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Auction: 24005 - The Official Coinex Auction of Ancient, British and World Coins
Lot: 282

Elizabeth I (1558-1603), Countermark Issues of 10 October 1560, Portcullis Retariff Puncheons under die-sinker John Lawrence, struck over Second Period (6oz. 2dwt.), Edward VI, Shilling, MDXLIX (1549), Tower, (m.m.) EDWARD '. VI : D .' G .' AGL '. FRA .' Z : HIB .' REX, crowned "bust 3" right, Elizabethan Portcullis countermark before, rev. (m.m.) TIMOR DOMINI PONS VITE : M : D : XLIX, crowned and oval-garnished shield, dividing E-R in fields, 3.609g [47.36grns], 7h (N.1989; S.2546 [cf. 2466 for undertype]; cf. Comber I, 49), a striking split at 4 o'clock, the result of the counterstamp, with minor surface friction from soil deposition, scuffing before face (in antiquity) and occasional verdigris spotting, otherwise the host coin strictly fine, the central devices of reverse and legends bolder with underlying hints of lustre, the countermark very fine, very rare

Provenance

Found at Necton, Breckland District (Norfolk), 18/19 May 2024

~ Recorded with the British Museum, ref. PAS-NMS-042BCB ~



https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1167720



The question of recoining the large amount of debased currency in circulation in the first two years of Elizabeth's reign led a committee of the Privy Council to recommend the city of London provide magistrates to check the coin in circulation in market places, and to stamp Edward VI shillings of 8:2 and 6:2 fineness with a portcullis, enabling them to be current for fourpence-halfpenny, and those of 3:2 fineness with a greyhound, thus current for twopence-farthing. The stamping began on 10 October 1560 (i.e. almost at the end of the lis-marked first coinage, which ceased on 8 November 1560) and was undertaken country-wide, with the die-sinker John Lawrence providing sufficient punches to the corporations of 42 towns. These counterstamped coins were allowed to circulate until the early spring of 1561.

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Sold for
£3,800

Starting price
£3000