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Auction: 6018 - The Coinex Sale
Lot: 400

Charles II, Coronation, 1661, silver medal by T. Simon, 29mm., crowned draped bust right, rev. king enthroned, crowned by Peace hovering above (MI.472,76; van Loon II, 470; Wollaston 5), good very fine, toned Estimate £ 150-200The official medal struck for distribution at the coronation ceremony, Tuesday 23 April 1661. Samuel Pepys noted in his diary that the ceremony itself was something of a disappointment: ´And then in the Quire at the high altar he passed all the ceremonies of the Coronacion - which, to my very great grief, I and most of the Abbey could not see.´ The distribution of the medals however caused more excitement: ´ And three times the King at Arms went to the three open places on the scaffold, and proclaimed, that if anyone s could show any reason why Ch Steward should not be king of England, that now he should come and speak. And a Generall pardon also was read by the Lord Chancellor, and meddalls flung up and down by my Lord Cornwallis - of silver, but I could not come by any.´ The distribution of the medals caused considerable confusion. Pepys continues ´But so great a noise that I could make but little of the musique, and endeed, it was lost to everybody.´

Sold for
£380