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Auction: 24014 - The Alfred Leonard Fuller of Bath Collection of English Silver Coins and Tokens
Lot: 375

Charles I (1625-1649), Civil War Issues, Royalist Worcester, Halfcrown, c. 1644-1646, the so-called "Weymouth" Type, CAROLVS D : G : MAG : BR : FRAN : ET HI : RX, foreshortened Equestrian Portrait of King trotting left, brandishing upright sword, with flowing mane, sash flying behind, no ground-line, rev. CHRISTO (Rampant Lion) AVSPICE (Rampant Lion) REGNO, crowned and draped oval garnished shield, with fleur de lys atop upper quarters, 14.290g, 6h, no m.m. (Snelling, XIV, 16 [Weymouth]; Ruding, Supplement, Pl. V, 28; T F Dymock, Numismatic Chronicle [1861], pp. 185-188 [Weymouth; Hawkins Uncertain, p. 177, no. 5 [2 Listed]; Maillet [1871], p. 136, d.1(11) [Weymouth]; Allen C-18; Bull 669/18 same dies [Unattested ~ Worcester Style ~ 3 Listed]; BM E.1048 same dies; Montagu III, 614 same dies; Marshall [1852], 407 = Murchison [1864], 319 = Neck = Webb I, 557[b] = Murdoch II, 195 same dies = Ready 706 = Hamilton-Smith 349[a] = Lockett 3521 = Graham 250 same dies [Weymouth]; V J E Ryan II, 1304 = Morris = "Welsh Marches" 322 same dies; Brooker -, cf. 1145-1150 same obverse die [W and SA Mints]; North 2592; S.3100), historically scratched across shields and on an irregular flan with traces of doubling, otherwise lightly cabinet toned, a pleasing very fine, OF THE HIGHEST RARITY, only five examples recorded; the type omitted from the Mrs Street; Hon. Robert Marsham; Cumberland Clark; Francis; Colonel Morrieson and Brooker collections

Provenance

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

Acquired from Messrs Spink & Son, 5 April 1902 - £3.0.0

Spink Numismatic Circular, April 1902 (P.5298, no. 82486) - "No mm. Horse, with long mane flowing in front of his chest the words of the legend stopped with double annulets. Rev. Oval crowned shield with drapery to its lower half, lion rampant after Christo and Auspice. (The arms of Weymouth were a lion rampant and a castle). Excessively rare, extremely fine" - £3.0.0




Spink Numismatic Circular, April 1898 (P.2711, no. 44563) - "No. mm. Horse exactly as that upon no. 44560 [Weymouth], &c. BR FRAN ET HI RX, double annulets between all the words. Rev. Shield as before with lis each side of upper portion and drapery to the lower part, a lion rampart [sic] after CHRISTO and AVSPICE. Excessively rare with the lions in the reverse legend and which go to prove that all the half-crowns with this very unusual type of shield (with lis and drapery) are of Weymouth as the arms of that city were a lion rampant and a castle. The Montagu specimen (not so fine) realised £4. RRR. very fine" - £3.0.0



'W-signed' Halfcrowns, Shillings, Sixpences, Groats and Threepences have historically been attributed to Weymouth in Dorset, following the suggestion of Rev. T. F. Dymock in the Numismatic Chronicle of 1861, page 185. Numismatists accepted this attribution on account of the town seal of Weymouth incorporating a Rampant Lion and Castle, seen on a corresponding issue of this very coin (cf. BNS, 23 March 1904, Exhibition = Maish 1918, 347 = Col. Morrieson 554 = Lockett 2542 = F Willis 340 = Hulett V, 410 = Allen B-10 - 'unique').



Derek Allen wrote the definitive categorisation of this series for the British Numismatic Journal in 1938 (pp. 97-119), when the guarded assumption was still that these coins were Weymouth, and the Salopia mint mark SA was assumed to mean Salisbury. It was not until the article by George Boon on "Provincial and Civil War Issues" that featured in the foreword to the Sylloge of John G. Brooker's Collection of "Coins of Charles I" published in 1984.



The re-attribution to Worcester is largely the result of subsequent hoard evidence, for instance a number turned up in the Telford Hoard in 1982. Furthermore, surviving correspondence from the Ordinance Agent Captain Strachan at Weymouth between 1643 and 1644 demonstrated a distinct lack of monetary supply, as he was continually writing to the King's Capital at Oxford. Consequently had coins been struck at Weymouth, it would have been in the 10 weeks between the termination of Strachan's correspondence and the town falling to the Parliamentarians on 17 June 1644, a scarcely conceivable, but not impossible time-frame.



At the same time, King Charles I is documented at passing through Worcester with his forces having departed Oxford on the night of the 3 June 1644, before passing through Northleigh, Burford, Bourton-on-the-Water and Evesham.


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Sold for
£5,500

Starting price
£5