The Confederate Catholic Rebel Crown

Lot 279

Plain, crude, uneven strike, rugged—why its appeal? What is its story? Of the five siege crowns issued in Ireland during the English Civil War, this piece is remarkable because of its religious connection. The 2006 sale of Lucien LaRiviere’s comprehensive Irish collection had examples of all five Irish siege crowns. I was able to buy four, all except this one type that sold for many times estimate. I was simply outbid.

These coins are very rare, and rarely offered. So, when I had the chance to buy this one, I was keen, and successful.

It is easy to focus on the Civil War in England and not think as much about its impact on Ireland. In Ireland, a chief tension was between Irish Catholics on one side and English and Scottish Protestants on the other. Who would rule Ireland? The enmity between Protestants and Catholics burst open during the reign of Mary Tudor. It was in full bloom during the tempestuous reign of Charles I during the Civil War’s sturm und drang;chaos and Catholic forces rose up.

Their crown with its elegantly simple cross design was issued for their use in the Civil War—wars always cost money. Their forces were ultimately defeated by Cromwell but we still have this rare remnant of their history.

For me, an unextinguishable joy of making numismatics my profession has been handling coins with exceptional appeal -- magnificent history and often an amazing work of art from another era.

I may “own” it for a brief time but while I can handle many wonderful coins I cannot afford to keep them for more than a relatively short period of time. But then, all of us who love coins know well that our ownership is a brief interlude in their journey through time.

I have a personal list of my hundred favorite British coins. This is on it.

Allan Davisson

Sunday, February 18, 2018

 

How Bidding Works

 

Davissons Ltd uses a soft close for its auctions, which means no lot closes until everyone is done bidding. Every time a bid is placed within the final 40 seconds of a lot closing, the timer is reset to 40 seconds. This continues until no bids are placed for 40 seconds, at which point the lot closes. There will never be more than one lot closing at once, as the next lot is not allowed to begin closing until the current lot closes.

To bid: enter your maximum bid into the text box, and click submit. Only round dollar amounts are accepted. You are then required to confirm your bid. Once confirmed, all bids are final. If you have placed a bid in error you must call during office hours and speak to one of us. If you are the current high bidder then it will display “Current High Bidder: YOU” If you are not the high bidder, or if you are not logged in, then the current high bidder will be identified by their 5 digit client ID. You may find your client ID under the Account tab.

Bids are reduced automatically, so feel free to bid your maximum and it will be reduced to one increment over the current high bid. If a user places a bid that is higher than necessary to be the current high bidder on the lot, the displayed bid will reflect one advance over the next lower bid. For example, if a user "A" places a bid of $120 on a lot which opens at $100, "A" will be winning that lot at $100. If another user "B" bids $110, the winning bidder will be "A" at $120, one advance over the supporting bid of $110. If user "B" in this example instead placed a bid at $120, then user "A" will still be winning at $120 because they placed that maximum bid value first.

Increments can be viewed here. The next bid will always be on the next increment, so if a user is winning a lot at $100, or $105, or $109, the next bid will still always be $110.

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