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Auction: 25021 - The Simpson Collection of Hiberno-Norse and Irish Coinage
Lot: 289

Ireland, George III (1760-1820), "Unfinished" Engraver's Own Proof for the Pattern "Union" Penny, 1789, by Mossop after Sir Joshua Reynolds, struck in Dublin, in "yellow" copper, GEORGIVS III • REX • bare head right, additional hair curls below ear, and adam's apple under chin, Maid of Erin below, seven strings to harp, rev. CON-COR-DIA • Hibernia and Britannia clasping hands before Altar, 1789 in exergue, edge plain, [Spink XRF: 97.95% Cu; 1.66% Os; 0.29% Ir; 0.071% Au; 0.028% Pd], 16.22g [250.18grns], 12h (W A Seaby, The "Six" Union Pennies of 1789, Spink Numismatic Circular, September 1983, pp. 222-224, nos. 19, 23, 25, 28, 29 (L) this coin; Philip Nelson, 'The Coinage of Ireland in Tin, Copper and Pewter' [BNJ, 1905], pp. 50-51, Pl. VI, 10; cf. DF 609; NMI [1911], p. 104, no. 4), some historic pin scratches in fields and a bore mark after the X of REX presumably undertaken by Mossop himself, otherwise with handsome uniform patina overlying residually lustrous fields, about extremely fine as issued, OF THE HIGHEST RARITY, only TWO known from the unfinished dies, this being the only example in private hands, the other accessioned into Ulster Museum in 1970

Provenance

The John Noel Simpson Collection of English, Irish and Hiberno-Norse Coins

Norman Applebaum, Superior Galleries, 11-12 December 1992, lot 1544 - 'a few minor scratches, virtually as struck. Extremely rare. About uncirculated'
[Simpson]


["Munro"], Spink 6, 10-11 October 1979, lot 897* - "weak on bust as usual, flaw by REX and some surface marks, otherwise very fine and excessively rare" - £460 [Hearn]


'The inventory of a Canadian dealer'


Jess Peters, Decatur FPL, August 1971, no. 1125


SCMB, December 1957, IR902 - "Ex Parsons Collection. Face weakly struck as usual, RRR" - £9.9.0


SCMB, August 1956, IR596 - weakly struck as usual, RRR" - £10.10.0


SCMB, February 1955, IR582 - "Nelson states six specimens were only struck. very worn on face, otherwise good VF, RRR" - £10.10.0


Harry Alexander Parsons, Glendining, 11 May 1954, lot 843* - "very fine and very rare" - £6.0.0 [Seaby]


Albert Edward Bagnall, by private transaction with Parsons


Dr Archibald Nadauld Brushfield, Glendining, 28 March 1940, lot 96 - "weakly struck, of the highest rarity, only six were struck when the die was destroyed" - £1.10.0 [Spink for Bagnall]


Glendining, 19-20 December 1910, lot 66 - £1.3.0 [Brushfield]



In 1784, William Mossop Senior resided at 13 Essex quay, a decade later he w. He modestly describes his occupation as “ letter-cutter and die-sinker”. In 1789, now of some considerable renown in Dublin, he prepared a Pattern for a Penny in recognition of the Union of England and Ireland. On the authority of the Very Reverend Henry Richard Dawson (TRIA, Vol. XIX, 1838), only six examples were struck off before the dies fractured, and of these two were personally presented to King George III, 'as they were thought worthy of a place in the cabinet of the reigning monarch'. Interestingly, at the Bergne dispersal of 1873, the Sotheby's cataloguer noted: 'we know of only three or four'. Much like Wilfred Seaby's 1983 corpus, this cataloguer can trace only seven specimens 'in blackened bronze' finish including a recently defaced example that surfaced at London auction in 2020, and only two 'yellow copper' examples from the unfinished dies - which on account of the addition 'kiss-curl' hair detailing and Adam's apple, must be considered as Mossop's own trial strikings before completion of his enterprise.


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Sold for
£5,200

Starting price
£800