This had originally intended to be a short note and die study of the shillings issued by the Welsh Copper company between 1723 and 1726. However, whilst most collectors and catalogues are aware of this short series, the background story, with just one notable and recent exception seems to have fallen through the gaps in the numismatic literature. The note will begin with an historical overview of metal exploitation, especially Welsh copper and silver and their contributions to British coinage, followed by the Welsh Copper Company and finally the die study of the shillings struck at the Tower Mint struck from their silver.
Author: BNS Blog Coordinator
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) – Hugh Pagan
Richard Southgate (1729-1795) took on responsibility for the British Museum’s coin collection on his appointment to the British Museum staff in 1784, and remained in charge of the collection until his death. The present note sets his role as a numismatist in the context of his wider career.
An Intriguing Sterling of John I of Brabant 1268-1294 – Denis Martin
It is now almost forty years since N. J. Mayhew published a masterly study of the coinage produced in Northern Europe in the late 13th and early 14th centuries imitating the English sterling. This, the first major publication on the subject written in English, carried references to the works of earlier authors many of which are rather inaccessible to present day collectors of these sterling imitations. Mayhew had been unable to find a coin to illustrate in his book for example M50 although he had records of its existence. Such a coin, recently bought by the author from Jean Elsen et ses Fils, Brussels, provided an interesting field for research using information from foreign authors of the 19thand 20th century.
Card Advertising Tokens c.1930? – Part 4 – Gary Oddie and Kai Towe
This note adds six new cardboard advertising tokens and an unprinted blank to the 16 previously published. The card tokens are in the Royal Mint Museum collection. Background notes are presented for all of the pieces. The final card penny is shown to be a self-advertisement for the novelty advertising company of D. Harper & Co. of Holloway Road, London. Contemporary adverts confirm that this company was a manufacturer of card advertising pennies with images of the monarch on one side.
‘Vigorous, Conscientious, Judicious’: the Reverend PrebendaryJoseph William Hamlet, Vicar of Barrington – a Previously Unknown Contributor to British Numismatics – A.G. Bliss
The Reverend Joseph William Hamlet (1857-1926) was Vicar of Barrington, Somerset, from 1885 till his death in 1926. Though previously known during this period as a key member of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS), antiquarian and beloved parish priest, no specific evidence of numismatic knowledge had previously been observed. This note publishes a suite of recently emerged items likely owned by him, suggesting both knowledge of and engagement with the discipline.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM’S COLLECTION OF ANGLO-SAXON COINS AS IT EXISTED IN THE MID 1790s – HUGH PAGAN
This note draws attention to the content of a notebook, now held in the British Library compiled by Rev.Rogers Ruding (1751-1820), author of Annals of the Coinage of Britain and its Dependencies, in which Ruding recorded detailed information about a total of 356 Anglo-Saxon coins that were in the British Museum collection by the mid 1790s. The notebook shows that a significant number of coins in the British Museum collection today which up to now have had “undated” provenances were already in the British Museum before the end of the eighteenth century.
Card Advertising Tokens c.1930? Part 3-Gary Oddie and Alan Judd
This note adds three new advertising tokens to the 13 previously published. The first piece is from Frank Cox, a third-generation cut-glass and china merchant from London. Two further pieces carry advertisements for “Damaroids” and “Dr. Patterson’s Female Pills”, both ineffectual quack medications widely advertised in London in the first half of the twentieth century.
A New Halfpenny Die of David II of Scotland’s Second Coinage (1357/8-1367) – Cameron Maclean and Carl Savage
This short note details a halfpenny of David II of Scotland’s second coinage (1357/8-1367), potentially the second known example, which has recently come to light. This new specimen is of particular interest as it is struck from a different obverse die than the other example in The Lord Stewartby Collection of Scottish Coins.
An Unusual Counterfeit ‘Silver’ Shilling of 1818 – Gary Oddie
This note presents a contemporary counterfeit shilling of George III dated 1818. The alloy is a base silver and is the first such counterfeit to be published. Die duplicates have been found within another comprehensive ongoing study of the counterfeits of this period. The piece appears to be struck from hand-engraved dies and is extremely deceptive. It is very likely that many others were made and have blended in with the circulating silver coins that were finally removed from circulation in the silver culls of the 1960s and 1970s.
A new female coin collector of the 18th century: Katherine Blount (née Butler) – Andrew Burnett
We can now identify a new addition to the relatively small number of female coin collectors of the past. Katherine Blount (née Butler) (1676-1752) had an extensive collection of over a thousand coins, mostly Roman and British, as described in the fairly detailed inventory made of her collection after her death. Picture is more difficult as, despite consulting experts, we have been unable to find the Kneller portrait which is mentioned in the literature. Perhaps we could consider a page from the Inventory?
BNS Research Blog 