Tudors and Stuarts

Since the publication of ‘The Galata Guide to hammered and milled threepenny pieces 1551 – 1663’ in 2016 very few new dies for the coins have come to light. So when a new die is discovered it is worthy of note. Within the Elizabethan series of threepences there are a few that are notably rare, one such is the 1574 initial mark issue, so when a coin from a new pair of dies is discovered it became worthy of recording them as an adjunct to the Galata Guide. A coin purchased at the London coin fair earlier this year came from these new dies and was complemented by a purchase off EBay a month or so later with a second example of the reverse die. The following article records these new dies.

A note in vol.17 of the Numismatic Chronicle by John Brodribb Bergne (1800-1873), in which Bergne lists, together with their back histories,  the ten or eleven specimens known to him of the famous Oxford crown of 1644, with a view of the city of Oxford under the horse on the obverse, turns out to contain similar information to that in an earlier list of the same character contained in a letter dated 20 December 1805 written by the banker and coin collector Thomas Dimsdale (1758-1823). Dimsdale’s list is one of the earliest to list  coin by coin, together with their back histories, examples of a rarity in the early modern series, and is as such of some significance in the history of the methodology of British numismatics.

For many years it has been assumed there were only two examples of Briot’s First Hammered Issue shilling (S2862). The first known was the British Museum specimen bought in 1825 although no details of the purchase are known. The second dates back at least to the collection of Grant R Francis in around 1918 and it was recently sold as part of the Hulett collection. In 2010 an unrecognised example appeared in an Auction in USA and later, still unrecognised, in the trays of an American dealer at Coinex 2016 when it was bought by a collector who has since sold it to the author of this note. All three are die duplicates.

A recently discovered  Charles I threepence of the Dovey Furnace mint from a previously unrecorded obverse die and known reverse die. The coin having been over-struck on a flan previously struck as a sixpence also appearing to come from the Dovey Furnace mint.

A Norfolk metal-detecting discovery has turned up a James I Harington farthing made of silver rather than copper. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE To provide comments on the article please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

The earliest of five crown (“coronet”) privy marks has been found to consist of two separate punches.  These are the main body and a central part taking the form of a lis.  It is suggested that the lis was struck first in error, the die sinker believing that the newly introduced lis privy mark on Mestrelle’s milled series also applied to the hammered coins. CLICK HERE TO READ THE RESEARCH NOTE To provide comments on the article please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

A Charles I Tower Mint shilling Sharp Type D2/2 mint mark harp was mentioned by Michael Sharp as existing in the 1989 edition of the British Numismatic Journal (59) Page 214.  A photograph of the coin was not included in the article, nor was any provenance given, and no example has come to light in the 29 years since publication until very recently. Consequently, this variety was omitted from the Holt/Hulett/Lyall Tower Mint shilling update paper published in the 2014 edition of the BNJ as proof of existence was not established. An example recently came up for sale in a provincial auction and is now in a private collection; it is illustrated in this research note. CLICK HERE TO READ THE RESEARCH NOTE To provide comments on the article please scroll down to the bottom of this page.

An article on the production of false twenty shilling coins. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE To provide comments on the article please scroll down to the bottom of this page.