Author: BNS Blog Coordinator

A Day at The Fitzwilliam Museum – Defaced! Money, Conflict, Protest – Gary Oddie

This brief note gives details of a visit made to the new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum with the title “Defaced! Money, Conflict, Protest”. The exhibition is the largest numismatic exhibition to have been created in the UK, filling three rooms of the top floor of the museum. The exhibits cover the period 1750 to 2022 and there is something for everyone interested in coins, tokens, paranumismatica and paper money. Topics of protest and dissent are covered from many countries. There is even a credit card in there!The curator, Richard Kelleher, has put together something quite original, modern and far reaching and it is definitely worth making a visit or two before it closes in early January.

The “Tercentenary” of the South Sea Company “SSC” silver coins approaches.   Where the silver came from and how it got here – Graham Birch

Almost exactly three hundred years ago In October or early November 1722, the South Sea Company’s flagship merchant trading vessel – the Royal George – slipped its moorings in Cartagena – in what is now Colombia – and set sail for Falmouth. She was on the return leg of her maiden voyage and was carrying a fabulously rich cargo including around one million “pieces of eight” as well as other high value goods such as cochineal and indigo…

Some Thoughts on the Ellerby Hoard – Weights of the Ellerby Hoard Guineas – Graham Birch

The Ellerby Hoard has featured in the news recently due to the recent (October 7th) Spink auction in London where the coins reached a “hammer price” of £628,000 for all the lots, with the final purchase price including fees calculated at £754,000. The hoard was found in 2019 when a couple renovating their 18th-century property in the village of Ellerby, near Hull, made the discovery of a lifetime beneath the kitchen floor. Buried inside a small cup were over 260 gold coins from the 17th and 18th centuries, dating from the reigns of King James I through to King George I. This article provides some interesting insights based on an analysis of the coin weights.

The First British Empire: Some Observations on the Coinage of Carausius AD 287 to 293 – Duncan Russell

This article provides a ‘whistle-stop’ examination of the coinage of the British usurper Carausius illustrating its crude beginnings and highlighting the probable use of ‘Artisans’ formerly producing the ‘Barbarous Radiates’ that filled the gap created by a dearth of Official Coinage in the 20+ years since the fall of the Gallo-Roman Empire in AD 273. That Carausius’ Administration succeeded in stabilising the money supply and improving the quality of the coinage is clearly a triumph of organisation, and is a suitable epitaph to an extraordinary individual.

Arthur Mangy, Goldsmith: Clipper and Counterfeiter? – Gary Oddie

This note is about a recently (re)discovered short article, from 1899, giving a full description of the trial of the Leeds goldsmith, Arthur Mangy, for counterfeiting. On a first read of the main text, something about the trial didn’t seem quite correct. A second read and working through the original footnotes revealed that the original authors also had reservations about the judicial process. Mangy was tried on the evidence of a single accomplice who had turned King’s evidence, but whose testimony was later discredited. The counterfeiting and clipping was taking place at the time of the Great Recoinage and Mangy was alleged to be buying clippings from full hammered coins and debasing the silver before striking counterfeit milled shillings of Charles II. During the trial there is evidence of attempted witness nobbling by the accused, as well as the controller of the York Mint being surreptitiously called in to act as a witness for the defence. Mangy was tried on

read more Arthur Mangy, Goldsmith: Clipper and Counterfeiter? – Gary Oddie