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 30th December 2025

This week - an extremely nice Medieval penny, a rare Tudor halfpenny and a Charles 1st shilling with something of a story to tell!!

WMH-9245: Choice Edward IV Medieval Hammered Silver Penny. The more desirable second reign of Edward IV, 1471-83. York Episcopal mint, struck under Archbishop Neville whist he was suspended in the period 1472-5. An E and a Rose by the king's neck with a Quatrefoil on the reverse long cross. S.R.2128. George Neville was the brother of the Earl of Warwick, the Earl being largely responsible for Edward becoming king. Unfortunately, Archbishop Neville was arrested for Treason in April 1472 and promptly despatched to France, thereby being "suspended". The E by the neck alludes to York. Lord Stewartby in his seminal numismatic publication, English Coins 1180-1551, states that, "Pence attributed to Neville's long suspension in 1472-5 are relatively scarce." Further, this entire second reign period, going right through to the demise of Richard III, was a period in which the Northern mints, ultimately under the control of the Church, issued hugely underweight coinage in order to make money - Archbishop Rotherham of York was literally arrested by the crown as, "....The flow of ill-struck and often illegible pence from the Northern Episcopal mints continued unabated". This coinage was always short of flan, giving the perception of clipping. You simply do not see well-struck pence from this period... apart from this coin. Obviously on a short flan (as already alluded to, they all were) but a truly exceptional portrait for issue. I don't recall ever seeing a better second reign penny. Choice for issue. £335

WTH-9246: Rare Edward VI Tudor Hammered Silver HALF Penny. Struck under his father, Henry VIII, 1547-51. York mint, billon silver - inherited from the latter part of the Henry VIII reign, finally dispelled in 1551 under the Fine Silver issues - S.R.2428. Edward was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of just nine years of age. He was the only surviving son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour. Sadly, Edward died in July of 1553 aged just 15 years old. It was a very strange decision to keep Henry's name and portrait on some of the currency once he'd died, and then for x4 years, considering that from April 1547, just x2 months after Henry VIII died, Edward's First Period coinage, with both Edward's name and portrait, including pennies and even halfpennies, was issued into everyday currency. Good provenance (see old tickets here) and outstanding grade for issue. These halfpence denominations are rare coins indeed. £325

Provenance:

ex R.A. Shuttlewood collection

Dispersed by Spink 2001

ex J.P. Rosen collection

Dispersed DNW 2003

WJC-9247: 1645 Charles 1st NEWARKE BESIEGED Hammered Silver Shilling. Emergency coinage whilst supporters and troops of Charles 1st were besieged in Newark between 1645 and 1646. The rarer crude, fat-topped crown variety; S.R.3142. 1645 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 cut, hence the diamond shape. Examples with original underlying designs 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 surrender. The town finally surrendered on 8 May 1646. It is interesting to note that soldiers from the Newark garrison fought at the famous battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644). This coin, a twelve-penny shilling, needed to be 6g as that was its intended buying power - literally x12 pennies worth of silver (the good old days when the coin in your hand wasn't just a worthless lump of base metal with an attached bank promise of value, rather the coin in your hand was literally worth what the coin said it was worth in metal, be that copper, silver or gold). In size alone this was a very generous blank that the moneyer initially cut out for a shilling (presumably larger in size because the silver plate being cut up at the time was a thinner plate?); one that clearly came out at more than the stipulated 6g because either the moneyer himself, or someone further up the food chain, cut off and rounded the four corners in an attempt to reduce the weight. At still over 6g, even with circulation and the passage of time, that effort was only partially successful. This is something you rarely see - in fact, I've never witnessed it before. The Brooker collection contained only one example of this rarer die variety but looking at all the Brooker Newark denominations, and indeed his Pontefracts, none had their corners removed in this way to reduce weight. A rare coin in its own right. £2,795

Provenance:

ex Oriole collection of gold and silver English coins

Dispersed by Spink 2025