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 30th May 2023

Previous Week’s Listings:

*** See here for a montage of this week’s six listings under one image ***

coins not to scale relative to each other

Please note that Lay-Away is no longer available on any gold coinage. This is because early gold coins appreciate in value so quickly in the current market that it has gotten to the stage – in fact it’s been this way for a while now – that after several months on Lay-Away, I’m selling at a fair bit under market value; in fact I’m sometimes selling at under what I’d pay to get new stock in!

WAu-7760: Alexander III Ancient Greek Macedonian Kingdom Gold Stater. Head of Athena, not Alexander III which seems to be a common misrepresentation, wearing a Corinthian helmet; Nike on the reverse. 8.35g. Many staters from this period are not Alexander but earlier examples struck under Philip. A really good Alexander III gold stater will cost you upwards of £5,000 today and if you’ve read the bit above about Lay-Away, that price will be more as time goes on! Alexander III began his “career” as King of Macedon but literally only spent the first two years of his reign in his native kingdom, being busy elsewhere building a vast empire stretching from Greece to India. He died at just 33. A rare opportunity to not just own a piece of history but an opportunity to own it in solid gold and at a fraction of the usual price. Ex Bruun Rasmusson, ex Dr Daniel Offer, ex Spink. £1,650

WAu-7761: Roman Gold Flavian Dynasty Stater – Titus as Caesar. Titus (full name Titus Flavius Vespasianus) as Caesar was a somewhat junior rank as he had not at this point become emperor. This coin was issued under the earlier reign of his father, Vespasian. Titus succeeded to the imperial throne upon the death of Vespasian on June 24^th, AD 79. He only reigned for two years and during this brief period, he ruled over a series of huge natural disasters, perhaps the best known being the eruption of Mount Vesuvius which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. Rome, AD 74. T•CAESAR•IMP•VESP, laureate head of Titus right / PONTIF-TR POT, Fortuna standing left on garlanded cippus, grounded rudder in right hand, cornucopia cradled in left arm. Calicó 751. RIC II (Vespasian) 696. 7.00g. Ex Dr Daniel Offer collection, ex Spink. £2,450

WAu-7762: **Choice** Saxon Merovingian Gold Tremissis. Wico in Pontio (Quentovic), c. 620-640. Tremissis (Gold, 13mm, 1.26g, 0h), Moneyer Dutta. +VVICCO FIT Laureate bust to right. Rev. DVTTA MONET, Cross on three steps. Belfort 4959. NM II p. 55, 14. Prou 1125. Rare but rarer still being centrally struck and such good grade. Clear and well struck, good very fine or better. The Merovingian Dynasty was based in ancient Gaul (which is now France) and dates from the middle of the 5th century AD. The coins were very much trading pieces and many have been found in Britain as Saxon trade between the Continent and Britain was extremely robust. Similar examples have been found as far west as Cornwall and as far north as Northumbria. Ex Ian Millington (an expert on Anglo Saxon coinage), ex Silbury Coins (their ticket), ex DNW. You will not find a better example of this early Saxon gold coin. It really is a choice coin. £3,150

WAu-7763: Robert III Medieval Hammered Gold Demy-Lion. Heavy coinage, 1390-1403, second issue. 1.77g. Circulated at 2s, 6d. Shield in tressure / long saltire cross with lis. Spink 5158. Ex Mark Rasmusson. £3,995

WAu-7764: James 1^st Stuart Hammered Gold Quarter-Laurel. Third coinage, initial mark Thistle, 1621-3. 2.10g. Circulated at five shillings. Spink 2642. Very good detail. SOLD

WAu-7765: 1710 Queen Anne Full Gold Guinea. Post Scottish union, third draped bust, Spink 3574. 8.36g. It won’t have escaped your notice that with Queen Anne gold coinage in particular, when they do come up, they are almost always HALF guineas. It really is hard work finding full guineas. Very light ex mounting marks at 11, 12 and 1 o’clock but again, find one that doesn’t these days. However, they really are minor and do not detract. Sold with a ticket that made no mention of mount marks. RESERVED

This Week’s Listings:

WMH-7766: Edward III Medieval Hammered Silver Groat. Pre-Treaty period of 1351-61. London mint, initial mark Cross 2. Class E with the all important nick in the reverse V extremely apparent; 1354-55. Spink 1567. A lovely coin. £395

WMH-7767: Henry VI Medieval Hammered Silver MULE Half Groat. First reign: a mule of an Annulet issue of 1422-30 obverse and a Rosette-Mascle issue of 1430-31 reverse. Calais mint – set up just after the death of Henry V, Henry VI’s father, following the Battle of Agincourt. Calais was run by the British as a mint but lasted only 18 years even though it remained a territorial possession of England until its capture by France in 1558. Initial mark Plain Cross. Spink 1840-1 / 1862. Sold with a couple of old tickets. An interesting coin. £225

WMH-7768: Henry VI Medieval Hammered Silver Penny. First reign: an Episcopal issue struck under Archbishop John Kemp at the York mint. Initial mark Cross Patonce. Mullets by the crown - Spink 1868. A nice, clear example. Ex Arthur Fitts’ collection. £145

WMH-7769: Edward IV Medieval Hammered Silver Penny. A coin of numismatic importance and significance – a Queenhithe Hoard penny. In 1980, 495 medieval pennies were discovered on the Thames north foreshore in front of the

site of the now-demolished Bull Wharf warehouse adjacent to Queenhithe Dock, London. All the coins were currency forgeries struck from false dies on flans too small for the dies, giving the appearance of clipped coins, although it is now thought that in terms of the currency at the time in general, clipping was secondary to Episcopal coins literally being (illegally) struck on underweight, small flans (see Lord Stewartby: English Coins 1180-1551). All the coins were produced from a single obverse die and four reverses, this one being York 3. Sold with a contemporary ticket from when the hoard was originally dispersed to museums and the market. Note they initially had the coin as Henry VII. This type of crown is first seen on the half-groats of Henry V but its earliest appearance on the penny denomination is during the Heavy Coinage of Edward IV. A crown of the same basic form survives until the end of the open-crown coinage of Henry VII although by then it had generally become smaller, narrower and even more upright. The regnal name ECARCVS is badly blundered but it is more likely to be essaying EDWARDVS rather than RICARDVS (R3) or HENRICVS (H7). A great insight into late Medieval coinage. RESERVED

WMH-7770: Richard III Medieval Hammered Silver Penny. An Episcopal issue struck under Bishop Sherwood of Durham. S on breast, typical Richard III hair, D in centre of reverse. Richard III was the last of the medieval monarchs, losing to Henry Tudor on Bosworth Field, or as is now the current thinking, on a field a few short miles from that famous location. He was an unsavoury character and as most of you will be aware through all the worldwide media coverage, his body was recently discovered in a Leicestershire car park. Ex Silbury Coins ticket. RESERVED

WTH-7771: Philip & Mary Tudor Hammered Silver Groat. Initial mark Lis, 1554-58, Spink 2508. This is an anomaly in the coinage of Philip & Mary in that sixpences, shillings and even the pattern halfcrown all depict portraits of BOTH monarchs, whereas the groat is a throwback to the earlier, sole rein where just Mary was depicted. Although the sole reign of Mary was shorter in years, the dual reign groats are actually scarcer. A terrific example of this usually worn and problematic issue. £595

WTH-7772: 1572 Elizabeth 1st Tudor Hammered Silver Sixpence. Initial mark Ermine, bust 4B, third & fourth issues, Spink 2562. This is an example of the UNCORRECTED die sinker’s error of the 2 in the date being both reversed and inverted. Several recorded errors were made on various Elizabethan dies but I think this is the most unforgivable because even if you were illiterate, you’d surely notice an upside down, reversed 2 and if you didn’t, then surely the quality control people would flag it up?! And for it to then go into production to not only strike coinage but for that coinage to then be deemed correct and good enough for distribution into general circulation…???!!! It doesn’t seem possible but it certainly happened. It obviously was quickly discovered and corrected because coins exist that are normal 2 struck over this inverted 2 die. Ex Arthur Fitts’ collection. £275