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Auction: 20004 - British Coins and Commemorative Medals: Spring Auction - conducted behind CLOSED DOORS
Lot: 263

Charles I (1625-49), Halfcrown, a forgery from false dies, struck in pewter, in style of Group II, type 2c, Tower, 9.30g, 5h, i.m. tun (on rev. only), carolvs: d: g: ma • br • fr • et • hib • rex:, armoured King on horseback left, plume on horse's head, cross on housing, no groundline, rev. :(m.m.): christo: avspice: regno, retrograde g in regno, oval garnished shield, shields transposed in fourth quarter, all dividing cypher (Bull F3; cf. Brooker 1186, same dies; Dawson 120, same dies), spots of tin pest, and several 'test cuts' to edge, otherwise about very fine but in reality much as struck, rare, one of four known specimens known from these false dies

provenance
Purchased J Mann, 5 May 2011
Alan Morris, collection dispersed by Bennett (acquired March 2011) [with his ticket]
Colin Adams, Spink 177, 1 December 2005, lot 100 [with his ticket]
with old dealers [Seaby] ticket in pink ink: 'Tower Halfcrown, 2c, in PEWTER, im TUN RRRRR - £10', later cancelled out: 'no cost, not for sale'


The corpus of these mysterious imitations can be set out thus:
i) Brooker, struck in fine silver, on a lozenge flan, 15.19g, 11h, Spink 258 (28 January 2019, lot 1694); Adams (Spink 177, 1 December 2005, lot 99); Selig (Spink 70, 31 May 1989, lot 196); Brooker (SNC, June 1981, no. 4637 - £2,500); Lockett (Glendining, 4-6 November 1958, lot 3404 - £60.0.0 [Spink]); Montagu (Sotheby, 13 November 1896, lot 579 - £19.0.0 [Lincoln]); Webb, Sotheby, 9-14 July 1894, lot 413 - £20.10.0)
ii) Dawson, struck in fine [?] silver, on a round flan, 15.61g, 11h (DNW 157, 21 March 2019, lot 120)
iii) Adams, struck in pewter, on a round flan, 9.30g, 5h, this coin
iv) Struck in pewter, on a round flan, 8.81g, 11h (DNW 88, 29 September 2010, lot 2297; via S. Mitchell, January 2000; DNW 43, 8-9 October 1999, lot 631)


At the Sotheby sale of 23 June 1898, lot 115 featured "an impression in pewter of a Tower Halfcrown, type 2c, m.m. on rev. ton", the dies of which the cataloguer added: "are said to have been found beneath the Houses of Parliament and that only two examples were struck, the second one being in the BM". It is not clear which, if either, of the last two listed relate to this provenance

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Sold for
£240

Starting price
£80