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Auction: 23051 - English Milled and Hammered Coins and Artefacts
Lot: 1014

15th Century Contemporary Imitation of Edward III, Noble, in the artistic style of Pre-Treaty Period, Series E-G, Tower, but the linguistic style of Post-Treaty Coinages, struck c. 1420-1460, Unknown Mint Location, ED | WARD : DI : GRACIA : REX [....] [hY | B], unbarred gothic As, G retrograde and inverted, small, dumpy broad lettering, double 'saltire' stops appearing as crosses, annulet above sail, a naive but competent rendition of the King standing in 'Sluys' ship, with elongated 'Black Prince' style face, pellet eyes in sunken sockets, puffed cheeks, a fleur-de-lys punched incuse in lieu of mouth further flanked by 'dimples', and fluffy hair curling at ends, wearing plain robe with solitary corded hem-line at neck, residue of stap lines on breast, and folds of drapery at right elbow and across midriff, with heavily pelleted chainmail (?) at waist, holding medieval broad sword and Lancastrian shield with four fleur-de-lys evenly arranged in first quarter, twister ropes 3/1, pellets on castles, quatrefoils 3/4, ornaments • 1-11-1 • (lions left), with bowsprit, rev. + IhS AVTEM : TRAnSIEnS : PER [MEDIVM : (...)] ILLRVM IB, taller, dumpy lettering, double saltire stops, floriate cross, crowned leopards in angles, trefoils on cusps, E at centre, albeit rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise, additional fleur-de-lys in 'fourth' quarter above leopard, all inside double tressue of eight arches, the inner beaded, the outer continuous, trefoils in spandrels, 5.25g [81.02grns], 6h [to i.m.], 32mm x 0.5mm. diameter/thickness (Oddy, Archibald, Cowell and Meeks, "Forgeries of Medieval English Gold Coins: Techniques of Production", NumChron [2012], pp. 235-254, no. 17 [for stylistic similarities]), a tiny scuff to shield, with traces of double-striking in obverse legend as evidenced above WARD of regnal name, and 'hazing' to reverse field, a subtle trace of crimping, otherwise deliberately struck on a short flan as to give the appearance of an official coin subsequently clipped following the revaluation of 1412, artistically and linguistically of extremely competent workmanship, almost extremely fine / very fine and in reality, much as struck, an excessively rare example of 15th Century fraud

Provenance

Found at Thurlaston, Blaby District (Leicestershire), by Wednesday 1 October 2012

~ Recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, ref. LEIC-0F59F0 ~



Little research has been afforded to the study of contemporary imitations in Medieval British numismatics, let alone a focus applied to the gold specie on account of the extreme paucity of surviving specimens for study. The late Marion Archibald documented the small corpus of representative samples in the British Museum trays for the Numismatic Chronicle in 2006, alongside which the infrequent appearance of imitation Nobles and their fractions have appeared at global public auction including a remarkable gilt-silver imitation of the excessively rare Third Coinage Noble of Edward III (fl. 1346-1351), found at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire and sold in these rooms (Spink Auction, 28 January 2019, lot 1618). At 32% below the proscribed weight of the Treaty Period Coinage as at 1351 (120 grains) and still 25% deficient on the retariffment of 1412 (108 grains).

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Sold for
£2,000

Starting price
£2000