This week’s fresh listings (scroll down):

 

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

 

Additions to www.HistoryInCoins.com for week commencing Tuesday 7th February 2023

 

 

Previous Weeks’ Listings (scroll down this page for “This Week’s Listings”):

 

WAu-7663:  Edward IV Medieval Hammered Gold Ryal or Rose-Noble.  First reign, light coinage, 1464-70.  The excessively rare Coventry mint – this mint was only operational for x72 days right at the start of the Light Coinage, which would account for the fact that I have never seen another in the flesh, ever, and have only seen one other for sale – see here.  Spink 1955.  Such a rare coin!  P.O.A. RESERVED

 

WAu-7664:  1602 Scottish James VI Hammered Gold Sword & Sceptre Piece.  Eighth coinage.  Circulated at 120 shillings.  Spink 5460.  Often seen creased or even pierced & plugged – this coin is completely problem-free and in lovely grade – probably the best I’ve ever offered.  £3,585 RESERVED

 

WAu-7665:  Scottish James VI Hammered Gold Unit or Sceptre Piece.  Tenth coinage, 1609-25.  Circulated at £12 in Scotland and £1 sterling.  Spink 5464.  Old auction slip here.  Very high.  Choice.  £5,850

 

WTH-7655:  James 1st Tudor Hammered Silver Shilling – High Grade.  Third coinage, initial mark Trefoil, sixth bust, Spink 2668.  High grade – the best I’ve ever handled – with attractive steel grey toning.  If this were to be slabbed and put into a decent auction, it would likely fetch much more than the listing price here.  Choice.  £1,385

 

 

WSC-7650:  Alexander II (2nd) Medieval Scottish Hammered Silver Penny.  Phase C, circa 1230-34: coinage in the name of Alexander’s father, William the Lion: +: WILELMVS REX although this is the rare variety where the obverse legend is retrograde.  For some reason, possibly because Alexander II was very busy with insurrection, invasions and intrigue throughout his reign, coinage retained William’s name for some twenty years, although the portraits were Alexander II.  Joint moneyers working out of Roxburgh: PERIS ADAM DE ROCI. 1.16g, 3h.  Ashmolean 82, Burns 66c, Spink 5034.  Near VF for this particular issue.  Rare coin.  £745

 

WMH-7647:  An exciting opportunity to own a set of EIGHT Medieval Henry III Silver from the very famous BRUSSELS’ HOARD!!   Voided long cross coinage, 1247-72.  Comprising different mints in a presentation box with paperwork.  In July 1908, a group of workmen in Brussels were pulling down an old tavern near a cathedral in the city centre during construction of the main railway line.  As they dug down, they discovered a large container placed in a bricked-up vault beneath a water cistern. The container apparently crumbled as soon as it was touched - hardly surprising considering it had probably been sealed over 600 years before.  But what they found inside was truly astounding: an extraordinary array of over 140,000 medieval coins, the largest deliberately buried hoard of coins ever found, according to Guinness World Records.  Known as the Brussels’ Hoard, it comprised roughly 64,000 continental coins but also 81,000 English, Scottish and Irish silver pennies. The hoard would appear to have been buried around c.1265.  With so many examples minted in England during the reign of Henry III (1216-72), the hoard might well have originally been some sort of Royal payment for trade or military purposes.  Following its rediscovery by the workmen, and an initial examination, the coins ended up being sold at auction in October 1909 in Brussels by the coin dealer Charles Dupriez. They were divided into two lots - one for the continental coins and the other for the British issues.  Baldwin's purchased all the British issues for a bargain price as weather was poor in the English channel on the day of the sale.  Bizarly, a different bidder bought the continental coins and they were later melted down en mass!  Most of the coins from the British hoard have remained in Baldwin's stock ever since, although some were sold to collectors over the years and some of the poorer pieces were melted down to help pay the wages of staff during the 1920s. 

 

This set was issued by the London Mint Office.  It comprises x8 Henry III Medieval hammered silver voided long cross pennies, all from the famous 1908 Brussell’s Hoard, all from different mints: 

 

London

Canterbury

Winchester

Bristol

York

Oxford

Exeter

Continental imitation

 

The London and Canterbury coins are Phase III, 1250-72, Post Provincial Phase whiles the other six are clearly Phase II, 1248-50, Provincial Phase.  Extra images here and here.  There is no better provenance than being ex Brussells’ Hoard!!  The Exeter mint penny alone is worth £200.  For those interested, this book is an excellent reference: The Brussels Hoard of 1908. The Long Cross Coinage of Henry III Hardcover – 1 Aug. 2012.  It is still available from a variety of sources on the internet.  The presentation box is pleasing in appearance and comes with eight hard plastic covers to ensure your coins stay in their compartments.  £675

 

WJC-7639:  1648 Charles 1st Civil War Pontefract Besieged Silver Shilling.  Cut from silver plate literally inside Pontefract castle whilst it was under attack by Cromwell’s forces, June 1649 – March 1649.  Issued to pay the garrison defending the castle, it was made by cutting any available silver bullion and plate. The inscription 'DVM SPIRO SPERO' translates as “Whilst I breathe, I hope”.  Struck the year prior to the execution of Charles 1st.  The rarer of the two varieties with no mark of value – Spink 3148.  Ex Fred Rist, ex DNW, ex M.H. Coins.  Particularly high grade – these suffered quickly from wear, often being kept as touch-pieces by local and bereft supporters during the dark days of the Commonwealth that followed.  5.59 grams, 43mm tip to tip.  There is a slight Z bend to the coin which has resulted in minor wear to those corresponding high points.  Equally as good grade as the Spink plate coin, bar the contemporary piercing, but interestingly from a different obverse die – this coin has obverse pellet stops with no stop after SPERO.  The reverse die is the same.   Find another for sale in such high grade!  £3,995

 

WJC-7638:  Charles 1st Civil War Provincial Mint Half Crown.  EBOR below king on rearing horse – York mint.  Type 6, third horseman, initial mark Lion, 227.7 grains, Spink 2868.  A most impressive selection of old tickets / provenance (see here and here): ex M.H. Coins, ex Maurice Bull, ex Seaby ticket?  This last one dated July 1971 with a ticket price that actually went up from £45 to £50 to £65.  This coin was the plate coin in Maurice Bull’s seminal publication, The Halfcrowns of Charles 1st.  Described as VF on Bull’s ticket.  £1,745

 

 


This Week’s Listings:

 

 

WMH-7666:  Henry 1st Hammered Silver Norman PAXS Penny.  A desirable early issue, being B.M.C.iii – circa 1103 only.  +IIHGMII[ND O[N C]AN – Agmundr of Canterbury.  A very rare type / mint combination, there being only two B.M.C.iii Canterbury pennies listed on the world famous EMC / SCBI database, this coin being one of them (EMC 2012.0295), the other being a totally different moneyer.  In effect, a unique coin.  The method pf photography employed greatly enhances any flaws etc.  In this case, the flan cracks look off-putting.  I would refer you to the images on the EMC / SCBI database which literally don’t show them at all.  They are not visible to the naked eye.  Found Holme-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, 2012, bought by Tim Owen, bought by the Causeway Collection.  A rare coin indeed.  £1,875

 

WMH-7667:  Henry II Tealby Hammered Silver Medieval Penny.  Class E, circa 1170-74, Spink 1341.  Willem of Newcastle.  £255

 

WMH-7668:  Rare Class 1A Henry II Hammered Silver Medieval Penny.  A class 1a1/1a2 mule – square E and C in king’s name.  This is the only Plantagenet short cross coin to have a square E and C and the first example I have ever owned.  RANDVL ON LVN.  London mint.  SCBI 79, this coin; Spink 1343.  Old collector’s annotated coin wallet together with various other tickets.  £385

 

WMH-7669:  Richard 1st Hammered Silver Medieval Penny.  The Lionheart.  Class 4b, Spink 1348C.  Very clear legends: +ALEIN ON CAR – rarer Carlisle mint but regardless, a very nice grade coin in its own right.  £385

 

WTH-7670:  1580 over 1579 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Tudor Sixpence.  Fifth coinage, bust 5A, initial mark Latin Cross, Spink 2572.  Overdates, with altered initial marks, are found because too many dies were sunk in a year where less coinage was struck that was originally expected, often down to availability of bullion.  These old dies were effectively recycled up to three years later.  It is interesting to note that although changing the initial mark was obligatory, in line with the various pyx inspections, the date was not required to be changed.  They are actually quite rare in all coinages, but specifically for the fifth coinage, it only really happened three times.  When you think that 79 to be changed to 80 would have been twice the work, you begin to wonder why they bothered changing the date at all.  The overdate on this coin is very clear.  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.  £225

 

WTH-7671:  1591 over 1590 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Tudor Sixpence.  Sixth coinage, bust 6C, initial mark Hand, Spink 2578B.  Overdates, with altered initial marks, are found because too many dies were sunk in a year where less coinage was struck that was originally expected, often down to availability of bullion.  These old dies were effectively recycled up to three years later.  It is interesting to note that although changing the initial mark was obligatory, in line with the various pyx inspections, the date was not required to be changed.  1590 changed to 1591 is a strange one in that most of the 1590 sixpences issued were made from 1589 recycled dies and the rest were from straight 1590 dies.  They clearly didn’t issue many straight 1590 coins (it is a rarer year) because the dies were barely used – they took the 1591 dies, seeing they were still fresh, and altered them to produce 1591 coinage.  1591 as a date represents a frequency of 1.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.2% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  1591 is the fifteenth rarest of all forty two dates.  £255