Printed Auction 44

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Closed March 12, 2025
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  15. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  

    First Renaissance style portrait

    A44, Lot 215:

    SCOTLAND. James III. 1460-1488. AR base silver groat, issue of 1471-1483 (.770). 1.97 gm. 22 mm. First Renaissance style portrait. Edinburgh mint. His realistic portrait, half right; tressure of eight arcs, trefoils on cusps; +IΛCOBVS : REX : DEI : SCOTORVM (the SCOTORV legend is listed in Burns as the eight arc variety) / Long cross with thistles opposing in two quarters and small mullets opposing in the other two (mullet in upper right quadrant variety; +VIL LAxE DINB VRGh. S. 5270. Burns II: p. 116:12/13; pl. xliv:582-3. Very Fine; attractive example with a clear portrait. Very rare, particularly in appealing condition.

    The Leland Scott Collection. With early hand-written tag

    Also ex Spink with older tag (£650).

     

    The first “real person” portrait on a British coin

    (As featured in Coin World Magazine, March 2025)

    In 1471 the young Scottish king, James III, had his youthful 30 year old image featured on the obverse of a base silver groat. This was the first Renaissance style portrait of a British king shown as he actually looked, and it took until the Fifth Coinage of Henry VII, very early in the 1500’s, for his realistic profile to appear on English coinage. British coins had long featured a front-facing two-dimensional image that made no effort at visually discriminating the kings. This change to an actual image was an important mark of England’s entry into the Renaissance.

    The Renaissance (French “rebirth”) replaced the medieval world view, and was a time of rediscovering the classical learning of the ancient world. The exact time when it began is a source of scholarly debate but in the 14th century literature like the Canterbury Tales, the Decameron, and Dante’s Inferno were reflecting this humanism, and drawing and painting eventually followed.

    The reverse of this James III groat began the use of thistle heads on Scottish coinage. James III is generally considered the founder of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, a Scottish Order of Chivalry that is still functioning. In modern times, the current king, Charles III, is reported to have awarded it five times so far in his reign.
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    Estimate:
    $2,500
    Hammer Price:
    $3,200
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  35. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    A44, Lot 248:

    Cornwall 2. County. Low Hall. Copper halfpenny. 14.03 gm. 28.5 mm. Engraved by Rambert Dumarest (attributed to Droz by both D&H and Waters). Manufactured by Boulton. 1791. A druid's head left, oak wreath around / Shield of arms, a coronet above; CORNISH COPPER HALF AN OUNCE 1791 around. FDC; original color, tiny rim flaw at 11' reverse.

    Ex Salyards Collection.

     

    Cornwall 2 is a beautifully designed high-quality product of Boulton’s Soho Mint. Dalton and Hamer, as well as the detailed supplement published by Waters in 1954, both note that the piece is from Boulton but they credit Droz with the dies. Yet, the initials “R D” (Rambert Dumarest) are plain underneath the image.

    In many respects, this particular piece merits a place in any specialized collection of the development of the Soho Mint and the work of Matthew Boulton. 

    By 1792, Jeanne-Pierre Droz was long gone from Birmingham and Matthew Boulton’s mint. Initially hired to bring his expertise to help the Soho Mint thrive, by 1790 Boulton had become exasperated with Droz and Droz went back to France in March 1791. After investing both large sums of money and his and his staff’s time and energy in trying to bring the mint to a viable level for the production of half pence, 1789 found Boulton frustrated and a major source of his frustration was Droz. Richard Doty describes it well. 

    “Monsieur Droz symbolized all of Boulton’s difficulties. He was being paid a handsome salary (which represented a dead loss for the time being); and he was not even performing the labour for which he had been engaged. He complained about everything….“ (The Soho Mint and the Industrialization of Money. BNS 2. London. 1998. P 37.)

    The account of the break between Boulton and Droz takes several long pages of text describing a bitter and drawn-out break. But Droz finally left and Boulton hired a French engraver, Rambert Dumarest, to fill in as the engraver for the Cornish halfpenny which finally came out in 1792.
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    $250
    Hammer Price:
    $375
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  110. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    A44, Lot 323:

    Surrey 4bis (R). Weybridge. Silver shilling. 3.77 gm. 26.3 mm. A barrel; I BUNN & CO WEYBRIDGE IRON WORKS around / ONE SHILLING TOKEN DOWGATE WHARF LICENSED, across center and around. Dalton 4 (R). Uncirculated; choice and particularly attractive.

     

    Digging deeper in the token literature Surrey 4, a silver shilling token, exists in two sizes. The basic piece is listed as Surrey 4 (R) in Dalton and in the Withers 2010 token reference The Token Book—TB1, a single volume by Paul and.Bente Withers at Galata Print Ltd. that covers the main 17th, 18th and 19th century token issues using the numbering systems in the traditional references. While they included additional information in various places, they did not refer to a variety of Surrey 4. Its existence was first noted in a 1957 publication, long after the original cataloging of the series was standardized in Dalton’s 1922 The Silver Token Coinage Mainly Issued Between 1811 and 1812. 

    Thanks to a detailed note from a serious collector of the series, I pulled two other references off the shelf—Waters, Notes on the Silver Tokens of the Nineteenth Century, 1957, and Mays, Tokens of Those Trying Times, 1991 where a variety of Surrey 4 is listed but not photographed and with the brief note “Struck on a large flan.”

    Waters’ note is similar: “One is known on a larger flan in silver.” Lot 322 is about 2 mm larger than the typical silver token and the denticles around the outer edge are longer than on other examples of this piece. If you compare the photo in the Auction 44 catalog and the photo in Dalton’s 1922 catalog you can see the size difference in the length of the denticles. (Waters was unaware of the piece in 1922 and in the interleaved copy of Dalton that Waters donated to a library in 1932 his extensive notations on the series does not mention this Surrey 4 variety.)

    The collector who wrote has an example of each in his collection. He notes that his basic piece, Surrey 4, is “about 22 mm. and his large flan variant is close to 26.5 mm. The lot in our sale measures 26.31 mm. It is also heavy for the series. Close inspection of this piece compared to the photograph in Dalton suggests the same die was used for both pieces. 

    How rare is it? “One” is too conservative. In addition to the piece in the collection noted above, there is a record of DNW selling an example. Baldwins sold one in 2020 (“good very fine,” 26 mm.  and there have been a few more offered over time. While “one example” undercounts the number of pieces struck on a large flan, the piece is definitely rare and more rare than the usual “Surrey. D 4” piece. 

    Trial or proof piece? Struck at a different time than the ordinary Dalton 4 piece? It is a beautiful piece, well struck on a quality silver planchet.
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    Estimate:
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    Hammer Price:
    $400
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