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 24th November 2020

 

 

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

 

WSax-6968:  Cnut Late Saxon Hammered Silver Penny.  B.M.C. VIII - Quatrefoil type (1017-23), “+AELFPI MO LEHR”.  Spink 1157.  Rarer Leicester mint.  £595

 

WSax-6969:  Edward The Confessor Saxon Hammered Silver Penny.  Late Saxon – small flan type (1048-50).  B.M.C. II.  Sandwich mint - LIFPINE.  Very rare mint town.  The obverse mark by the king’s face is a difference in height of the silver and the reverse stress mark is surface only.  This was clearly not a good blank that they used.  £635

 

WTH-6970:  1561 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Three Halfpence. Initial mark Pheon –Spink 2569.  1561, although third and fourth issue, is the very first date ever for this rarer denomination.  £135

 

WMH-6971:  Henry II “Tealby” Hammered Silver Penny.  Cross & crosslets issue of 1154-89.  Raven of Lincoln Class F (the last issue), circa 1174-80  Spink 1342.  You don’t see too many square coins in the British hammered series!  £175

 

WG-6972:  1776 George III Silver Penny.  Spink 3759.  Beautifully toned, high grade and the key date for US collectors.  £125

 

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WI-6409:  Irish Edward IV Hammered Silver Groat.  Light cross & pellets issue of 1470-78.  Limerick mint with L on breast and CIVI TAS LIMI RICI as reverse reading.  Cinquefoils by the neck, in two of the reverse quarters and preceding POSI.  The rarest of the two Limerick mint variations: Spink 6343.  Sold with a very old ticket and a more recent one – both with incorrect Spink references.  Pierced in antiquity but still a very rare coin indeed – in fact much rarer than the catalogues might lead us to believe.  Limerick had no authorisation to strike groats after 1473, but went ahead anyhow, getting Germyn Lynch to defy the Government by not only cutting the dies, but also placing the L on the King`s breast, so that when interrogated by the Privy Council, Lynch could deny any hand act or part in the coinage, pointing out that L was nothing to do with him and was as likely to stand for Limerick as for Lynch! Lynch had a long-running feud with Gearoid Mor, the real head of government in Ireland.  Finally, Edward IV himself had to take a hand in 1475 in naming the Limerick groats as unauthorised in his Proclamation of 1475, in which His Majesty refers to Limerick as an "adulterine mint", along with Kilmallock and Wexford.  This means that the coin you see here was actually never legal tender, thereby making this a very rare coin indeed, for obvious reasons.  £525

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WSax-6965:  Cnut Hammered Silver Late Saxon Penny.  Voided short cross, B.M.C.XVI - ++BRIhTMER ON.LV, London mint, Brihtmer as moneyer.  Circa 1029-35-6.  Spink 1159.  Not  a great image from my “better” camera so I’ve included images here using a cheap camera phone.  £325

 

WMH-6966:  Henry II “Tealby” Hammered Silver Penny.  Cross & crosslets issue of 1154-89.  Willam of Newcastle – die matched to B.M.C. 593.  Spink 1338.  A pleasing example (relatively speaking) of this rarer northern mint penny.  £255

 

WAu-6967:  Charles 1st Hammered Gold Unite.  Tower mint under the king, initial mark Crown / Crown over Bell (1635-36), class D, bust 5, Spink 2692.  A very good grade, problem-free coin.  The weight is 8.95 grams, which is virtually full weight and all the more interesting when you bear in mind that around 1630, the mint initiated a policy of issuing reduced weight unites in order to save money.  This coin, a good five years into that process, survived remarkably unscathed.  £2,795

 

WSax-6962:  Cnut HIGH GRADE Hammered Silver Saxon Penny.  Voided short cross, B.M.C.XVI - +PVLFPINE.ON.LIN, Lincoln mint, Wulfwine as moneyer.  Circa 1029-35-6.  Spink 1159.  Choice - A really nice grade coin together with some subtle underlying toning.  £475

 

WMH-6963:  Henry VI Medieval Hammered Silver Penny.  Annulet issue of 1422-30, being from the first reign of Henry VI (both Henry VI and Edward IV had two different periods where they were king!) and the first ever coinage of Henry VI.  From the Calais mint - the town of Calais in what is now Northern France was under English rule from 1347 until 7 January 1558, being a bit of a vanity statement for the English monarchs in their claim on the French crown. It cost almost 1/5th of all the revenue collected in England to maintain Calais 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 mark on the reverse at 11 o’clock is a surface mark, possibly as a result of the folding of silver to create the blank pre-strike.  A nice example.  £125

 

WTH-6964:  Henry VIII Hammered Silver Halfpenny.  Second issue, 1526-44.  Spink 2361.  An Episcopal issue – Archbishop Lee of York.  Initial mark Key, EL (for Archbishop Lee) by bust.  At 0.32 grams, this is actually full weight and so not clipped, rather adjusted at the mint to obtain the correct weight.  A lovely, high grade example from this iconic British monarch.  £155

 

WTH-6959:  1573  Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  3rd & 4th issues, initial mark Ermine.  Spink 2562.  Extra image here with a cheap camera phone due to the proper camera doing a woeful job!  1573 as a date represents a frequency of 4.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 5.3% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  £95

 

WJC-6960:  1638-39 Charles 1st “Milled” Silver Sixpence.  Nicholas Briot’s second milled issue, Spink 2860.  Initial mark Anchor.  £185

 

WMH-6956:  Unique Stephen Norman Penny – Tutbury Castle, family seat of Robert de Ferrers, second Earl of Derby.  Unique Tutbury mint coin.  Obverse: [STEPH]ANVSX, crude crowned bust right holding sceptre.  Reverse: WALCMI.[INVS] TVT, voided short cross with annulet in centre, martlets in angles, reminiscent of the Edward Confessor Saxon Sovereign / Eagles B.M.C.9 coin.  Struck in the summer of 1141 when Stephen was held in captivity, at a time when royal control had all but broken down and chaos (anarchy) prevailed,especially amongst the King’s supporters.  Spink 1298 var and Mack 175 var.  Listed as a Southern Variant in Spink and not an East Midland’s variant – Derby is in the East Midlands and Tutbury Castle is a short distance south east of Derby in East Staffordshire.  Mack (the definitive work on Stephen coinage) states that “…all known coins are from the same die pairing” with the reverse having the legend: +WALCHELINVS DERBI.  There were three coins and a cut half of this type found in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1788 and one other found in London at a similar although unspecified date.  The obverse and reverse of this coin are definitely not a die pair to the other 4 ½ extant “DERBI” examples.  This is a unique coin, from the hitherto unrecorded mint of Tutbury.  Walkelin, the moneyer at both Derby and Tutbury, was a family name of the de Ferrers and so it is likely that the family itself struck this coinage.  The dies were local, in their crudity and workmanship, and were cut by the local seal cutter (see BNJ, v, p.439 and Carlyon-Britton sale catalogue note under lot 1482).  There is obviously no research as to why the family changed the mint town on the coins from Derby to Tutbury (or vice versa) – Tutbury Castle was in the hands of the Earls of Derby throughout this period – as this is the first and only example of a Tutbury coin known.  There is only a single coin of this type listed on the E.M.C database, it being this exact same coin.  This coin made the news some 10 years ago when it was found as a “£10K coin find”, which is remarkable in itself but possibly more so that I can actually remember it making the news, even though I can’t remember what I did last week, never mind what happened ten years ago!  0.97g / 90 degree die rotation.  Ex DNW auction 2014 and ex another auction (see later entry here).  The coin is described as VF in that entry.  The coin has been professionally repaired at 6 o’clock to a remarkably high standard; only apparent under a loop, or the all-revealing camera / lighting setup that I employ for photography.  There is a Castle Rising Watford type Stephen penny doing the rounds of dealers at the moment for £4,000+.  It is not as clear on the legends, not as good a bust, is a rare mint but there are well into double figures of that mint known, and is a just Watford type.  I think that puts this coin into context rather nicely, especially as any discount you may have been awarded previously will be valid on this coin.  £8,850

 

WTH-6957:  1588 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Initial mark Crescent, sixth issue.  Spink 2578A.  This is the key date coin (the famous year of the Armada), seemingly more popular than even 1597!  1588 as a date represents a frequency of 0.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.2% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  1588 is the fourth rarest of all forty two dates.  £225

 

WSC-6954:  Scottish Medieval Hammered Silver Halfpenny – David II Rare 1st Issue.  Struck early 1330’s at Berwick.  This is the rarer DAVID DEI GRA REX variety, although all first issue David II halfpennies are very rare.  Spink 5081.  VF and better grade than the Spink plate coin.  £1,550

 

WTH-6955:  Philip & Mary Hammered Billon Silver Tudor Penny.  1554-58, Spink 2510A.  Only struck using base silver but this one probably one of the best examples I’ve had - if it wasn’t for old crease, this would be a £300+ coin.  £155

 

WMH-6950:  Stephen Hammered Silver Norman Voided Short Cross Penny.  B.M.C. ii, 1144-50 only.  Spink 1280.  GODARD at London.  1.26g.  Sold with an old sale / auction ticket which states coin is slightly ragged of flan and nVF.  £550

 

WTH-6951:  Henry VIII Hammered Silver Groat.  Second issue, Laker bust D.  Initial mark lis.  Spink 2337E.  A pleasing coin.  £325

 

 

 

 


This Week’s Listings

 

 

WAu-6973:  Henry VIII Hammered Gold Angel.  First coinage, initial mark Castle (with an unusual pellet above the left side), 1509 – 1526.  28mm, 5.05 grams.  Tower mint, Schneider 557-8 for type.  Spink 2265.  Ex El Medina collection.  Henry VIII was a very different man and king in this first coinage.  Later in his 38 year reign (it always seems like it was much longer to me!), events centred around the king became undoubtedly more interesting, but far less pleasant.  The Portcullis initial mark is usually seen on these first coinage Angels so this is a slightly rarer coin.  Another point of interest in the h and rose either side of the mast on the ship.  This signifies the ship on the reverse of the coin was the Mary Rose; Henry’s flagship for 34 years until it sank in July 1545 in the battle of the Solent, as Henry VIII looked on.  The wreckage of the Mary Rose wasn’t discovered until 1971 and not raised until 1982.  I’m giving my age away here when I tell you that I went down to Portsmouth in the sixth form to officially visit Portsmouth Polytechnic but unofficially go and see the Mary Rose shortly after the display was put on.  I recall that I had absolutely no intention whatsoever of signing up to that institution – in those days not only did the government give you money to attend university, they also paid you to go and visit such places.  I remember the Mary Rose display vividly, even after all these years – I genuinely can’t remember if I even bothered to go to Portsmouth Polytechnic that day!  Sold with a couple of tickets.  A very interesting, hammered gold coin from one of England’s most iconic monarchs.  £1,975

 

WTH-6974:  1567 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  3rd & 4th issues, initial mark Coronet.  Spink 2562.  Although perhaps one of the commonest of all the Elizabeth initial marks, being in use for nearly four years, 1567 with Coronet is actually fairly rare combination as it wasn’t introduced until well into 1567, in fact July 1st.  1567 as a date represents a frequency of 6.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.8% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  £115

 

WTH-6975:  1582 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Initial mark Sword, fifth issue, Spink 2572.  This initial mark, Sword, is interesting as it was only in operation for six months and even that tiny period straddled two years.  1582 as a date represents a frequency of 4.0% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.0% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  £75

 

WCA-6976:  Charles II Hammered Silver Shilling.  Restoration of the House of Stuart.  Spink 3322.  Hammered coinage continued immediately after the Commonwealth from 1660-62 with the quality of the dies together with the final product deteriorating towards the end (and this issue coin was at the very end), presumably because everyone knew the old hammered style of coinage was definitely going to be replaced by the new and better milled coinage in 1662.  For issue, this is an excellent example.  £495