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Auction: 21064 - The Horace Hird Collection of Tudor, Stuart and Commonwealth Coins and Patterns
Lot: 41

MS64 | Commonwealth (1649-1660), Unite [of 20-Shillings], 1656, (p.m.) • THE • COMMONWEALTH • OF • ENGLAND •, English shield within palm and laurel wreath of fifteen leaves, rev. • 1656 • GOD • WITH • VS, conjoined shields of England and Ireland, 9.04g [139.5grns], 10h, p.m. sun (HCN 350; EGC 27 [R5]; Schneider II, 344 albeit 15 leaves, cf. 343 [1655] same obverse die; North 2715; Spink 3208), of slightly waterworn appearance with further traces of metal stressing below shields, nevertheless residually lustrous, an especially bold very fine, and an extremely rare date of issue, with the recent discovery of the '15-leaf' variety, the demonstrably scarcer type, in NGC 'Horace Hird' holder, graded MS64 (Cert. #6135299-041)

Provenance
A Lost Parcel from the Celebrated Horace Hird Collection
Baldwin, Spring 1960 - £40.0.0
Achim von Thielau, Jacques Schulman 233, 28-31 March 1960, lot 1624 - 'weak in places', EF, a rare date - DG320 [Baldwin]


Close inspection of global auction results since the year 2000 reveal only two previous offerings of '15-leaf variety' 1656 Unite as identified by Bull: one vastly inferior creased and gouged example sold through these rooms (Spink, 27 June 2016, lot 1274) and the other appearing in New York (Stack's, January 2020, lot 20407) and again in London (BSJ 54, December 2012, lot 2032) reportedly graded PCGS MS61. In comparison, five examples of the 14-leaf variety have changed hands over nine appearances during the same time period, including the Dr Ernest Christison Carter example through these rooms in 2011.





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Sold for
£16,000

Starting price
£3000