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.
General
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
A Forgotten Coin Auction at Carlisle in 1870 – Hugh Pagan
Although auction sales of coin collections certainly took place in England outside London in the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century, the evidence for them is patchy. The present note records such a sale which took place in Carlisle in 1870. Unusually, a contemporary newspaper report of the sale both reports the results and names the buyers of the lots that contained coins ranging in date from Celtic times to the reign of William and Mary. The buyers involved included the London coin dealer Julius Jessop and the Yorkshire coin dealer W.H.Eggleston, from Dewsbury, and the latter turns out to have been the original employer and coin dealing partner of the better known dealer James Verity.
Facts concerning the Origin of the Troy Weight Standard – Robert Tye
A Troy pennyweight of 24 Troy grains historically derived from the half of an Islamic pre-existing bullion dirhem of 48 grains. Developing that study of weight standards by a further study of coin weight, Skinner (1967) judged the derivation beyond doubt, after showing the early post reform Arabic dirhem “set the standard for the English Penny Sterling” (i.e. that the 22.5 grain sterling penny is intentionally a half of the 45 grain dirhem), which therefore “had a direct effect upon later English standards”.
Chocolate Coins – Laura Burnett
A festive numismatic offering, please click here to enjoy the article, and a Happy Christmas to all our Blog Readers.
Coin Tickets Revisited: The Value of Provenance – Chris Tyrimos
The provenance of a given coin, token or medal not only affects the market price, it has other functions. Perhaps more importantly tickets give us a hard copy trail that should be protected, in many cases a short hand to a pedigree, ideally but not always, a chronological trail. Often, even with the advent of tickets a complex international provenance which jumps centuries can be difficult to bridge, let alone without them.
John White: the Cambridgeshire Connection – Hugh Pagan
This note draws attention to previously unnoticed evidence that John White, coin dealer, coin forger, and straw hat vendor in Newgate Street, London, had personal and family connections with Cambridge and Cambridgeshire.
2025 BNS Student Bursary Report – Elizabeth Lea
My time working with the British Museum was a dream come true. Upon arriving at the museum, I was astounded to see the galleries for the first time. I was set to work on my first project – going through a collection of Tudor and Civil War coins and creating a database for them.
‘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.
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.
BNS Research Blog 