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 4th August 2020

 

 

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

 

WSax-6922:  Anglo Saxon Kings of Northumbria Styca – Aethelred II.  A Regal Issue, circa AD 841 – 843/4.  Moneyer Eanred.  Spink 865.  Nice grade considering this is well over 1,000 years old!  £75

 

WSC-6923:  Robert II Medieval Scottish Hammered Silver Halfpenny.  1371-90, Edinburgh mint.  Spink 5152.  A rare coin (see image annotation) – the only example I’ve ever had.  £225

 

WTH-6924:  Henry VII Tudor Hammered Silver “Profile Right” Groat.  Initial mark Cross Crosslet (1504-5), London mint, Spink 2258.  Harder to source than the later Henry VIII second issue profile groats.  £175

 

WCA-6925:  1714 Queen Anne Copper Farthing.  The only farthing ever to circulate in currency under Anne, even though it was initially intended as a pattern only.  Spink 3625.  Rare coin.  £625

 

WSC-6919:  Robert II Scottish Medieval Hammered Silver Halfgroat.  1371-1390, Edinburgh mint.  The halfgroats are something of an uncommon denomination compared to groats, contrary to what Spink might suggest.  Interesting fact: Robert II’s grandfather was Robert the Bruce.  £265

 

WTH-6920:  1565 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Threepence.  Initial mark Rose – only in production for the very last three months of this year so a rare date / im combination (pheon is much more prolific for 1565).  Spink 2565.  Cheap at  £55

 

WSC-6921:  1697 William II of Scotland Silver Five Shillings.  A rare example of a Scottish five shillings – the vast majority of the few you see will invariably be Queen Anne.  A high grade example, being the best I've ever seen and by some margin.  Spink 5688.  You are not seeing much wear on this coin, rather poor dies / inadequate pressure at the minting stage on the large definition areas, ie the king's bust.  Please ignore the aberration of a main image in terms of colouring (I may well need a new camera soon!) and use this image to see the even colouring throughout.  £650 in EF in the now very much out date Spink 2015 price guide (there is a new revised edition coming out later this year with I’m sure more realistic, up to date pricing) – there are certainly EF areas to this coin.  A very rare coin in this grade.  £395

 

WMH-6916:  Henry V (Battle of Agincourt fame) Hammered Silver Medieval Groat.  1413 – 1422, class C, Spink 1765.  London mint.  £375

 

WSC-6913:  William (The Lion) 1st Scottish Hammered Silver Voided Short Cross Penny.  Phase A Penny, “Short Cross & Stars” coinage, 1195-1205, RAVL at Roxburgh: +RAVL.ON.(RO)CE.  Spink 5027.  A good, strong portrait together with clear legends – a very nice example of this rarer, earlier issue.  £475

 

WMH-6914:  Richard II Medieval Hammered Silver Halfpenny.  1377-99, London mint.  Intermediate type, Spink 1699.  A very attractive coin with excellent detail (bear in mind the image is greatly magnified) and clear legends.  Off-struck on the reverse.  £79

 

WMH-6915:  Henry V Hammered Silver Penny.  York mint, Spink 1785.  Local dies, class C.  Tall neck, mullet and broken annulet by the crown.  A very nice grade coin for this indifferent issue.  £79

 

WSax-6910:  Harold “Harefoot” 1st late Saxon Hammered Silver Penny.  Silver Jewel Cross B.M.C.1 penny, 1036-38 only.  +  ON LINCOLI – Lincoln mint town.  Sold with an old ticket (see here).  Wavy flan but beautifully toned and otherwise problem-free.  It was hard to photograph this coin with my normal camera so I’ve included this low resolution image here.  Unbelievably, there were no Harold 1st Lincoln coins of any type in the famous Elmore Jones collection (such an extensive accumulation that it makes an excellent yardstick).  On the EMC database, there is no mention of this exact moneyer.  £875

 

WMH-6911:  Edward II Hammered Silver Round Farthing.  London.  Full flan, full legends.  Coincraft describes Edward 2nd farthings as rare.  Typical angular face, EDWARDVS REX, unusually normal (barred) N’s.  A high grade, centrally struck coin.  Choice.  £95

 

WI-6912:  Irish Henry VII Hammered Silver “Three Crowns” Groat. 1485-97, this is the earliest type and also the rarer of the two varieties normally seen – DOMINVS hYBERNIE both sides.  Spink 6415.  Rare.  £345

 

WMH-6907:  Stephen Hammered Silver Norman Voided Short Cross Penny.  B.M.C. ii, 1144-50 only.  Spink 1280.  ROGIER at Norwich.  Ex Wicklewood Hoard of 1990.  Sold with old tickets (see here).  Ex David Rogers’ collection.  £325

 

WMH-6908:  Henry V Medieval Hammered Silver Penny.  1413-22, class G, Spink 1781.  The rarer London mint – you can see up to a hundred York pennies for every London example.  Very nice grade.  £155

 

WTH-6904:  1561 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Tudor Dated Threepence.  Third & fourth issues, Spink 2565.  Initial mark pheon – only in use from 26th October 1561 (to 30th Sept 1565) and is rarely seen on this denomination with this initial mark.  The very first dated threepence issued under Elizabeth 1st.  £165

 

WJC-6905:  1646 Charles 1st Civil War "Declaration" Hammered Silver Bridgenorth-on-Severn Sixpence.  Dies from the end of the Civil War (and bar the Pontefract siege pieces of 1648, this is the very last dated Charles 1st coin) were used to simply churn out badly needed currency – there was little regard for the aesthetics.  Further, provincial mints were set up in little more than camps in the middle of fields so you would perhaps not expect great workmanship, especially as time was of the essence.  Initial mark B.  Spink 3041.  Following the fall of Ashby de la Zouch on 28th February 1646, even though it had been reinforced by troops from Oxford, Royalist forces marched to Bridgnorth-on-Severn where they held out for barely two months, eventually capitulating on 26th April 1646.  This coin would have been minted at Bridgnorth-on-Severn, within that two month window.  Very good grade for issue.  £725

 

WCom-6900:  1654 Commonwealth Hammered Silver Crown.  Initial mark Sun, 29.14 grams, 43mm.  Spink 3214.  A very large coin with several old tickets etc – see here.  The 1654 (rated R3) is similar in rarity to 1651 and 1652, with 1649 being slightly rarer still.  The two common dates that invariably turn up, 1653 (rated N) and 1656 (rated R) have many more extant examples compared to 1654.  Inverted A for V in VS (GOD IS WITH VS) which although ESC do list known varieties (ie the 56 has three listed), it is not recorded.  Obviously Spink don’t list it either.  A pleasant circulated, problem-free rarer date Commonwealth crown.  £2,650

 

WAu-6898:  1788 over 87 George III Full gold Guinea.  Fifth laureate bust, “spade” shield.  Extremely rare overdate variety (see here) that is mentioned in Spink (S.3729) as being “known to exist”.  Not mentioned at all in Coincraft.  This image (here) shows the weight and the edge at 12 o’clock to show there has been no mounting of this coin.  A great rarity in the series.  £1,750

 

 


This Week’s Listings

 

 

WMH-6926:  Henry VI (First Reign) Medieval Hammered Silver Groat.  Annulet Issue of 1422-30 (the first coin issue under Henry VI), Calais mint.  Spink 1836.  The town of Calais in what is now Northern France was under English rule from 1347 until 7 January 1558 and it was a bit of a vanity statement for the English monarchs in their claim on the French crown. It cost almost a 1/5th of all the revenue collected in England to maintain the town as an English possession.  The mint closed in 1440 after really only producing limited coinage under Edward III, a tiny amount of gold under Richard II and Henry IV, a miniscule quantity of farthings under Henry V and some of the earlier coinage of Henry VI.  The usual method of photography wasn’t a great success so as a result, I’ve included an image taken in poor, indoor lighting with a cheap camera phone.  £125

 

WTH-6927:  Henry VIII Hammered Silver Episcopal Halfgroat.  Second issue, portrait.  Spink 2345.  Struck under Archbishop Cranmer of Canterbury.  £145

 

WJC-6928:  1635-36 Charles 1st Hammered Silver Shilling.  Tower mint under the king.  Group D, Spink 2791.  Initial mark Crown.  £175

WSC-6929:  James Francis Edward Stuart / James III of Scotland Silver Touch Piece.  See the excellent “The Sovereign Remedy” by Noel Woolf (ISBN 0 901603 01 5) for everything you need to know about touchpieces and the Kings & Queens that personally handed them out.  The would-be James III of England or James VIII of Scotland was in exile in Italy immediately following his second unsuccessful invasion of Scotland in 1715.  It was while in exile in the Palazzo del Re, Rome (courtesy of the pope) that he had these silver touch pieces made for both his English and Scottish supporters.  This example is very much an Italian commission due to the IAC.III obverse legend, as opposed to the French commissioned English IAC 3 and Scottish IAC 8 reverse legends.  James gave them out in very tiny quantities during special Touching Ceremonies where, because he was in direct contact with God, he had the power to cure Scofula (TB).  Or so he believed.  This one is from a collection dating back to the 1880's – see tickets.  This image here, from an auction just last year, illustrates  just how rare these Scottish pieces are (and how bad the auction house was at estimating value!) - they were produced in such tiny quantities and very few survived.  Guaranteed to have been personally touched by James when he gave this out to a Scrofula sufferer at one of the ceremonies.  This is a piece of Scottish and English (but mainly Scottish!!) history.  £1,475