| Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) > Auction 267 | Auction date: 1 February 2023 |
| Lot number: 1085 Price realized: 170 GBP (Approx. 210 USD / 192 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: World Coins from Various Properties Romania, MOLDAVIA, Bogdan III (1504-17), Half-Gros, auroch's head facing, rev. shield of arms, no legends, 0.26g/12h (MBR 760). Slightly bent at one edge, surface cracks on obverse, otherwise fine, very rare £150-£180 |  |
Match 1:
| Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) > Auction 267 | Auction date: 1 February 2023 |
| Lot number: 1077 Price realized: 180 GBP (Approx. 222 USD / 203 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: World Coins from Various Properties Romania, MOLDAVIA, Stefan cel Mare (1457-1504), Gros, type IIa, moneta moldav, rev. stefans voievoda, 0.40g/7h (MBR -). Slightly bent, otherwise good very fine £100-£120 |  |
Match 2:
| Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) > Auction 271 | Auction date: 4 April 2023 |
| Lot number: 1441 Price realized: Withdrawn | |
| Lot description: World Coins from Various Properties Romania, MOLDAVIA, Stefan cel Mare (1457-1504), Gros, type IIb, moneta moldav, rev. stefanvs voie, 0.64g/9h (MBR 712). Small scrape on obverse, reverse slightly double-struck, otherwise very fine £80-£100 |  |
Match 3:
| Noonans (formerly Dix Noonan Webb) > Auction 271 | Auction date: 4 April 2023 |
| Lot number: 251 Price realized: 1,000 GBP (Approx. 1,252 USD / 1,141 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: English Hammered Coins from Various Properties Henry VII (1485-1509), Facing Bust/Profile issue mule, Halfgroat, York/Canterbury mule?, Abp Savage, mm. martlet both sides, facing bust with double-arched crown within tressure, keys by neck, lettering series F, rev. posvi dev adivtorev mev around quartered shield of arms set over long cross, ornate barred a, 1.10g/8h (Stewartby IVb [York] / Va [Canterbury], the mule unrecorded; Winstanley 2 [York] / 1 [Canterbury], the mule unrecorded; cf. SCBI Ashmolean 672-3, same obv. die; N 1716/1750; S 2215/2261). Struck from a worn obverse die and somewhat short of flan, otherwise good fine with identifying marks clear, extremely rare £300-£400 --- Offered here for sale is a highly unusual Halfgroat of Henry VII, produced at York under the authority of of Archbishop Savage (1501-7). The obverse carries a facing bust and the name of the reigning monarch. There are two main identifying marks which facilitate the mint attribution; St Peter's keys beside the neck (the left key being somewhat blundered), and the mint mark martlet. The obverse lettering series is F, and the die can be assigned to Winstanley's type 2, which he makes current around 1503. Notably, the obverse die used to strike our coin is also known to have been muled with reverse dies from Winstanley's type 6 (SCBI Ashmolean 672-3), the last of the facing bust issues from York, which continued until around 1504. Quite surprisingly, the reverse of our coin belongs to the succeeding Profile issue, introduced in 1504 and produced for a while alongside the old full-faced coiange, before becoming the sole coinage. Its design is markedly distinct from that employed on the full-faced coinage, doing away with the 'cross and pellets' arrangement which had been the standard design for English silver coins since the fourteenth century. Instead, the reverse of the Profile issue comprises a single band of circumscript legend around a quartered shield of arms set over a long cross. During this period three mints were in operation; London, Canterbury and York. Mint mark martlet, as appears on the reverse, was seemingly employed at both Canterbury and York, an arrangement which has caused some confusion of attribution. According to the scheme set out first by Carlyon-Britton, adjusted by Winstanley and reinforced by Lord Setwartby, the Profile issue Halfgroats of Canterbury can be distinguished from those pieces of York on account of various other elements of design. The reverse of the coin under consideration here has three characteristics worthy of note; it lacks keys in the field beneath the shield; it utilises the spelling avdivtorev as opposed to the usual avdivtore; and finally, the a in avdivtorev is barred and ornamental in shape. All three elements suggest that the reverse die used to strike this mule belongs to the group ordinarily associated with Canterbury. |  |
Match 4:
| The Coin Cabinet Ltd. > Auction 73 | Auction date: 22 November 2022 |
| Lot number: 100 Price realized: 1,350 GBP (Approx. 1,604 USD / 1,559 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: 1891 Gold Half-Sovereign No JEB High shield DISH Unrecorded About very fine (AGW=0.1176 oz.) About very fine | UNITED KINGDOM. Victoria, 1837-1901. Gold half-sovereign, 1891. London. No JEB High shield DISH Unrecorded. After a break in half sovereign production 1888-1889, this recommenced in 1890 and continued in 1891 but at less than half the mintage, 1,087,884 in 1891. The reverse shield was lowered at some point after 1887 to improve metal flow. 1890 dated coins have a majority of the new lower shield. As the old high shield dies wear out and are replaced with the new lower shield dies, coins with the high shield become progressively rarer. According to David Iverson and Steve Hill in their publication 'The Jubilee Gold Half Sovereign 1887-1893' (Sovereign Rarities, 2019), all coins struck in 1891 are without JEB initials and with the lower shield type. Having gone through thousands of coins in various collections around the world, they did not award a reference number to this type in the way they did with other coins that were presumed to exist, however the author did note that 'as ever though, just a word of caution, as one should always be aware of the chances of coming across the unexpected, and perhaps something different to the known variety turning up one day.' In 1892, with production at 13.7 million coins, a small number of high shield coins along with coins with JEB (Imperfect J only) exist, so old dies from 1887 production runs were used in 1892 to cover production gaps when necessary. However, with the relatively low mintage of 1891 the use of old dies seems unnecessary. PCGS has listed four 1891 half-sovereigns as being of the High shield variety, however PCGS has notoriously graded a large number of both high and low shield coins incorrectly and closer inspection of these four so-called high shields show that all with an image are in fact incorrectly graded low shield coins. Spink and Marsh have also not given any indication of rarity to this variety, but it seems to be one which has not been properly researched until Iverson and Hill's publication. To add to their research, we have also gone through many thousands of coins in the last several years and only now come across this one coin. There may be others out there-and we kindly ask everyone who own an 1891 Jubilee head half-sovereign to check!-but in any case this is definitely a great rarity, possibly an R7 by Marsh's standards. Crowned and veiled Jubilee bust facing left; no JEB on truncation; inscription: VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRIT: REGINA F: D:. / High, crowned and embellished shield-of-arms; date in exergue; BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF:. About very fine. Reference: Marsh-480A; S-3869C; DISH unrecorded Diameter: 19.3 mm. Weight: 3.99 g. (AGW=0.1176 oz.) Composition: 917.0/1000 Gold. PLEASE NOTE: 6% Buyer Premium + VAT on this lot. No other fees, including live bidding. Delivery cost will be added to your order. This lot is exempt from VAT. Payment can be made in EUR, CHF, or USD for an exchange fee. Please contact us to find out more. Starting price: 170 GBP |  |
Match 5:
| The Coin Cabinet Ltd. > Auction 77 | Auction date: 21 February 2023 |
| Lot number: 44 Price realized: 500 GBP (Approx. 601 USD / 563 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: AU58 | UNITED KINGDOM. Victoria, 1837-1901. Gold half-sovereign, 1887. London. Hooked J DISH L503. The issues the mint encountered with the Jubilee coins are well documented and were exacerbated by the pressure for the coins to be ready for the Queen's Golden Jubilee on 20 June 1887. Records show that 1,771,425 half-sovereigns were struck in 1887, but only 871,770, less than 50% of the total, were fit for circulation. The Jubilee head series-in all denominations-provides collectors with a unique insight into the workings of the Mint. Due to time restraints the Jubilee head designer Joseph Edgar Boehm's initials JEB were individually punched onto six master dies for each mint (London, Sydney and Melbourne) by Royal Mint employee William Poplett, creating no less than 23 varieties of 1887 Jubilee Head half sovereigns. All 1887 half sovereigns with hooked J are extremely rare. In their publication 'The Jubilee Head Gold Half Sovereign 1887-1893' (Sovereign Rarities, 2019), David Iverson and Steve Hill estimate that the average output from each pair of dies was only 3,397 coins, indeed making this one of the greatest half sovereign rarities. Crowned and veiled Jubilee bust facing left; small, spread JEB on truncation, hooked J, second stop higher than first, third stop at junction of truncation and field; inscription: VICTORIA DEI GRATIA BRIT: REGINA F: D:. / High, crowned and embellished shield-of-arms; date in exergue; BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF:. In secure plastic holder, graded PCGS AU58 , certification number 45313728. PCGS population in this grade: 3. PCGS population in higher grade: 9. Reference: Marsh-478A; S-3869A; DISH-L503 Diameter: 19.3 mm. Weight: 3.99 g. (AGW=0.1176 oz.) Composition: 917.0/1000 Gold. PLEASE NOTE: 6% Buyer Premium + VAT on this lot. No other fees, including live bidding. Delivery cost will be added to your order. This lot is exempt from VAT. Payment can be made in EUR, CHF, or USD for an exchange fee. Please contact us to find out more. Starting price: 180 GBP |  |
