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Auction: 24005 - The Official Coinex Auction of Ancient, British and World Coins
Lot: 342

The L'Abbaye Collection: Part Two | Charles II (1660-1685), "Welsh Plumes" Shilling, 1680 over 79, CAROLVS • II • - DEI • GRATIA, second laureate and draped bust right, plume below bust, rev. no stop after HIB, crowned shields cruciform, five strings to harp, interlocking Cs in angles, plume at centre, edge obliquely milled, 6h (Hawkins [1841], p. 219 [British Museum]; J E M Rishton [1875], 139; R A Hoblyn, 'Milled Silver Coins with Plumes' [NumChron, 1877], p. 355, no. 12 ['Rare']; Montagu [1896], -; Murdoch [II, 1903], 610b = Morrieson [1933], 751b; Woodhouse [1968], -; Archbishop Sharp [1977], -; Lord Hamilton [1979], 108 same dies, albeit the overdate not recorded; Manville I [1980] -; Willis [1991], -; Hughes [1999] -; Manville II [1999] -; Ashby [2000], -; Pywell-Phillips -; South Downs -; EMC 136 [as a true date]; ESC 1060 [R5]; Bull 550 [R6 ~ "not traced"]; S.3376), even circulation wear to otherwise entirely original surfaces, the gunmetal uniform cabinet tone richly accentuated by explosive blue and orange hues in the deepest recesses, without doubt a "King of the Rarities" in the lengthy Carolean Shilling corpus, a truly OUTSTANDING opportunity for the dedicated connoisseur thus and found almost entirely wanting from even the most specialised of cabinets, probably one of only three known specimens with no comparable offered globally this Century and Bull unable to trace the type for his most recent revisions to ESC!

Provenance

The L'Abbaye Collection of Early Milled Shillings: Part Two

DNW, 7 October 2003, lot 46 - "fine only, but extremely rare" - £1,200



There has historically existed doubt over the known varieties of this, the last regular issue and indeed rarest date, of the enchanting 'Welsh Plumes' Silver specie for the reign of King Charles II. The corpus, as evidenced by this chronicle; the most comprehensive listing of the multitude of types for at least a generation entirely courtesy of the L'Abbaye collection perfectly demonstrates how the irregular supplies of Western-mined silver topped up production throughout the economically-tumultuous 1670s, as well as causing a bizarre series of 'mules' with alternative bullion dies in 1674, 1677 and 1679. In the maelstrom of numismatic endeavour, both in public and as private pursuits, it is no surprising to find the creation of 'phantom' types.



Rayner held a prevailing belief that both a 1680 'true' date (ESC 1059) and a 1680/79 overdate (ESC 1060) existed, a view repeated in Bull's most recent revision. Spink's then rival publication 'EMC' offered only a true 1680 listing (EMC 136). Thankfully, and in direct comparison with both ESC 1056 and ESC 1057 as offered elsewhere in this very sale, it is abundantly clear that all three share the same obverse die with the distinctive 'high' D in DEI, and furthermore both that 1679 Plumes reverse and the present coin exhibit the same 'spread date' and 'high' M in MAG. In further study of catalogue plates for the as yet untraced but evidently privately-held Lord Hamilton (Spink Auction 3, 21 February 1979, lot 108) specimen, the same distinctive die characteristic is to be noted. The present cataloguer therefore agrees with the listing as set out in Coins of England (2024), and concludes that only the overdate survives today. It is however extraordinary that for a variety known for almost two centuries that Hoblyn gave its rarity by scant praise in comparison to the 1700 'Plumes' Shilling which despite being horrendously rare, is encountered on the open market more frequently than the present variety!

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Sold for
£3,800

Starting price
£1500