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Auction: 367 - The NYINC Numismatic Collector's Series Sale - Conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 144

The Anarchy, Baronial Magnates, William FitzRobert, 2nd Duke of Gloucester († 1183), Penny, struck c. 1147, West Country Mint, Sherborne [?], + [VVILL]ELM [...] : lombardic M, crowned bust facing, voided stars beside neck, rev. [....S]OR • O[... ...]VN, pellet-tipped voided quadrilobe over voided cross bottonée, 0.85g, (Spink 1332; N.945; SCBI 20 [Mack], 1643; EMC 2020.0280 this coin), chipped and split on a crimped flan and noticeably off-struck on obverse, otherwise delightfully toned, of the highest rarity and numismatic importance, being only the ninth recorded specimen of his coinage and first tentatively linked to this provincial Dorset mint and critical military strongpoint of the Anarchy

provenance
Found Stalbridge Weston (Dorset), 30 August 2020


Sherborne was a viewed as strategic waypoint by the warring parties of the Anarchy, with historiography identifying control of its castle as 'the master-key to the whole kingdom'. By the early 1140s, Robert FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Gloucester had captured the fortification. Despite being a son of King Henry I, his own illegitimacy excused any rightful claim to the throne for himself. Instead as half-brother, he acted as the chief military supporter of Empress Matilda's cause. Robert's forces succeeded in capturing King Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141, but a series of subsequent tactical mistakes led to the Rout of Winchester in September in which Robert's own imprisonment led to an exchange and release of Stephen. Robert died at Bristol Castle in October 1147. His eldest son William adopted his baronial estates, as he had done during his father's imprisonment six years earlier and again during his absence in Normandy in 1144, whereupon he had served as Governor of Wareham. In 1147, FitzRobert overthrew Henry de Tracy at Castle Cary (Somerset) which is located some 15 miles from the findspot of the present coin.

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Sold for
$13,000

Starting price
$5000