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.
Most sold coins are now
accessible via a new link on the front (index) page category grid.
Additions to www.HistoryInCoins.com
for weeks commencing Tuesday 20th October 2026
WAu-9440: Henry
VI Medieval Hammered Gold Half Noble.
House of Lancaster. Tower (London) mint, "h"
in reverse centre, annulet by the sword arm together with a further in the
reverse upper spandrel replacing the fleur: Annulet issue of 1422-30. Initial mark Lis.
Predominantly trefoil stops on the obverse, bar the lis
following hENRIC; predominantly annulet stops on the
reverse, bar the mullet following DOMINE.
S.R.1805, N.1417, Schneider 291ff. The annulet issue was the first under Henry VI's reign with most of the output being in the first two
years, 1422-24. Type 1A very much
followed on from the class G Henry V issue, even to the point of repeating the
"lion-lis-lis-lion-lis" arrangement on the
side of the ship. This issue probably
did not outlast 1422. Following on from
that transitional issue, we have this 1B issue with a "lis-lion-lis-lion-lis"
arrangement on the side of the boat. The
reverse spandrel fleurs allow us to create a timeline. There were three iterations, denoted by the
style of fleurs in the spandrels: a = large fleur with x2 plain side foils, b =
small "equilateral" fleur and c = Large fleur with curled
"moustache" side foils. The
spandrel fleurs on this coin are type a, making this the very first issue -
1Ba. Interestingly, type a fleurs (large
fleur with x2 plain side foils) appear on all 1A nobles and half nobles but
only on the earliest of 1B coins. The
type c fleur replaced both preceding fleurs in the summer of 1423. Type 2 fleurs appear to have been a York and Calais only device. Thus we can say with a high degree of
certainty that this coin dates to a few months after Henry VI took the throne
but before the summer of 1423. The
mintage figures for the entirety of the Henry VI annulet issue gold output
tells us that half nobles were issued in far
less quantities than nobles. Extant
examples today reinforce that, showing clearly that half nobles are
much scarcer than full nobles. It is a
common misconception that because the price guides show nobles to be more
valuable than half nobles, then full nobles must therefore be rarer. That is not the case - based on gold alone,
full nobles are always going to be priced higher but price alone does not
always equate to rarity. See old paperwork here. In summary, a rarer 1Ba early half noble in
better than VF grade, albeit on a slightly wavy flan, on a full flan with all
legends and devices present. 
£3,875
Provenance:
ex
Peter Bartlett collection
WAu-9441: Henry
VIII Tudor Hammered Gold Crown of the Double Rose. Third coinage of 1544-47
only, initial mark E over S, Southwark mint.
hENRIC 8 ROSA SINE
SPINA obverse - distinctive in that the word RUTILANS (translates to glowing
red) is removed from the legend of this particular issue. S.R.2308, N.1835. This Crown of the Double Rose denomination
was simply a crown, of expected value 5s.
Nothing unusual there, you might think.
The interesting thing lies in what it replaced - a new denomination
issued in 1526 called the Crown of the Rose, but valued at a less than
convenient sum of 4s.6d. In fairness,
this was due to a hike in the gold price, leading to gold draining away to Europe, very similar to what
happened to coinage under Henry VI some years prior. Regardless of the reason, the Crown of the
Rose was a remarkable failure. It was
withdrawn within a few months and replaced with the Crown of the Double
Rose. Lessons were learnt as this time
the coin was valued at the usual 5s.
However, as the mint would show to much greater effect in just a couple
of decades, it was master of deception - the public and traders alike thought
they were getting a 5s coin, and indeed they were, but what they didn't know
was that for the very first time, the gold content was reduced to 22ct -
previously it had always been 23ct. Thus
the public were happy, the books balanced at the mint, a 22ct gold standard
precedent was set for centuries to come ... and the seed was set for what was
to come in 1544 in terms of the famous Henry VIII coin debasement! Southwark mint, along with a second mint at
the Tower and then further mints at Dublin, Durham House (in the Strand),
Bristol, York and Canterbury were opened purely to get the debased coinage out
into circulation. Gold was less debased
than silver but it still suffered, going as low as 20ct in 1546. There was a further benefit to these mints
being opened - it allowed the government the opportunity to finally NOT renew
the Episcopal mints; mints which had been openly defrauding the country for
years. It was deemed right and proper
that only the state could do that! £3,950
WAu-9442: James II Stuart 1685-88
Gold Touchpiece – Guaranteed to have been Touched by
the King. This was the official gold coin that the king (James
II) personally gave to invited sufferers of Scrofula (TB) at special
"Touching Ceremonies". The monarch of the day was deemed
to be an extension of God on earth and thus being touched by the monarch was
effectively being touched by God. An
amulet held permanently next to the skin, touched by God through the king
could, it was believed, definitely cure scrofula. Another equally unlikely "remedy"
for scrofula from the past was the act of passing naked children through a hole
in a tree, or a hole in a stone, three times.
Worthy recipients (quite poorly looking people - a reason none of the
monarchs were that keen on doing any real touching!) were invited to the
Touching Ceremony and were given a copper and / or brass "ticket" to
allow entry. In 1635-6 alone, the mint
supplied 5,500 such tickets for admission to the Touching Ceremony at a cost of
2d each to the treasury. James II first
touched for the Evil, as it was then called, on March 4th 1685, just four weeks after the death of Charles II. Like those before and those after him, it was
something expected of him as monarch, and definitely
not something he himself relished. James
II had a very short reign and that, coupled with the fact that James is
recorded as using up all the old Charles II gold coins for his Touching
Ceremony before getting his own commissioned (some 1,905 in total), illustrates
just how rare they are under James. The
elephant in the room here is the nature of the sufferers, ie a high proportion
of the poor. Assuming they even had
employment, and that's highly debatable if they were poorly enough with
scrofula to be invited to the ceremony, the weekly wage for labourers was
around 4d in 1685. To be suddenly gifted
a gold coin worth a quarter of a guinea, or x60 pennies, would surely have been
too much of a temptation, and even if the sufferer didn't cash the gold in
during their lifetime, upon their death the amulet would have been melted down
so fast that it would have had friction burns on it! Now we begin to see just how rare these relics
are today. The ceremonies were performed
weekly throughout the year, except on hot days. The gold touchpiece
was designed by the famous John Roettier. In
terms of price in the open market today, this SILVER touchpiece gives you an
idea - sold through a major auction house in 2019: silver gilt on base metal
touch piece. Recommended reading: THE
SOVEREIGN REMEDY by Noel Woolf. This gold piece is literally history in a
coin (sounds vaguely familiar!) Find
something / anything else for sale that's gold and is guaranteed to have been
touched personally, albeit probably reluctantly, by the very short-reigned
James II. £1,475
WAu-9444: Excessively Rare Date
James VI Scottish Stuart Hammered Gold Sword and Sceptre Piece of 120
Shillings. Eighth gold coinage, a period spanning both pre and
post accession to the English throne but crucially, dated 1604, placing
this coin very firmly in the James VI of Scotland and James 1st of
England (post March 24th 1603) period. Edinburgh mint. Obv: +IACOBVS
6 D.G.R. SCOTORVM. Small 6 struck over
large 6 in date. S.R.
5460. It is generally accepted
that Scottish coinage is much more attractive than its English counterpart, especially
from James V up until the 1603 period when James ascended the English
throne. At that point in time, the two
countries followed a more unified path in terms of coinage, ie Scottish coinage
immediately mirrored English style coinage come 1603 onwards. This Sword & Sceptre piece is absolutely
no exception to that aesthetic appraisal but, as a 1604 date, it is very
much the only gold coin of Scottish style that is 100% post accession. 1604 is an excessively rare date. Coincraft rate is so rare that they don't
even give it a price. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the National Museum in Edinburgh both hold a single example each. The Huntererian Museum in Glasgow does not have an example (they have 1601, 1602 and
1603 only). The accompanying old
paperwork states "only two examples known", which I assume to
mean only two examples in private hands.
Wonderful toning, excellent grade, full flan and the
key date of 1604. Find another! £3,495
Provenance:
ex Spink (ticket)
ex Nosuch Collection (late
1980's - 2026)
