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 8th July 2025

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. £575

Provenance:

ex Drewry Family collection (purchased for £175 late 80's)

ex CNG, 1997

WSC-9171: Robert II Scottish Hammered Silver VERY RARE MINT Groat. Crowned bust, left with a star at the foot of the sceptre. The letter B behind the head is for the moneyer Bonagius, a particularly sought-after feature as Bonagius did not act as moneyer for all the Dundee coinage. Further, this is a very clear B which makes the coin even more desirable. VILLA DVnDE - the extremely rare Dundee mint. S.R.5135 - it is interesting to note that Sovereign Rarities couldn't even source an example to use as a plate coin. Miniscule numbers were struck at Dundee as compared to Edinburgh and Perth. Robert II was first Scottish king of the Stewart line. His 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 but Dundee mint coins are in a league of their own! The AMR example, which sold in 2019 for £2,000, was perhaps on a par with this coin but the moneyer's initial B was far from clear. An extremely rare and desirable coin. £1,935

WMH-9172: William 1st Hammered Silver Norman Penny. B.M.C. V, Two Stars type: +GODPINE ON LVN – Godwine of London. S.R.1254. Not a particularly rare mint or moneyer but a nice, clear example of this much rarer type - obviously all Norman pennies are much, much rarer than their Medieval and Tudor counterparts, and in a lot of cases, rarer even than the late Saxon pennies, but when you do come across a William 1st penny, it's invariably B.M.C. 8. £995