Two of Britain's rarest gold coins go to auction

(Image credit: Heritage Auctions)

The upcoming second wave of collectable British coins to wash over Heritage Auctions in Texas shows how important coins from this country are to collectors around the world and not just in Britain.

An Edward VIII bronze proof 1/2 penny from 1937 was the top lot from Part I of The Cara Collection of Highly Provenanced British Rarities sale in May, selling for $180,000, including the buyer’s premium. In Part II on 6-7 November, it will be the turn of Edward VIII’s great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to test the depths of collectors’ pockets. A Victoria gold proof “Una and the Lion” £5 cameo from 1839 features one of engraver William Wyon’s most famous designs. A “proof” is a high-quality sample coin created ahead of a coin issue and one that is often intended for collectors and not for general circulation. A “cameo” is a coin that displays a deep contrast between the relief (the design) and the field (background).) Its “near-Choice” grade designation marks it out as an example that is in particularly good (if not mint) condition and the highest bid for it as of the start of the week was $234,000.

Meanwhile, a gold “Ship” ryal coin, worth 15 shillings in or around 1585, when it was made, is another highlight of the sale. On the obverse (“heads”) side, the coin features a stylistic and rather splendid portrait of Elizabeth I, sporting a large ruff and clutching her orb and sceptre aboard a ship, symbolising England’s rise as a naval power. It was also in 1585, during Elizabeth’s reign, that the first colony was established in America – at Roanoke in the modern US state of North Carolina – and that helps to lend the coin a certain appeal in American eyes. But it is also “one of the most… intensely hunted pieces in British numismatics” (coin-collecting), as Heritage puts it, because it is one of the last coins to be struck in the medieval design style, replete with heraldic flourishes – just as the Tudor era was shortly to come to an end.

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The "Ship" ryal is a curious gold coin

The ryal was always a rather curious coin and one of the many gold denominations in circulation in England at the time. It started life during the reign of Edward IV in the 15th century as an attempt to create a half-sovereign, worth 10 shillings. By the time of Elizabeth’s reign decades later, that figure had increased to 15 shillings. But in any case, the competing noble of six shillings and eight pence had become the standard gold coin and the ryal soon made way for the 10-shilling angel. It is for that reason that only a handful of “Ship” ryals, featuring Elizabeth as Britannia, were struck at the Tower of London, and they remain some of the rarest gold coins from her reign. The present example is expected to fetch up to $150,000.

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