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Auction: 5033 - The Colin Adams Collection of Halfcrowns
Lot: 197

Charles I, Bristol mint, Halfcrown, 15.94g., 1643, Oxford horseman walking left, ground-line below, Oxford plume below, reads MAG BRIT FR ET HIB, rev. declaration RELIG:PROT: LE:AN:LIB:PAR: in two lines, three large crude plumes above, date below, double/single pellet stops, four pellets before EXVRGAT, no m.m. (JGB 970 (this coin); Morr. B-3, and BNJ XVIII p.138, 2 (this coin); Vincent, BNJ XXVIII, pl.XIII, 5 (this coin); N.2484; S.3003) lightly double struck on horse´s head and declaration, otherwise a handsome example of this key transitional coin, evenly toned, very fine or better, extremely rare Estimate £ 2,000-2,500PROVENANCE: H W Morrieson, Sotheby, 20 November 1933, lot 485 J R Vincent, balance of collection purchased by Spink, post 1955 J G Brooker, SCBI 33, no.970 Purchased M Rasmussen, June 2003 This coin forms an unusually important link in the network of die movements by which the provincial Royalist mints were supplied with equipment during the Civil War. The obverse is struck from the second (Oxford 1643 F = Bristol 1643 B) of the two Oxford dies sent to Bristol on the opening of the latter mint, see lot 176 above. The reverse is also struck from one of the group of six transitional dies, with large crude plumes and ´Bristol´ declaration, identified by Morrieson, BNJ XVIII p.138. Crucially Vincent noted that this reverse die, and this one alone, had a further career, BNJ XXVIII p.169. It was subsequently sent to Worcester, where the date was skillfully altered to 1644, and it was used to strike the sole Worcester declaration type Halfcrown which Allen places at the start of the Worcester series, Allen die 1, BNJ XXIII, p.I.1. This reverse die provides the only numismatic link between the important Bristol and Worcester series, and this coin is possibly the only example of its use at Bristol to survive. For a 1644 striking at Worcester, see lot 227 below.

Sold for
£2,300