| Numismatica Ars Classica > Auction 145 with CNG & NGSA | Auction date: 8 May 2024 |
| Lot number: 1260 Price realized: This lot is for sale in an upcoming auction - Bid on this lot  | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: The Geoffrey Cope Collection of British Coins. Charles I 'Fine Work' Shillings of the Tower Mint. AR Crown (40.5mm, 29.46 g, 12h). City view type. Oxford mint; im: four-petalled flower. Dies by T. Rawlins. Dated 1644. Charles on horseback left, holding sword and reins, tiny R beneath horse's raised foreleg; below, OXON over a view of the city of Oxford from Banbury Road / EXVRGAT (floral scroll) DEVS DISSIPENTVR (floral spray) INIMICI (floral spray) , RELIG • PROT • LEG/ ANG • LIBER • PARL between floral scrolls; three plumes and V above, 1644 and OXON below. Morrieson, Oxford A-1; Brooker 876 (same dies); North 2407; SCBC 2948 (this coin illustrated). A majestic coin. Softly struck in part of legend otherwise with excellent detail to king, horse and city view below. Some light marks in field around scarf under deep cabinet toning. Near EF. Of great rarity: believed to be the finest of three examples in private hands. Ex E.D.J. Van Roekel (Spink 156, 15 November 2001) lot 68; D. Rees-Jones (Spink 117, 19 November 1996) lot 31; H. Selig (Spink 70, 31 May 1989), lot 173; Spink 1 (11 October 1978), lot 201; Clonterbrook Trust (Glendining, 7 June 1974), lot 243; R.C. Lockett (English Part II, Glendining, 11 October 1956), lot 2447; Sir John Evans Collection plates, lot 2681; W.N. Clarkson (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 16 April 1901), lot 135; E.J. Shepherd (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 22 July 1885), lot 357; W. Durrant (S. Leigh Sotheby & Co., 19 April 1847), lot 634; S. Tyssen (S. Leigh Sotheby & Co., 12 April 1802) lot 2194; E Hodsol Collection (purchased en bloc by Tyssen, 1790s); A Gentleman in Norfolk’ [J. White?] (Abraham Langford, 26 March 1776), lot 47, 'the finest engraved coin of any during the king’s troubles’ (£31/10/-). This coin exhibited, Coins, Crown & Conflict, American Numismatic Association, Money Museum, 2007. This wonderful type is the only 'city view' coin ever to be issued the British series and has for centuries been coveted for both its artistry and its rarity. Writing in 1955, Humphrey Sutherland praised Rawlins's 'consummate skill' in 'the rendering of the king's horse, all fire and movement, with mane tossing and tail waving, against the placid view of Oxford city' before going on to state that 'Rawlins's design must always stand out as one of the more heroic representations of English kingship, spirited and yet sublime in feeling, original in conception, and so exquisitely engraved that progressive enlargement only serves to bring out new beauties in detail.' In the Clonterbrook Trust sale on 7th June 1974, the coin offered here, was subject to a prolonged bidding battle between Michael Sharp of Baldwin and Douglas Liddell of Spink which drove the price up to £20,000, double the world record for any British coin to that date. This new record set the price benchmark for such rarities as the 1703 Vigo Five Guineas, the 1820 Five Pound piece and the George III pattern Five Guineas which sold in the £20,000 to £26,000 range in the famous Douglas Morris sale later the same year. Estimate: 150000 CHF |  |
