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 19th July 2022

 

 

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

 

WTH-7456:  156Z/1 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Pheon, Spink 2561.  1562 as a date represents a frequency of 1.8% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.4% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  1562 is the nineteenth rarest of all forty two dates.  An interesting die.  You might be thinking this was an error (a Z for a 2) but you’d be wrong.  1561 was a huge year for sixpence output, there being x17 different dies in use with several more prepared in case they needed them.  They didn’t and so when 1562 happened, one or two of those x17 dies that hadn’t broken were recycled, along with the unused 1561 “reserve” dies.  They decided a Z made a better number 2 until they saw sense.  There are fewer 156Z/1 dies recorded than straight 62 dies.  £265

 

WTH-7457:  1564/2 Elizabeth 1st MILLED or MACHINE PRESSED Silver Sixpence.  Milled issue, initial mark Star, Spink 2598, Borden & Brown 33 02 R1.  A rare example of an overdate in the milled series.  Also, when you consider that 85% of Mestrelle’s meagre experimental machine-made coins were sixpences dated 1562, leaving 15% for all the other Screw-Pressed sixpences, shillings, groats, threepences, halfgroats, threefarthings and the gold coinage, you gain an insight into just how rare all non 1562 milled coins are.  £425

 

WTH-7458:  1564/2 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Pheon, Spink 2561.  1564 as a date represents a frequency of 2.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.8% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  £125

 

WTH-7459:  1564 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Pheon, Spink 2561b.  1564 (all varieties) as a date represents a frequency of 2.2% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.8% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins, but you also need to be aware that there are x14 recorded examples of all 1564 dies and ONLY ONE OF THOSE IS A STRAIGHT 64!!  This is a very rare coin and hugely underrated by most people.  £245

 

WTH-7460:  1565 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Rose, Spink 2561b.  Old tickets here.  1565 as a date represents a frequency of 3.8% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 2.5% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  There was some impressive die life this year – only x5 dies are recorded compared to way more for previous years.  Also, even though 64 was a huge year where they must have had many left over dies, either partly used or reserve dies, there are no overdates for 1565.  £175

 

WTH-7461:  1566 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Portcullis, Spink 2562.  1566 as a date represents a frequency of 4.1% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.0% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  There was some impressive die life this year – only x5 dies are recorded compared to way more for previous years with a single 66 being recycled in 1567.  An attractive coin.  £195

 

WTH-7462:  1567 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Coronet, Spink 2562.  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.  £235

 

WTH-7463:  1572 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Ermine, Spink 2562.  1572 as a date represents a frequency of 5.7% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 5.5% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  £185

 

WTH-7464:  1573 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Acorn, Spink 2563.  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.  £185

 

WTH-7465:  1578 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Fifth Issue, initial mark Greek Cross, Spink 2572.  1578 as a date represents a frequency of 3.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.5% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  A lovely grade coin.  £355

 

WTH-7466:  1578/6 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Fifth Issue, initial mark Greek Cross, Spink 2572.  1578 as a date represents a frequency of 3.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.5% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  Coming at the very start of 1578 and being a recycled 1576 die.  This is a rare single die coin.  Interestingly, this 1576 old dies was used after they recycled an old 1577 die!  Rare coin.  £225

 

WTH-7467:  1580 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Fifth Issue, initial mark Latin Cross, Spink 2572.  1580 as a date represents a frequency of 3.7% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 4.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  Only x4 straight 1580 dies used with a further x2 on recycled 1579 dies.  Interestingly, no 1580 dies were recycled post this date.  £145

 

WTH-7468:  1594/3 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Sixth Issue, initial mark Woolpack, Spink 2578b.  1594 as a date represents a frequency of 2.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 2.6% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  Only x5 dies for this year in total – x2 straight 94s; x3 94/3.  Strangely, I’ve actually seen a lot more straight 94 coins in my time.  A lovely coin considering its late date.  £145

 

WTH-7469:  1595 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Sixth Issue, initial mark Woolpack, Spink 2578b.  1595 as a date represents a frequency of 1.0% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 1.1% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  1595 is the thirteenth rarest of all forty two dates.  Not a single overdate recorded for this year so all freshly sunk dies.  A lovely coin considering its late date, and rare.  £225

 

WTH-7470:  1601 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Sixpence.  Seventh Issue, initial mark 1, Spink 2585.  1601 as a date represents a frequency of 0.6% for the 2,716 recorded single finds of Elizabeth 1st coins and 0.7% for all 5,588 recorded Elizabeth 1st hoard coins.  1601 is the tenth rarest of all forty two dates.  These later date coin, and you don’t get much later than this, other than the obvious, were nearly always poorly struck, often using dies of a lesser standard compared to the start of the reign.  This coin is stunning, easily being the best grade example I’ve ever had, or probably seen.  If it wasn’t for the damage, it would be a four figure coin.  £225

 

WTH-7471:  1594-96 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Shilling.  Sixth Issue, initial mark Woolpack, Spink 2577.  Bust 6B.  Scratches to the face (deliberate, contemporary graffiti) otherwise a good, solid example of a scarcer denomination.  £325

 

WAu-7472:  Elizabeth 1st Hammered Gold Half Pound of 10 Shillings.  Third & Fourth issues, initial mark Rose over Cross Crosslet, 1456-66, Spink 2520.  Ex Chris Comber collection – tickets.  4.89g, North 1994, Schneider 738, Brown & Comber G7A – Chris Comber, together with Walter Wilkinson and I.D. Brown were the leading experts on Elizabeth 1st coinage, as well as having, between them, the most extensive and comprehensive collection in the world.  Chris Comber’s ticket, in his own hand, states that this coin is extremely rare and at the time of the ticket, an unpublished variety.  Wavy flan, which I have tried to illustrate in the tickets link above.  When you consider than the much, much commoner Henry VII and Henry VIII hammered gold angels are now commonly £3,000+, this give you an insight into just how cheap this coin is in comparison.  Excellent provenance and as rare as they come.  £2,950

 

 

 

These coins are now BACK FOR SALE as the Lay-Away reservations have just been removed:

 

WSC-7383:  James III Scottish Hammered Silver Groat.  Type II base (0.770 fineness) issue of 1471-83, Edinburgh mint.  Bust of James III half-right, in surcoat and armour.  Reverse shows thistleheads and mullets within the angles of a floriate cross.  Spink 5270.  An extremely rare issue.  Sold with a variety of old tickets, including a cabinet ticket – see here.  Not only extremely rare, but also a problematic issue: Spink’s plate coin is a touch better on the obverse but nowhere near as good on the reverse.  An important coin.  £1,495

 

WTH-7300:  1561 Elizabeth 1st Rare Large Flan Hammered Silver Threepence.  Third and Fourth Issues of 1561-77, rose behind Queen, reverse dated.  Large 15mm flan (in fact, this one is nearer to 16mm), Spink 2564.  Creased and straightened, with some resultant cracking, as so many of these newly introduced issues were – the public were still on hightened alert for fakes after the numismatic escapades of Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, and her bother, Edward VI, although to be fair, the early issues of Edward VI, extremely debased as they were, had very little to do with the Edward.  It is unusual to see dated threepences for the 1560’s but they obviously do exist.  1561 was something of a prolific year for threepences BUT, this very first issue of 1561, in fact the very first Elizabeth 1st threepence issued), with it’s large flan, is represented by a single die only.  Brown, Comber & Wilkinson postulate that this large flan threepence was a two month trial period of experimentation.  The start date of production was 26th October 1561 and the end date – the date where they decided to change to the smaller flans, was December 1561 or early January 1562.  A rare and important coin.  £345

 

WTH-7379:  1596-99 Elizabeth 1st Hammered Silver Halfgroat.  Sixth issue, initial mark Key.  Spink 2579.  Three dies recorded but really, what a marvellous example of a halfgroat!  Collectors will be aware that of all the smaller denominations, the halfgroats suffered most in terms of clipping, wear and sometimes the quality of actual coinage leaving the mint.  Finding a really nice halfgroat is virtually impossible whereas pennies, and even the fractions, are relatively abundant.  This coin is full flan and actually doesn’t show much evidence of circulation.  £225

 

 


This Week’s Listings

 

 

WTH-7473:  1554-58 Philip & Mary Hammered Billon Silver Penny.  Clear P.Z.M. with silver content looking better than other examples I’ve previously handled.  Initial mark halved rose & castle.  Spink 2510A.  This coin actually circulated an a halfpenny, even though this was never the intention of the mint.  A very nice example indeed.  £185

 

WJC-7474:  1642 Charles 1st Shrewsbury Declaration Civil War Pound of Twenty Shillings.  King on horseback, plume behind; Declaration between two straight lines, three Shrewsbury plumes above, five pellets to the left of the declaration.  Spink 2917, North 2361, Brooker 796.  A most interesting (unique?) coin struck in lead alloy, but being almost of the correct weight (or at least it would have been if the silver plating was still intact) of the silver example, which it needed to be in order to pass as the real thing.  However, lead is nearly 10% heavier than silver, so there must have been some clever metallurgical manipulation of the alloy in order to get this so precisely to just under 120g with the correct diameter (54mm) and thickness (5mm)!  Sold with an old auction information slip as well as a collector’s cabinet ticket.  I have never seen anything like this before – it was certainly an ambitious undertaking by the counterfeiter.  £575

 

WJC-7475:  HIGH GRADE and CHOICE 1691 William & Mary Scottish Copper Bawbee.  Circulated at a sixpence.  En medaille die rotation.  Dublin.  An act of Privy Council in August 1691 authorised a small issue of copper coins (Bawbees and Bodles combined), being up to 500 stones in weight or less per year, but never to be exceeded.  This act carried on when Mary died into the reign of William II, but effectively, these were the last Scottish copper coins to date. Initial mark Cross of Five Pellets (many people don’t even realise these things have initial marks as the grade seen dictates there is usually nothing to be seen!), Spink 5666.  Collectors will be aware that you hardly ever come across Bawbees (of any reign) in VF – they were from soft metal and simply did not survive the rigours of circulation.  Further, the obverse dies of William & Mary bawbees specifically were simply not up to the job as there was too much design to engrave with the conjoined busts to give a good result.  The trick with these things is to look at the reverse of any coins in order to gauge the grade as often, as in this case, the obverse side would have left the mint fairly close to how it looks in this coin, ie not a patch on the reverse.  This coin is approaching EF for issue.  One or two bawbees of this grade recently came up in Heritage Auctions where they all achieved four figure prices.  I don’t expect to ever have Bawbees of this quality ever again – they are that rare.  £695

 

WJC-7476:  HIGH GRADE and CHOICE 1692 William & Mary Scottish Copper Bawbee.  Circulated at a sixpence.  180 degree die rotation.  Dublin.  An act of Privy Council in August 1691 authorised a small issue of copper coins (Bawbees and Bodles combined), being up to 500 stones in weight or less per year, but never to be exceeded.  This act carried on when Mary died into the reign of William II, but effectively, these were the last Scottish copper coins to date. Initial mark Two Small Trefoils, (many people don’t even realise these things have initial marks as the grade seen dictates there is usually nothing to be seen!), Spink 5668.  Collectors will be aware that you hardly ever come across Bawbees (of any reign) in VF – they were from soft metal and simply did not survive the rigours of circulation.  Further, the obverse dies of William & Mary bawbees specifically were simply not up to the job as there was too much design to engrave with the conjoined busts to give a good result.  The trick with these things is to look at the reverse of any coins in order to gauge the grade as often, as in this case, the obverse side would have left the mint fairly close to how it looks in this coin, ie not a patch on the reverse.  This coin is EF for issue – Spink don’t think any coins in this grade exist for this year, as evidenced in Spink 2020.    One or two bawbees of this grade, possibly not quite as good as this one in particular, recently came up in Heritage Auctions where they all achieved four figure prices.  I don’t expect to ever have Bawbees of this quality ever again – they are that rare.  £895

 

WJC-7477:  HIGH GRADE and CHOICE 1692 William & Mary Scottish Copper Bawbee.  Circulated at a sixpence.  En medaille die rotation.  Dublin.  An act of Privy Council in August 1691 authorised a small issue of copper coins (Bawbees and Bodles combined), being up to 500 stones in weight or less per year, but never to be exceeded.  This act carried on when Mary died into the reign of William II, but effectively, these were the last Scottish copper coins to date. Initial mark Cross of Five Pellets, or Rosette, (many people don’t even realise these things have initial marks as the grade seen dictates there is usually nothing to be seen!), Spink 5667.  Collectors will be aware that you hardly ever come across Bawbees (of any reign) in VF – they were from soft metal and simply did not survive the rigours of circulation.  Further, the obverse dies of William & Mary bawbees specifically were simply not up to the job as there was too much design to engrave with the conjoined busts to give a good result.  The trick with these things is to look at the reverse of any coins in order to gauge the grade as often, as in this case, the obverse side would have left the mint fairly close to how it looks in this coin, ie not a patch on the reverse.  This coin is EF for issue – Spink don’t think any coins in this grade exist for this year, as evidenced in Spink 2020.  One or two bawbees of this grade, possibly not quite as good as this one in particular, recently came up in Heritage Auctions where they all achieved four figure prices.  I don’t expect to ever have Bawbees of this quality ever again – they are that rare.  £795

 

WJC-7478:  HIGH GRADE, CHOICE & VERY, VERY RARE 1692 DOUBLE DATED William & Mary Scottish Copper Bawbee.  Circulated at a sixpence.  En medaille die rotation.  Dublin.  This is the extremely rare 1692 error which left the mint with the date on BOTH SIDES.  It is the ‘…ET 1692 REGINA’ error under Spink 5666.  An act of Privy Council in August 1691 authorised a small issue of copper coins (Bawbees and Bodles combined), being up to 500 stones in weight or less per year, but never to be exceeded.  This act carried on when Mary died into the reign of William II, but effectively, these were the last Scottish copper coins to date. Initial mark Vertical Line of Three Pellets – unrecorded in Spink – (many people don’t even realise these things have initial marks as the grade seen dictates there is usually nothing to be seen!).  Collectors will be aware that you hardly ever come across Bawbees (of any reign) in VF – they were from soft metal and simply did not survive the rigours of circulation.  Further, the obverse dies of William & Mary bawbees specifically were simply not up to the job as there was too much design to engrave with the conjoined busts to give a good result.  The trick with these things is to look at the reverse of any coins in order to gauge the grade as often, as in this case, the obverse side would have left the mint fairly close to how it looks in this coin, ie not a patch on the reverse.  This coin is nearly EF for issue but there are no better grade examples known for this rare double date error.  One or two bawbees of this grade, possibly not quite as good as this one in particular, and certainly not as rare as this variety, recently came up in Heritage Auctions where they all achieved four figure prices.  I don’t expect to ever have Bawbees of this quality & rarity ever again – they are that rare.  £995