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 22nd September 2026
WTH-9421: Henry VIII Hammered Silver
Episcopal Groat. Second
coinage, 1526-44, York mint, initial
mark Voided Cross. An Episcopal issue struck under Archbishop
Thomas Wolsey of York - TW either side of the reverse
shield; a cardinal's hat below. In 1526,
Cardinal Wolsey had been granted authority by the
king to reforn the coinage in order to meet the
problems of a rising silver price and also of competition from European
coinage. Whilst a realistic depiction of
the monarch was introduced on coinage for the first time, which would have
pleased Henry, the reform Wolsey was tasked with was
sadly in the wrong direction - the Wolsey years
witnessed a reduction in the weight of existing denominations in both silver
and gold. He also introduced five new
kinds of gold coin, three of which were quickly superseded. As if he'd not done enough, the first steps
of debasement of the fineness of coinage were introduced which was to reach
catastrophic proportions in the 1540's. Wolsey died in November 1530 so it is perhaps a tad harsh
to put all the troubles at his door, although he certainly set the ball
rolling. Edward Lee, Archbishop of York,
replaced Wolsey in December 1431 thus we can
postulate that the York TW / cardinal's hat issues are 1526-1530 whilst the
cardinal's hat with no TW issues were 1531-44. There is evidence that the Episcopal mints
may have ceased all coinage production in 1534 following the passing of
Cromwell's Act of Supremacy (read Whitton). This would certainly go some way to
explaining the extreme rariety of the no TW York
groats. Interestingly, the second
coinage groats show Henry clean-shaven.
Henry grew a beard in 1527, thus for the very first year of this second
coinage the depiction was accurate but for the following seventeen years, it
was not. Another interesting point is
that during the first coinage, Thomas Wolsey used the
initials DW rather than the later TW on York Episcopal coinage. This was to differentiate himself from the TD
of his Durham predecessor, Thomas Ruthall. A much rarer issue than the
halfgroat and a key coin to collect for the Henry VIII series. 
£635
Provenance:
Old
dealer's ticket (unidentified), sold to ...
ex Yorkshire collection, dispersed via ...
ex Tim
Owen (his pink ticket), 2005 annotated on Tim Owen's
(his hand) coin wallet
WJC-9422: Charles 1st Hammered
Silver Stuart Halfcrown. Tower (London) mint under the
king. Group 2, type 2c, initial mark Harp, 1632-33. Second horseman, no ground,
horse with head-plume. S.R.2771. The reverse letters
IC of AVSPICE are over CE (very clear) which highlights that the Brooker
example (310) is from the same dies. The
Maurice Bull reference is 148a/20 and is this exact same coin. 180 degree die
rotation, 14.62 grams. Excellent provenance, being originally part of the famous Prestbury Civil War Hoard of 2004. Old
tickets here. The hoard was
found on 15 June 2004 by Jason Scott in the course of
his digging footings for a barn conversion at Prestbury,
Cheshire. Comprising 1,366 coins, its
content is typical of so many Civil War deposits, being mainly comprised of
silver halfcrowns, shillings and sixpences from the coinages of Edward VI to
Charles I. Also included are groats of Mary, Philip and Mary and Elizabeth I,
again not unusual, together with some threepences of Elizabeth I. Their face
value amounts to almost £43, a significant sum at the time. The land on which the find was made is known
to have been owned by Thomas Legh, the Royalist High
Sheriff of Cheshire, a prominent landowner who resided at Adlington
Hall, Macclesfield. It was likely leased to a tenant farmer. The most recent
coins bear the mintmark triangle-in-circle, in use 1641-3, suggesting this a very early Civil War era deposit. On 15 July 1642, a
just five weeks before the King raised his Standard at Nottingham, the Royalist
Lord Strange entered Manchester, predominantly of Parliamentarian persuasion,
with a small body of his men and a fracas ensued, a precursor to the troubled
times in store. In September Strange, by then Earl of Derby, following the
recent death of his father, laid siege to Manchester. This was something of an
anti-climax from a Royalist standpoint and the reluctance of the Cheshire levies to serve outside of their
own county doubtless had its effect. It might be reasonable to suggest this
hoard was deposited at that time. The
hoard was contained in a cylindrical jar, found in six fragments, thought
contemporary and of local manufacture in the Northwest Purple tradition. It was
declared Treasure at an inquest held on 19 October 2004 and released to the finder, who
had retained a few of the coins as mementos, earlier that year. A significant coin. £565
Provenance:
ex Prestbury Civil War Hoard, 2004, dispersed ...
ex DNW
68, December 2005, lot 81, purchased by ...
ex
Unidentified dealer (pink ticket priced up at £275), sold to ...
ex Dr
J.R. Hulett collection (his ticket), dispersed ...
ex DNW
146, March 2018, purchased by ...
ex
Kelvin Brosz collection, dispersed ...
ex
Spink
WSax-9423: Middle Saxon OFFA
PORTRAIT Hammered Silver Penny. Light coinage, portrait issue,
c.780-96, London &
Canterbury. Obverse: +OFFA REX+, bust Ec
facing right. Reverse: Celtic cross
containing a small saltire, PE H VA LD - moneyer Peohtweald
in the angles. North 295 (reverse cross
type CEB 75 - see Blunt's corpus, ASC, pp.39-62,
#295), S.R. 905. One of the rarer
reverse types - North rate this variety as Extremely Rare. Offa was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death in 796.
The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne
after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æthelbald. Offa defeated the
other claimant, Beornred. In the 780s he extended Mercian supremacy over
most of Southern
England,
allying with Beorhtric of Wessex, who married Offa's daughter Eadburh, and
regained complete control of the southeast.
He also became the overlord of East Anglia.
His dominance never extended to Northumbria, although he gave his daughter Ælfflæd in marriage to the Northumbrian king Æthelred I in 792. Offa's wife, Cynethryth, was the
only Anglo-Saxon queen ever depicted on a coin.
Offa was one of the most powerful Anglo-Saxon
kings before Alfred the Great came along.
Historians once saw his reign as part of a process leading to a unified
England, but this is no longer the majority view: historian Simon Keynes has stated that:
"Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a
vision of English unity and what he left was a reputation, not a
legacy." Read on to see if there is
any foundation to this. Offa's son, Ecgfrith (a
consecrated king, the first known consecration of an English king, probably
arranged by Offa in imitation of the consecration of
Charlemagne's sons by the pope in 781), succeeded him after his death, but
reigned for less than five months. You'd
be forgiven for thinking that such a sort reign was an all too common result of
Ecgfrith not being the man his father was - strong
Edward 1st, weak son Edward 2nd; strong Henry V, weak Henry VI; and perhaps
even Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell.
It all but was that, although perhaps not the way you'd immediately
think: the son was so much the antithesis of his father that, according to the Croyland Chronicle, "Ecgfrith was seized with a
malady, and departed this life."
Offa, amongst other things, had literally
murdered (or had removed, which amounts to the same thing) all their close
relatives in order that the succession of Ecgfrith
would not, and could not be challenged. Ecgfrith could not live with that and so effectively died
of the family guilt. Coenwulf of Mercia (a very
distant relative - one that Offa had thought too
distant to worry unduly about) became king.
Extra camera
phone image here as the coin was not in a favourable mood to be
photographed effectively using my usual setup.
A very rare coin from that elusive middle Saxon period, from a king who
was so much more (a lot of it bad!) than just a dyke separating Wales and
England, and in very nice grade indeed with non of the all too prevalent edge
issues due to partially crystallised metal that we see with coinage of this
early period. £4,325
Provenance:
ex Tim
Owen (his ticket)
