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 22nd April 2025
WSC-9127: Scottish William 1st, The
Lion, Medieval Hammered Silver Penny.
Short Cross & Stars, Phase B
coinage of 1205-1230. Spink
5029. Obverse: the rarer LE REI
WILAM obverse regnal reading; reverse: +hVE WALTER –
jointly struck by the moneyers of the Edinburgh & Perth mints. An excellent portrait piece from child-like
dies, but elevated by the attractive toning.
Very old ticket. A handsome coin. 
£395
Provenance:
ex
Mike Vosper
WSC-9128: John Baliol
Scottish Hammered Silver Long Cross & Stars Penny. First coinage, rough
surface issue, circa 1292-6.
Berwick
mint. Obv: +IOhANNES DEI GR, bust left.
Rev: +REX SCOTORVM, long cross with x4 mullets
of six points in angles. Spink 5065. 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. Tim
Owen ticket. Rare. £435
Provenance:
ex Tim
Owen
WSC-9129:
John Baliol
Scottish Hammered Silver Long Cross & Stars HALFPENNY. Second coinage, smooth
surface issue, circa 1292-6.
Berwick
mint. +[REX
SC]OTORAA, long cross with x2 mullets or stars of six points in angles. Spink 5074. 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. A hard denomination to
find. £595
WSC-9130:
Robert II Scottish
Hammered Silver Long Cross & Stars HALFPENNY. Left facing bust of Robert with the reverse
unusually showing x5 pointed mullets in all quarters unlike the previous
x5 points in two quarters. Spink 5152. The first Scottish king of the Stewart line. Edinburgh mint.
Robert II’s
grandfather was Robert the Bruce; his mother, Marjorie Bruce, being Robert
Bruce's daughter. Robert was Regent
under the imprisoned David II and was himself later imprisoned with his three
sons in England when Edward III was
recognised as successor to David II. All
Robert II coins are hard to source, these minors particularly so. £295
Provenance:
ex
Mike Vosper
WSC-9131:
James III Scottish
Hammered Silver Long Cross & Stars HALFPENNY. Light coinage, type IV, circa 1482 only. Edinburgh mint.
Front facing bust of James, very
much following the English issues. The
reverse is more unusual: x3 pellets in two quarters with single mullets of five
points in the remaining quarters. Spink 5283. James III was an interesting individual. Crowned aged 9, the Scots lost Berwick to keep
the peace with England but gained Orkney and the Shetland Isles as a part dowry
(which makes you wonder what the other part of the dowry was!) when James
married Margaret of Denmark (she was just 13).
James III was so unpopular due to his lifestyle and blind insistence
upon a policy of pursuing an alliance with the Kingdom of England that he was, perhaps inevitably,
murdered after his defeat at Sauchieburn. This is a particularly hard coin to source,
especially in this grade - the Spink plate coin, the very best example they
could source from their vast contact book, is not really that much better than
this coin. A rare
coin. £665
Provenance:
ex
Hall's Coins
WTH-9132:
1551 Edward VI
Hammered Silver Sixpence - an Extraordinary example! Fine silver issue of 1551-3,
initial mark y, London mint, Spink 2483. A pleasing example of this attractive and sought
after issue which is rarer than the shillings and, just like the shillings,
often presents as problematic - damaged, bent, worn etc. Some damage is undoubtedly down to a very
sceptical public in the early 1550's who had lived
through 50+ years of debased coinage thanks to Henry VIII. They would be disbelieving of these fine
silver coins and so would bite them and bend them to test they weren't
fakes. This coin is centrally pierced,
strongly implying that it was done so under the governance of Sir Isaac Newton
himself, in 1696 at the Great Re-Coinage.
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 it was battered and bruised through
shear over-usage, not to mention seriously 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 substandard was to be exchanged for
the new milled coinage and anything in high enough grade and, most importantly,
of the correct weight, was allowed to circulate for a few years more. This latter cohort was identified as “of
still legal tender” by the addition of a central punch or piercing administered
by the mint. The mint employee who
processed this coin back in 1696 somehow managed to make the piercing go
directly through the eye of Edward!
You could argue that he was perhaps mischievous and bored and did it
intentionally, but the punch has actually gone through the reverse side (that
being the larger hole) so he literally had no sight of the obverse king's
eye... forgive the pun! What an amazing
coincidence.
There were problems, as one would perhaps expect
with such a huge national undertaking:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 (for goodness’ sake, 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. Find another like this!! £550
WSax-9133:
Anglo Saxon
Silver Sceat. Primary phase, circa 675-760 AD, minted in various regions of
South-Eastern and Southern England.
Series B1.
Obverse: diademed head, supposedly wearing large hoop earrings, facing
right within a serpent circle; reverse: a bird atop a cross with annulets
either side. Spink
777. It is interesting to note
the Christian cross on the reverse. In
AD 595, Pope Gregory
the Great chose Augustine to lead a mission to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons
of Britain to the Christian faith.
Augustine was most likely living as a monk in Rome at the time. He duly arrived on these shores in AD
597: Æthelberht
of Kent became the first Anglo-Saxon king to be baptised, around AD 600. He in
turn imposed Christianity on Saebert of Essex and Rædwald of East Anglia. Augustine (later Saint Augustine) was recorded by Bede as really only talking to the top end of English
society. Columba
and Aiden were the other two recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
who were on a mission to convert Britons to Christianity. Columba was
slightly earlier than Augustine but alas he only focused on Iona in Scotland.
Aiden was the most effective, according to Bede, as although he set up the Lindesfarne
Monastery (later to be targeted so infamously by the Vikings), he went out and
about, spreading the Gospel to the common man in the street, and a great many
of them. However, he was much later,
around AD 634. These early Saxon coins
served three important purposes: to legitimise the king, to promote the
Christian faith to the populace and to facilitate trade. I suspect that was the correct order of
importance! £235
WSax-9134:
Anglo Saxon
Silver Sceat. Primary phase, circa 675-760 AD, minted in the central River Thames
region of England.
Series F, circa 700-10 AD.
Obverse: crude bust, right, wearing an unusual headdress with a
Christian cross behind; reverse: another cross, this time atop a couple of
steps with an annulet above. Many
old tickets. Spink 781. It is interesting to note the Christian cross both
sides. In AD 595, Pope Gregory the Great chose
Augustine to lead a mission to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons of Britain to the
Christian faith. Augustine was most
likely living as a monk in Rome at the time. He duly arrived on these shores in AD
597: Æthelberht
of Kent became the first Anglo-Saxon king to be baptised, around AD 600. He in
turn imposed Christianity on Saebert of Essex and Rædwald of East Anglia. Augustine (later Saint Augustine) was recorded by Bede as really only talking to the top end of English
society. Columba
and Aiden were the other two recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
who were on a mission to convert Britons to Christianity. Columba was
slightly earlier than Augustine but alas he only focused on Iona in Scotland.
Aiden was the most effective, according to Bede, as although he set up the Lindesfarne
Monastery (later to be targeted so infamously by the Vikings), he went out and
about, spreading the Gospel to the common man in the street, and a great many
of them. However, he was much later,
around AD 634. These early Saxon coins
served three important purposes: to legitimise the king, to promote the
Christian faith to the populace and to facilitate trade. I suspect that was the correct order of
importance! £495
