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Auction: 24014 - The Alfred Leonard Fuller of Bath Collection of English Silver Coins and Tokens
Lot: 267

Charles I (1625-1649), Group IV, Type 4, Crown, 29 May 1643 - 15 July 1644, Tower (under Parliament), (P) • CAROLVS • D .' G .' MAG .' BRI .' FRA .' ET • HIB .' REX • fourth fore-shortened horseman left, sword upright, sash flying behind, no ground line, rev. •:• (P) •:• CHRISTO • AVSPICE • REGNO, oval garnished shield, plain harp, 30.144g, 7h, m.m. (P) (Hawkins 476; Samuel Tyssen [1802], lot 2193(a) = Stephenson; William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire [2nd Portion, 1844], lot 227(b); H P Standly [1845], lot 290; John Paget [1846], lot 85; Lt.-Col Durrant [1847], lot 701(b); NumChron, Proceedings of the Numismatic Society (1852-53), pp. 7-8; J F Neck, NumChron [1876], p. 148, no. 19 = H Webb [1894 Sale, lot 387 - 'of great rarity']; Montagu III, 297; FRC XXI/XXIV; Brooker 268 same dies; North 2198; S.2761), heavily tooled in fields in antiquity, with traces of doubling, otherwise outstandingly cabinet toned, struck details about very fine, an extremely rare mint mark for a Tower Silver Crown, probably fewer than twenty specimens known, this with an extraordinary pedigree back to the cabinet of legendary specialist George Marshall in 1852

Provenance

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

Acquired from Messrs Spink & Son, 10 February 1898 - £1.15.0

Spink Numismatic Circular, February 1898 (P.2604, no. 43178) - "Mm. (P). A very rare mint-mark. RR. From the Gibbs collection. Tooled." - £1.15.0

Joseph Gibbs (1798-1864), collection reputedly purchased en bloc by Spink, before May 1888

~ Proceeding of the Royal Numismatic Society, 27 January 1853 ~

"A paper by Mr. Joseph Gibbs, on those coins of Charles I. which have for mint-mark the letter P or the letter R within brackets. Mr. Gibbs's attention had been drawn to this subject by having procured at the sale of the collection of Mr. Marshall, of Birmingham, a crown of Charles I, with the former letter for mint-mark, and by finding that, although the mint-mark in question was mentioned by Snelling, Ruding, and Hawkins, neither of those writers enumerated the crown among the pieces on which it appears. It is considered by numismatic writers that the coinage of the Tower Mint, with the mint-mark a triangle within a circle, struck in 1641, was the last issued in London by the king's authority, and that all the subsequent coinages were struck by authority of the parliament, though still bearing the effigy and titles of the king, in order to secure for them a circulation throughout the whole of the kingdom. It has been supposed by some writers that the mint-mark P within brackets, was adopted by order of the Parliament to indicate that the corns on which it appeared were struck by their authority. This idea has by others been discredited, because we find other pieces of the Tower mintage nearly contemporaneous, which are marked by the letter R within brackets. Mr. Gibbs, however, in the absence of any more plausible explanation, inclines to the opinion, that the first class of coins were marked with the letter P to denote the authority of the parliament ; and suggests that, as Sir Robert Harley, who had been Master of the Mint, under the king, from 1626 to 1636, was re-appointed to that office by the Parliament in May, 1643, the letter R may have been placed by him upon a coinage either as the initial of his own Christian name, or possibly even to denote the word " Rex " in contradistinction to the word " Parliament," indicated by the letter P on the preceding coinage. The crown with mint-mark P is a piece of very considerable rarity. Although not enumerated by Snelling, Ruding, or Hawkins, it occurs in the Tyssen Collection, Lot 2193, and also in that of the Duke of Devonshire, and one or two others of more recent date; but in some of those cases it was probably the same coin re-sold."

William Webster, by private treaty with Joseph Gibbs, 1852

George Marshall, First Portion, Sotheby's, 4 March 1852, lot 352 [part] - ..."Crowns, one having P. within a circle, m.m., rare...well preserved" - £0.15.0 [Webster]

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Sold for
£1,500

Starting price
£5