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Auction: 22096 - The "St Albans" Collection of English Gold Coins
Lot: 42

The St. Albans Collection of English Gold Coins | NGC AU58 | Charles II (1660-1685), Two-Guineas, 1678 over 7, second laureate and draped bust right, rev. crowned shields cruciform, five strings to harp, emblem-adorned plain sceptres in angles, edge obliquely milled, 16.71g, 7h (MCE 40; EGC 216 [R2]; Baumhauer III, 1163 same dies; Spink 3335), two inconsequential pin scratches in reverse field, otherwise lustrous with a hint of orangey-tone, a pleasingly good very fine, seldom encountered in commerce, rare, especially in this honest higher grade and with an exalted 17th Century provenance, with NGC 'St Albans' Certification, graded AU58 (#6295553-015)

Provenance
'A Distinguished Collection', purchased en bloc via Spink, August 2018

Spink, by private treaty, 4 April 2013 - [SPK34893/2] - £6,500

A private collection from Rainham, Essex

SNC, May 1991, no. 2705* - "a pleasing piece, good VF / almost EF and rare thus" - £2,400
Archbishop Sharp (1645-1714), Baldwin-Glendining, 5 October 1977, lot 28* - "very fine, dull" - £1,850



This coin can be attributed with unreserved confidence to the cabinet of John Sharp, late Archbishop of York following a thorough comparison to plate illustrations from the first sale of his now world-famous collection, made all the more infamous by the swapping out of the still-missing Rawlins 1644 Crown. As a pioneer of the study of British numismatics and his correspondence with contemporary peers such as Ralph Thoresby of 'Ducatus Leodiensis' fame, it is somewhat surprising that his contribution was not fully appreciated until the middle of the last century when his collection was first publicised to the numismatic community.



As was observed with the 'Roses' 1699 Shilling from the comprehensive Malcolm Wootton collection sold in our Spink Numismatic e-Circular (5 July 2022, lot 1012), it is extraordinarily rare for collectors to have the opportunity to obtain not just a coin so comfortably pedigreed to a 17th Century English numismatic collection (with that Shilling, that was its first appearance in public for 45 years, and prior to that nearly 300!), but equally one that was undoubtedly obtained from circulation by the collector in life. Interestingly the denomination was not actually formally called the 'Guinea' until it was formally tariffed at 21-Shillings in 1717, three years after Archbishop's own death, nor indeed was its value fixed in circulation at the time he added it to his cabinet, so it is indeed possible that Sharp sacrificed as much as 60-Shillings, at the peak of the gold market prior to the Great Recoinage in 1695/96, to keep this within his collection.


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Sold for
£21,000

Starting price
£9500