SOVEREIGN RARITIES AUCTION XVII

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 10, , Article 16

Sovereign Rarities will hold their Auction XVII on Thursday March 13th. Here's the announcement and several selected lots. -Editor

Sovereign Rarities Auction XVII, in partnership with the Royal Mint, takes place online on Thursday March 13th, 10:00 GMT. Featuring an eclectic mix from Ancient through to modern Royal Mint issues, with strong Anglo-Saxon and Scottish sections to boot, the highlight piece of the sale must be the Elizabeth I fine gold Sovereign, graded MS62 by NGC, with a noble Dutch family provenance dating back seven generations to 1722. Seen also are superb collections of milled silver Crowns and Halfcrowns, as well as a wonderful date run of Half-Sovereigns across the various mints.

Following from these are a marvellous display of Royal Mint modern issues, with coins from the Great Engravers series present including an Elizabeth II 2oz Una and the Lion graded PF70 UCAM. Finally, we see a great selection of medals, with a rare platinum issue of the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II Medal on show, closing the sale with a Dutch East India Company silver Ingot from The Rooswijk shipwreck, c. 1739.

Lot 1: Emperor Hadrian of Rome (117-138) gold Aureus features a high relief portrait of the Emperor most famous perhaps for his wall across the then borderline of England and Scotland, coupled with a reverse depicting a militant Hadrian with military standards. Minted in Rome and NGC graded VF 3/5 and 5/5 the coin is estimated at £4,000-6,000

Lot 4: Offa, King of Mercia (757-796), a superbly preserved portrait Penny of the King facing right, with a serpent torc reverse signifying the world around the moneyers name. Offa is known to have concentrated on improving the artistry on his coinage with regard to portraiture and perhaps inspired by Charlemagne's coinage invited engravers from the continent to attend to coinage production in Mercia. This amazing example was found in 1973 with a provenance trail of ownership since and is estimated at £10,000-15,000

Lot 5: Eadberht Praen, King of Kent (796-798) endured a very short reign with his coins being subsequently rare. He seized control of the Kentish throne upon the death of Offa having given up the priesthood. However, Coenwulf of Mercia with Papal backing invaded in 798 captured, blinded, maimed and imprisoned Eadberht who lived out his final days as a monk after release in 805. The coinage is well produced with text and motif designs only. This Penny has a "Beotian" shield inspired reverse and is estimated at £10,000-15,000 as so well preserved.

Lot 8: A Viking issue under the Southern Danelaw produced circa 900 to 910 this beautiful Penny design imitates the regal coinage of Edward the Elder (899-924) and his "flower" type reverse. The imitations by the Vikings are always a little cruder than the official issues and can be quite quirky as we have on the reverse of this piece where the moneyer name is rendered back to front imitating the known moneyer Heremod. These Viking pieces are much rarer than the regal and this coin is estimated at £4,500- £5,500.

Lot 13: Dating from the Civil War period in the reign of King Stephen (1135-54) this coin was produced in the northern most parts of England probably under the jurisdiction of Earl Henry of Northumberland (1136-52) and made in imitation of the regal Stephen Penny of the Awbridge type. The bust has a slightly cruder style than a Stephen Penny and the legends are rendered unintelligible to hide the true identity of the moneyer at such time of duress. Such coins would have circulated around the border with Scotland and are listed in both the Standard Catalogues for England and for Scotland. This extremely Penny is estimated at £4,000-5,000

Lot 17: Another very interesting Penny from the Civil War period in the reign of King Stephen (1135-54) is this Penny issued by Earl Robert of Gloucester the half-brother of Empress Matilda who rebelled in 1138 and invaded with Matilda in 1139. This Penny is issued in the style of a Watford type Stephen Penny but has the legend replaced with "Robert Comes" for Count/Duke/Earl Robert of Gloucester and issued from the west country mint of Shaftesbury where he held favour. This extremely rare Penny is estimated at £6,000-8,000

Lot 21: Elizabeth I Fine Gold Sovereign dating to 1584-86 period with mint mark escallop, NGC graded Mint State 62. This coin comes from an old Dutch family with reliable passage of ownership dating back to circa 1722. The family name can only be revealed to the successful purchaser. Interestingly such fine sovereigns were regularly gifted by the Tudor Queen to the leading actors and playwrights of her day, if their performance pleased her. Unusual to find mint state graded at £40,000-50,000 estimate.

Lot 24: During the English Civil War, Newark in Nottinghamshire, was besieged several times and siege pieces were issued dated 1645 and 1646, with the town surrendering to the Parliamentarians on 6th May 1646. From Lawrence Korchnak's own collection, this coin was the subject of a three-page article authored by him in the British Coin News magazine in July 2023, in which an analysis of the coin revealed it is struck in 0.975 fine silver, weighing instead within the correct tolerance for a Ninepence coin yet proven as struck with the 1645 Newark Shilling dies – a hybrid minting error which saw circulation. About very fine and seemingly an early example of a mint error, this piece is estimated £1,500-2,000.

Lot 29: James III of Scotland (1460-88) issued a gold coinage from locally mined gold from Crawford Moor from 1475-83 of what are denominated Riders, Half-Riders and Quarter-Riders. Riders are most commonly seen with the fractional gold pieces like this being much rarer. The Scottish arms appear on the obverse with the armoured King on horseback on the reverse. This coin has a wonderful provenance once being part of the esteemed Lockett Collection in the 1957 sale as well as Bearman in 1922 and Manley Foster in 1903. The estimate is £4,000-6,000.

Lot 59: Since the time of King Edward the Confessor, later canonised, it was believed that prayer combined with the Royal Touch could bring on a miraculous recovery from Scrofula, otherwise known as the "King's Evil" or Morbus Regius, later manifested as the alms of a penny And progressing to a gold Angel. Tied in with the idea of divine right to kingship, the regally touched presentation coin became in a sense a healing amulet, being passed as a touch-piece under the Stuart monarchs, in most cases holed to be worn around the neck against one's skin. As the hammered Angel was removed from circulation in favour of milled coinage, the custom-made touch-piece prevailed with a gap in the legend for official piercing. Queen Anne, the last monarch to touch on British soil, had a mintage of roughly 19,400 only in total across her reign according to Noel Woolf's book on touch-pieces, with these pieces remaining incredibly rare. This Touch-piece was minted by John Croker, described as a bold fine and rare, estimated £800-1,000. Additionally there is a Charles II touch-piece in this auction as lot 32.

Lot 61: A great example of Queen Anne's rarest Crown date 1705 from the Pre-Union period, Lot 61 shows the plumes reverse seen for this issue indicating this coin is made from silver sourced from Wales; Graham Birch's "The Metal in British Coins" is a superb read for those wishing to learn more about the background of the metals used in our coinage. With a silver output of only £1,332 across the calendar year of 1705, this small quantity would have been spread across Crowns, Halfcrowns, Shillings and Sixpences. Graded by NGC as AU53, there are only two finer known graded examples out there, and is estimated £2,000-2,600.

Lot 324: The first release from the Royal Mint Great Engravers series, the Una and the Lion design has proved immensely popular with modern collectors around the world, with Sovereign Rarities achieving impressive prices in recent times for the gold proof 2oz issue. This example, one of the limited mintage of 225, has been graded by NGC as PF70 UCAM, the highest quality one can achieve, and is estimated £28,000-32,000.

Lot 522: The Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth Medal of 1977 is often seen in silver and sometimes in gold, but very rarely in platinum. One of only 25 struck in this large 57mm size, the precious metal piece is hallmarked and numbered 22, an extremely rare item indeed, estimated £4,300-5,000.

Lot 527: Celebrating the coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen, the future Emperor Haile Selassie I, as Negus, or King, of all Ethiopia in 1928, this rare medallic gold Half-Talari of Addis Ababa weighs 22.14g, and is estimated £900-1,200. Graded by NGC as MS62, this Medal is bested only by one sole finer example, and marks his accession following on from a number of failed attempts by the Empress of Ethiopia at the time, Zewditu (1916-30), to prevent his seemingly inevitable rise to power, fearing his modernising aims for the country. Failing to prevent his elevation, she raised him to the throne as Negus where he ruled as regent alongside her until her death.

Lot 528: Whilst on her second voyage to Batavia circa 1739, the Rooswijk was carrying thirty chests of silver coins and bars when she was shipwrecked. She lay undisturbed for over 250 years until 2005 when amateur diver Ken Welling discovered it after the shifting of the Goodwin Sands off the southern coast of Kent, England, and with subsequent retrieval of two chests in 2014, the Dutch and British governments agreed to launch a salvage mission which finally took place in 2017 and 2018. Stamped with the mark of the Amsterdam Chamber of the V.O.C. (otherwise known as the Dutch East India Company), this 1.940kg silver Ingot bears the Certificate of Authenticity Bar Category Number RK05AS0165 and is estimated £5,200-6,000.