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Auction: 22006 - Coins and Commemorative Medals - Summer Auction
Lot: 161

Edward VI, in the name of Henry VIII (1547-1553), Posthumous or First Coinage, Crown of the Double Rose, London, Roman lettering, [HE]NRIC 8 RVTILANS [R]OSA S[IN]E SPI, crowned double rose, dividing crowned roman H-R, rev. [D]EI GR[A] AGL FRA Z HIB REX, crowned square-topped shield dividing crowned roman H-R, 3.07g, 2h, m.m. martlet [?] (Schneider I, 662; North 1867; Spink 2395), crinkled and chipped, otherwise of good fabric for period, a noticeable die flaw in lower quadrant of obverse field, otherwise lightly toned, struck details approaching very fine, very rare and with an intriguing provenance

Provenance
~ By descent ~
James Hole, a farmhand working in a field called Tor Park, at Whiteway, Chudleigh (Devon), 30 April 1918
Accompanied by a customised box evidently commissioned by landowner and legendary 20th Century Numismatist Helen Farquhar, stating:
"KING HENRY VIII GOLD CROWN PIECE, found in a Field called Tor Park, Whiteway, Chudleigh, by J. Hole, Farm Labourer, April 30th 1918".



Chudleigh was the ancestral home of the Farquhar family, a brother and sister of whom would distinguish themselves in the field of numismatics and politics. Sir Harold Lister Farquhar (1894-1953), whose Henley Regatta Prize Medal is offered elsewhere in this sale would distinguish himself as a rower in front of His Majesty the King at the 1912 Henley meet succeeding in the mens eights for the Ladies Challenge Plate. Latterly he would serve as a diplomat in Iran, Barcelona and Ethiopia before finishing his career as the Ambassador to Sweden (1948-1951). His elder sister, Helen Laura Farquhar would become a legendary numismatist, particularly in the field of Stuart specie and the reign of Charles I. However early in her coin studies she would pen several theses on the development of portraiture on late Medieval and Tudor coinage, her working notes of which must have been fresh in the mind when groundsman James Hole reported the discovery of this coin on their estate in April 1918. Regrettably ancestral records note two James Holes (a father and son) working on the estate on the 1911 Census so it is not clear which of the two made the seredipitious discovery, but the evident influence of Farquhar in the subsequent presentation and survival of its fascinating provenance to this day is plain to see.

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Sold for
£1,100

Starting price
£550