaged, worn, etc. A rare coin. £2,245  

Provenance:

ex Tim Owen

Old unidentified ticket

WJC-9262: 1648 Charles 1st PONTEFRACT Besieged Hammered Silver Shilling.  Emergency coinage whilst supporters and troops of Charles 1st were besieged in Pontefract. Struck between June 1648 and March 1649 before the king was executed by beheading on 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London. The mark of value divides PC on the reverse. S.R.3149. Oliver Cromwell led the final siege of Pontefract Castle in November 1648. Pontefract's garrison came to an agreement resulting in Colonel Morrice handing over the castle to Major General John Lambert on 24 March 1649. Following requests from the townspeople, the grand jury at York, and Major General Lambert, on 27 March Parliament gave orders that Pontefract Castle should be "totally demolished & levelled to the ground" with materials from the castle to be sold off. The Brooker collection contained two examples of this issue, one of each type - large obverse CR and small obverse CR, the latter being 4.97g and emanating from the same dies as this coin (a superior 5.34g). Generally, this issue is the more desirable as it was struck before the king's execution but when you do find examples (and you do tend to see more octagonal types), they're problematic in terms of being pierced (siege pieces were often kept as touch-pieces to be worn around the necks of loyal supporters during the following austere Commonwealth years), damaged, worn or off-struck. This example is much above average for issue, having an excellent reverse castle, and is comparable with the Brooker example. Nice provenance - a 1978 original Seaby ticket. A very rare coin indeed from one of the most interesting periods in the entirety of British history. £4,995

Provenance:

ex Seaby ticket, 1978