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    Northumberland Shilling
    E32, Lot 84:

    George III. 1760-1820. AR shilling. 26 mm. "Northumberland." 1763. His laureate bust right / Shields in cruciform. S. 3742. ESC 2124 (1214). NGC AU 58; attractive coin with light gray tone over fresh surfaces.

     

    The “Northumberland” shilling is more a story of the energetic and influential Hugh Percy, an important figure in the court of George II, than it is of a lone silver coin issued in limited numbers—3000 or fewer—in the midst of a period of nearly a half century without any silver currency coming from the mint.
     
    Percy’s influence carried over into the reign of George III, the 22 year old grandson of George II whose reign began in 1760. In 1763, early in this reign, Percy now the Earl of Northumberland, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Soon after he arrived in Dublin he had a silver shilling with a portrait of the young George III struck, a reflection it seems of his remarkable influence when one considers the absence of silver minting during this period.
     
    This is the only silver coin showing the young head of George III issued during an era where gold coinage was the only thing that kept mint workers occupied. The total mintage is estimated to be fewer than 3000, and all of these were shipped to Ireland where Percy handed them out. They were not distributed to the population generally, but were handed out piecemeal to friends, colleagues, and new acquaintances over a period of time.
     
    The design of the coin was also special. The last shilling of George II in 1748 and the 1787 shilling of George III were both typical low relief examples of coins designed to be produced in quantity. This 1763 issue has a fuller face portrait of the young king that shows up with an appealing higher relief and definition reflecting the gold issues of the time. The same portrait was used for the gold issues early in George III’s reign.
     
    Most of the coins that show up now show signs of limited use. “Choice mint state” is a description that applies to very few examples. “Good Very Fine” to “nearly Uncirculated” seems to encompass most of what is available to modern day collectors. Some time spent in pockets or being passed around as a curiosity or casually placed in a drawer as a memento is probably the best explanation for why we see the coins as we do now.
     
    This lot is a very pleasing example of the issue. The “AU58” grade indicates a coin with all the design present and just the loss of some original luster, reflecting just a bit of handling.
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  13. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    E29, Lot 164:

    IRELAND/COLONIAL AMERICA. Voce Populi coinage. Æ halfpenny. 7.4 gm. 28 mm. 96 grains. 1760. Laureate bust right (Square head) / Hibernia seated left; 1760 below. D&F 570. Nelson 2. Zelinka 4-B. Near Extremely Fine; struck on a broad flan; portrait somewhat soft but without the usual roughness; exceptional lustrous surfaces with a glossy milk chocolate patina. Superb example.

    Voce Populi copper halfpenny tokens: a fascinating and enigmatic copper issue from the mid-1700s in Ireland (and Colonial America?) Voce Populi coppers appear in several references on Colonial American coinage: The Official Redbook, A Guidebook of United States Coins 2017; Breen (1988), Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins; Bowers (2009), Whitman Encyclopedia of Colonial and Early American Coins. Irish references cite them as well: Nelson (1905), The Coinage of Ireland in Copper, Tin and Pewter, 1460-1826; Dowle and Finn (1969), The Guidebook to the Coinage of Ireland From 995 AD to the Present Day. The 2015 Spink Standard Catalog, Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands notes them as "a brief issue of tokens, the 'Voce Populi' series, [that] was produced in Dublin to supply the need for small change" but does not provide a listing of types. They were made by a supplier of buttons to the Irish army, a Mr. Roche of Dublin. Who is shown on the obverse? George II? George III? One of the Jacobite pretenders? The Jacobites were Catholic as were the Irish, so there was sympathy for their cause. The standard reference by Jerry Zelinka was published in the October 1976 issue of The Colonial Newsletter. In addition to background discussion he provides a detailed description of die varieties-12 obverse and 11 reverse-in a listing that is supplemented by a chart showing die combinations. (Unfortunately I am unaware of any reprint of this article.) Did they circulate in Colonial America? Dr. Philip Mossman, authority on American Colonial Coinage and past editor of The Colonial Newsletter who has kindly helped me with background on these pieces, keeps a running total record of pieces found in the US and the Maritimes that could conceivably have come to North America during colonial times. The number is small ("a census of 13, most with a definite east coast recovery history so they well could have arrived as someone's pocket change but not as a shipment"). Ken Bressett, one of the Red Book authors when I asked him at the ANA in Colorado Springs about these pieces in Colonial America, smiled as he suggested no real evidence but no objection if someone felt they should be part of Colonial American numismatic history. That they are fascinating and unusual with a great variety of manufacturing quirks is undebatable.

    –Text from Davissons Auction 37 on this series
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