CNG 106 (or, doing more damage to my bank account)

EVillageProwler

I won two lots today; two others of significant interest got away but one was not a big deal (lot 1104) because it was already too high. The other that got away was a really rare coin but I had a bidding snafu. Luckily I know who won it and I already called him to mark my interest. All four of these were viewed by a trusted advisor.

ANGLO-SAXON, Secondary Sceattas. Circa 710-760. AR Sceatt (11.5mm, 1.21 g, 1h). Type 30b. Mint in the East Midlands. ‘Wodan head’, with long beard, facing; crosses flanking beard / Two figures standing facing; long cross pommée between, smaller cross pommée to either side, two pellets above and below. Abramson 105.70; SCBI 63 (BM), 718; North 171; SCBC 835. Near EF, toned.

STUART. Charles I. 1625-1649. AR Halfcrown (35mm, 15.00 g, 12h). Type VI. York mint; im: lion passant. Struck 1643-1644. Charles on horseback trotting left, holding sword and reins; EBOR’ below / Crowned coat-of-arms; shield within ornate oval frame; crowned C R across field. Bull 569; Brooker 1083 (same dies); North 2314; SCBC 2868. Choice EF, toned, traces of underlying luster.

From the RAJ Collection, purchased from Stephen Harvey, 1989.

EVillageProwler

Per my trusted advisor, the sceatt is of good metal while the 1/2 crown has some residual dirt encrustation as well as red wax from a prior old-time catalog plating and is "the best he has ever seen".

291fifth

The Anglo-Saxon coin is excellent. It also serves as a reminder as to just how far art had declined during the dark ages in western Europe.

JCMhouston

It's only money EVP, you can't take it with you. That's a nice pair.

RobP

@EVillageProwler said:
the 1/2 crown has some residual dirt encrustation as well as red wax from a prior old-time catalog plating and is "the best he has ever seen".

Looks to bethe first coin from Cumberland Clark lot 170, Sotheby 22-23 January 1914, this extremely fine, the second very fine. And if you want an indication of where prices have gone in the last 100 years, the pair sold for £3 12s 6d. Nice one.

Nap

Lovely coins.

As EVP knows, I struck out at this auction, despite my best efforts. The coin I really wanted, an Eardwulf sceat (lot 1082), which would have completed my Northumbrian king set, sold for $17000 (on a $3000 estimate). So I was not the high bidder.

Rob, thanks for the provenance on the halfcrown, I am certain the OP will appreciate that. Did you find that provenance in the old Sotheby catalog, or has it appeared at auction or in FPL more recently? It would certainly be interesting if the coin had no public sales for 100 years. My library is not nearly exhaustive enough to make any sort of claims regarding that.

RobP

It's illustrated in the catalogue and the border teeth present/missing profile is a perfect match, so 99% certain. It is always difficult to be absolutely certain because the coins were cut out of the metal sheet meaning a lack of irregularity, but the probability that it is this coin is very high. Because York halfcrowns are quite common, they were rarely illustrated, though having said that, my 2F dies halfcrown was one of three illustrated in Hamilton-Smith the previous year and also has wax.

It is almost inevitable that it has passed through sales in the intervening period. The problem is that it requires someone to do the homework, and when cataloguing for a sale there simply isn't enough time, so it relies on the collector - most of whom don't have the reference material.

EVillageProwler

@RobP,

Thanks for the research. I very much appreciate it. I have also passed the info back to my trusted advisor in the hopes that he will also come up with additional data. I'll update this thread if I get more information.

@291fifth said:

The Anglo-Saxon coin is excellent. It also serves as a reminder as to just how far art had declined during the dark ages in western Europe.

Good point. If it weren't for Alfred, I wonder how much slower would Western Europe had exited the Dark Ages (and how much less we'd know about them without the Chronicles).

@JCMhouston said:
It's only money EVP, you can't take it with you. That's a nice pair.

It's only money, until it becomes debt. Thanks.

@Nap,

It looks like you dodged a bullet. Or is this a greater fool theory? (There's a story about Tony Terranova being the lesser fool that I'm hoping we can tease out of him one day.) Anyway, I hope you get another chance at this in the not-too-distant future.

EVP

Hussulo

That is a beautiful Half crown. Congrats on winning it.

RMW

Agreed

EVillageProwler

From my advisor:

The next lot in CNG 106, lot 1134 (a York shilling), is Cumberland Clark lot 214.

EVillageProwler

Just got the sceatt and the 1/2 crown -- OMG, the 1/2 crown is amazing. It is superbly lustrous with medium pleasing toning. The sceatt is very nice too, but pales in comparison to the 1/2 crown. The grading from CNG is very conservative, which makes these two coins a huge pleasant surprise for me.

TwoKopeiki

Congrats!

OriginalDan

I would say the photography is conservative also, as it doesn’t look all that great from the photo. Glad to hear that it’s much nicer in hand!