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Auction: 24014 - The Alfred Leonard Fuller of Bath Collection of English Silver Coins and Tokens
Lot: 78

Henry VII (1485-1509), First Coinage, 'Lis-Signed' Issues, Groat, 1485-1487, Class I, Tower, (i.m.) hENRIC x DI x GRA x REX x AnGL x Z x FRAnC x', open crowned bust facing, rev. POSVI DEVM + A-DIVTOR-E MEVM // CIVI-TAS+ LOn-DOn (lys), D over O in DOn, quatrefoils [saltires] after DEVM and TAS, chevron-barred As (A2), long cross and trio of pellets in angles, 2.875g [44.368grns], 2h, i.m. lys upon sun-and-rose / none [albeit lys after DON] (Hawkins p. 266, no. 11 = George B Petrie, Spink Numismatic Circular, June 1911, P.12828, no. 192 this coin; Potter & Winstanley [BNJ, 1960], 2/1 variety, and Pl. XIX, 7 these dies unlisted = cf. BM 1915,0507.398; cf. Lockett 1700[a] = SCBI 23 [Ashmolean], 121; SCBI 23 [Ashmolean], 96-97/- same obverse die; North 1703; S.2193), lightly clipped, otherwise richly cabinet toned, a pleasing very fine, bolder still in parts, OF THE HIGHEST RARITY AND ONLY EXAMPLE AVAILABLE TO COMMERCE, unsurprisingly unknown to Potter and Winstanley, yet with a remarkable and well-documented 19th Century pedigree via the legendary Montagu cabinet!

Provenance

The Alfred Leonard Fuller of Bath Collection (1870-1941)

Acquired from Messrs Spink & Son, 6 January 1898 - £0.6.6

Spink Numismatic Circular, January 1898 (P.2559, no. 42621) - "Groat, First coinage. Mm. lis on rose. hENRIC 'x DI : GRA : bust, full-face, open crown. Rev. CIVITAS LOnDOn, a lis after London. R. very fine" - £0.6.6



Hyman Montagu, Fifth Portion, Sotheby's, 16-20 November 1897, lot 227 [part] - "First Coinage, with open crown. Groats, London, usual type (1), m.m. lis on rose, on obv. only, lis after LONDON....very rare...somewhat rubbed" - £0.8.0 [Spink]
Edward Hawkins, The Silver Coins of England, 1887, p. 266, no. 11 - "MM lis upon rose on obv. only, cross after Deum and Civitas, lis after London. Late Capt. James" - this coin

Harry Osborn Cureton, the well-known dealer, by private treaty with Gibbs or Wigan, by January 1859




Sadly it is not clear, even within the extensively annotated Spink Library copy, for whom Cureton was operating commission bids regarding this group lot. Out of his many illustrious clients: Dr Neligan, Joseph Gibbs, Edward Wigan and Lt.-Col. Sir William Lloyd, at least the likes of J D Cuff, J B Bergne, the British Museum, T F Dymock and Martin can be discounted given the lack of parallel listing in their respective later sale catalogues. Equally notable is the inconclusive presence of such a variety in Cureton's known stock sales at Sotheby's (February 1851) or posthumously (January 1859, lot 167). It is most probable therefore that either Edward Wigan (collection sold from 1872 by Rollin & Feuardent) or more likely Joseph Gibbs (d. 1874) were the intermediary cabinet before Montagu, as both of whom are known to have greatly contributed to that fabled collection, albeit Wigan was largely acquired via the subsidiary en bloc purchase of the William Brice portfolio in 1887 and is generally better published at the time.



It is most apparent that the British Museum specimen, acquired in 1915, is not the James listing as the 'lis after London' is virtually obliterated on their specimen, whereas the present example beautifully accords with that description. The British Museum example could conceivably be the W H Rolfe specimen exhibited by him at the Royal Numismatic Society meeting of 22 May 1845 (p. 12 - 39grns refers), and whose collection of Iron Age coins passed via Sir John Evans and his son Arthur into the National collection that same decade



Captain J. James of Dover, Sotheby's, 13-14 April 1848, lot 129 [part] - ...Henry VII, open crown, a well defined lis after London, rare... - £1.5.0 [Cureton]



W J W Potter and E J Winstanley writing for their groundbreaking study on 'The Coinage of Henry VII' (British Numismatic Journal, 1960, pp. 262-301, and Pls. XIX-XXII, noted: "There are only two specimens known of the lis-marked groat, both from the same obverse die. One is in the BM collection (Pl. XIX, 7), while the other was in the Lockett sale under no. 1700, though not illustrated. This obverse presents two unusual features: the king's name is spelt HENRCVS with DEI in full, and the stops, as already noted, are pellets. The two reverses, without full mint-mark, are from the same, but not identical dies, with saltires after DEVM and TAS and lis after DON."



Since this observation, a cross-fitchée signed class II Groat with saltires by neck has appeared for sale in 2010 (DNW 90, 9 December 2010, lot 320, offering a further sub-muling of this early class with a lys after DON marked reverse die. A notable parcel of 'open crown' Groats of Henry VII was recovered from Bury St Edmunds (Numismatic Chronicle II, p. 147) and featured in the Joseph Warren of Ixworth sale at Sotheby's in March 1869 (lots 88-90), but again no parallel to the present coin can be deciphered, further cementing its inherent rarity

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Sold for
£900

Starting price
£5