This article presents a discussion of a rare Cnut coin from Lincoln by the moneyer Eadwine. Any readers with knowledge of further Eadwine coins are encouraged to contact the author using the comment box below.
Author: BNS Blog Coordinator
A Dublin Portrait Halfpenny of Henry VII – Pat Kimber and Oisín Mac Conamhna
The purpose of this note is to put this significant find – to our knowledge the first known example of an Irish portrait halfpenny of Henry VII – on record.
Charles Montagu Crompton-Roberts, Coin Collector – Hugh Pagan
The composition of the notable coin collection put together by Charles Montagu Crompton-Roberts (1865-1931), heir to a partnership in an exceptionally profitable paints and varnishes business, has remained obscure because when the Spink firm purchased it in 1920 they initially offered it for sale in the Numismatic Circular without any mention of its past ownership by Crompton-Roberts. The collection was especially strong in the Anglo-Saxon series, and the present note explains that virtually all the Anglo-Saxon coins involved were acquired by Crompton-Roberts within the years 1893-6 through commissions for lots in Sotheby coin auction sales placed by him with the dealer Frederick William Lincoln. A list of the coins in question is attached : it may seem alarmingly lengthy, but it should be useful for future researchers.
An Unrecorded Minor 1787 Shilling Reverse Type – Ashley Wickens-Rumble
Due to advances in the production of punches, and consequently dies, for the sixpence and shilling coinage of 1787, the reverse of the shilling exhibits little variation beyond the semée of hearts and stops. However, despite being fully lettered, the punches lacked both the hearts and the harp strings. This resulted in the strings being manually carved into each die, producing considerable minor variation which, aside from the number of strings, has typically been overlooked. This study instead examines the angle of the strings, highlighting a previously undocumented reverse type, here termed the Vertical String Type.
A Brief Tour of Medieval Coin Hoards from Britain and Ireland, Part Two: AD 1154-1351 – Robert Page and William Wilson
This article continues a journey in time and space through the medieval coin hoards of Britain and Ireland. Blog readers are encouraged to use the comment facility…
THE BASE SILVER SHILLING BUST TYPES OF EDWARD VI 2ND & 3RD ISSUES – PETE CHRISTMAS
For many years, there has been a mismatch between the Edward VI base shilling, 2nd and 3rd issue obverse types in the Standard Catalogue Coins of England and the definitive source on the series, Joe Bispham’s The Base Silver Shillings of Edward VI (BNJ 55, 1985). Bispham’s bust 5 never made it into the catalogue, and the Spink Plate coins for busts 4 and 5 were inconsistent with Bispham’s original work. This article addresses the ambiguity with large, clear images of the bust types and their appropriate labels, following as closely as possible the original numbering. The intention is to provide a clear reference for identification of the main types. For completeness, the rare, Bristol-engraved ‘bust 3Br’ is also included. Finally, the article concludes (in the appendix) with a table of known obverse and reverse types with their associated mintmarks, including the many mules produced during the years 1549 to 1551.
A MID-TENTH CENTURY COIN HOARD PROBABLY CONCEALED IN THE COLLECTION OF HUGH HOWARD (1675-1738) – HUGH PAGAN
The coin collection made by an Irishman, Hugh Howard (1675-1738), sold for his descendant the 5th Earl of Wicklow by the Sotheby firm in May 1874, incorporates what is presumably part or the whole of a mid-tenth century coin hoard in which the coinages of the Anglo-Saxon rulers Eadmund, Eadred and Eadwig were well represented. The present note lists the coins involved, and identifies the places and regions where they are likely to have been struck. Attention is also drawn to the fact that thirty-eight of the coins concerned were purchased by the dealer James Verity for the Bradford businessman Arthur Briggs, and that at the sale of Briggs’s coin collection in March 1893 a good number of the tenth-century Anglo-Saxon coins in the collection that can be identified as ex Howard were purchased for the collector Charles Montagu Crompton-Roberts. These were to be purchased from Crompton-Roberts years later by the Spink firm, and are to be found listed, without
The Two-Line Type of Aethelstan, a provisional summary – Hugh Pagan
The initial coinage struck in the reign of King Aethelstan (924-939) was of Two-Line type, in which the reverse design carries the name of a moneyer set out in two lines without any accompanying indication of the location where the coin was struck. Arguments based on the appearance of the same moneyers’ names on mint-signed coins struck later in Aethelstan’s reign, coupled with stylistic criteria, enable the moneyers concerned to be associated either with specific cities or boroughs such as London, Winchester, Canterbury, Chester, Shrewsbury, and Oxford, or with particular regional areas, and the present note sets out the current state of knowledge as to where individual moneyers involved in striking the main series of coins of this type might have been operating.
Some thoughts on the Royalist badges of Charles I, together with an example of an unrecorded variety – Kerry Wilson
The author introduces the subject of small badges produced during the reign of Charles I of England (1625-1649), mentions that there is still much that remains to be known about such items and provides an example of an unrecorded variety for illustration and discussion.
Historical Metrology: Lost in Translation? – Robert Tye
Recent generations have increasingly disagreed about the history of the Troy weight system in particular, and thus historical metrology in general. Mistranslation of historical understandings is part of this problem, and this article will attempt to separate, explain, and illustrate three degrees of mistranslation: regarding standards, structure, and rounding off.
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