Baldwin & Sons
Auction 93 5 May 2015
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
BRITISH COINS, Elizabeth I, Fine Gold Rose Noble or Ship Ryal, struck in 23⅓ carat gold to 120 grain weight standard, sixth coinage of reign (1583-1600), large standing figure of Queen in ornamented ship sailing left, holding orb and sceptre, with nine segment ruff around neck, large rose on hull with top row of alternate lis and lion decoration, four lis and two lions in top row, raised gun-ports on second line of hull, large E on banner at forecastle, stacking aft decks with triangle decoration on lower decks, changing to large raised oval windows on upper two decks, small sail on mizzen mast on aft deck, rigging with three ropes to left, three ropes to right of Queen, main sail across the rear of Queen with two furls of sail to left, four furls of sail to right, beaded inner and outer circles surrounding contain Lombardic legend commencing at right of main sail, ELI ZAB; D; G; ANG; FR; ET. hI B REGInA, with trefoil at end of legend, no initial mark on obverse, rev inverted die axis, five petal rose at centre of sunburst of 16 rays, crown over lions in cruciform arrangement around with saltire of lis over ornate decoration between, tressure of eight arcs surrounding all, with trefoil of pellets in each spandrel, beaded inner and outer circles surrounding contain Lombardic legend, initial mark escallop (14 February 1584/5 - 30 May 1587), .IhS; AVT. TRAnSIEnS. PER. mEDIV; ILLORVm. IBAT., 7.77g (Thompson group B, O4/R3, plate VII no.5 and no.7; Brown & Comber B8/B6; cf Schneider 785; N 2004; S 2530). A superb example, crisp and fresh, fully round of the full weight standard, one tiny spade mark on obverse rim at 10 o'clock, one small striking weakness on part of Queen's face which corresponds to the weak head on the lower lion on the reverse, otherwise extremely fine, the best we have encountered of this extremely rare issue and struck from one of the rarer pairs of English dies, of the highest rarity.
A recent single discovery from the Continent
For further reading see Elizabethan Ryals and their Dutch Imitations 1584-92 by J D A Thompson, Numismatic Chronicle, sixth series, volume I, 1941, pages 139-168 with plates.
See also The Tudor Coinage by C E Challis, specifically pages 263-268 regarding these issues, and Gold Coinage of Elizabeth I by I D Brown and C H Comber, British Numismatic Journal, volume 59, 1989, pages 91-119 and plates.
The Gold "ship" Ryal or Rose Noble of Queen Elizabeth I is one of the of the rarest and most desirable coins of this reign, which only came into being during the sixth issue of her coinage and is one of the last coins struck in the mediæval design styled with full Lombardic lettering. Made for trade specifically with Europe for reasons more fully revealed in The Tudor Coinage by C E Challis, they were struck under the auspices of the Master-worker and Warden, Sir Richard Martin and Comptroller Andrew Palmer. The coinage was issued as a direct result of the struggle of the Low Countries against Spain, to finance an English presence governed under the Earl of Leicester, and military involvement as agreed by Queen Elizabeth I in the Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585.
A method of generating a profit from the issue and export of Fine Gold Rose Nobles became a reality, as defined in surviving documents and commissions with the Royal Mint. Tracing production of the officially named "Rose Nobles" and "Double Nobles" at 15 and 30 Shillings respectively, more familiar to us today as Ryals and Sovereigns, as those names fit with the earlier series of such denominations. The first commission was dated 24 April 1584 for the two denominations in fine gold, and all were issued physically between 3 May 1584, under mintmark A, through to 31 January 1587, then under mintmark crescent, to the total value of £27,936 of gold. Brown and Comber, cited above, give a total breakdown estimation of 15,000 of these as Double Nobles, and a mere 3000 as Rose Nobles or Ryals (at a time when the mint struck 100,000 fine gold Angels for circulation). This best fit estimate was based on the number of examples of both the Sovereign and Ryal that were offered for sale in modern times by Seaby 1937-1983 and Spink 1948-1983, giving a resulting multiple of just over 5.5 times the amount of Sovereigns available to the modern collector than the rarer Ryal that we offered here.
The reason for such a small issue of the Ryal is revealed by Challis in contemporary evidence from Richard Huddlestone, Treasurer to the English Forces in the Low Countries. Under his scrutiny in that location, someone was to purchase foreign gold at prices just above the market price, to then send back to England to re-coin as these Ryals, and subsequently to introduce them at the artificially higher level, that the respected English medieval Ryals still enjoyed in the Low Countries yielding a theoretical 5% profit. However in practice the mint charges had to still be deducted from the Queen's share of the profit, and the export of precious metal was very restricted in this time of duress. Therefore it proved difficult to obtain coinage for conversion and keep effective physical control, since sieges and battles had been raging during the Eighty Years Anglo Spanish War. British involvement had commenced after the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585, with the Siege of Ijsselord and Capture of Arnhem, with the British contingent under the command John Norreys.
Apart from a flurry of mint activity at the Tower of London from 1 August 1585 to 30 April 1586 where 628lb and 8oz of gold was made into coin, the whole project was shortly afterwards abandoned due to the difficulty Huddlestone had in running the scheme through the controlled flow of bullion. This was magnified by the fact that the Dutch were producing their own Continental Rose Nobles in at least two rival schemes, leading one promoter to suggest that he mint the coins officially for the Queen, in a mint he had opened in Amsterdam during 1586.
However this was a step too far, never sanctioned by the Queen of England, and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was sent as Governor General to confiscate the coins and equipment being used. The other scheme was for the Rose Noble imitations, being produced in Gorcum (Gorinchem), which were more prolific as this inferior imitation had a head start in circulation. Therefore the English scheme, apart from some limited circulation, did not succeed and the gold Ryal of 15-Shillings is subsequently one of the rarest denominations for the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and the last type of coin being produced in the format of the original medieval Gold Noble of Edward III.
A few more Ryals were struck as late as 1592, as evidenced by one surviving coin of the mintmark hand in the British Museum, otherwise the initial mark escallop with this particular die combination and specific obverse is one of the rarest of this denomination, and die links in with the mintmark A preceding, and the mintmark crescent succeeding. From recent analysis of known examples it seems a total of only two obverse dies and four reverse dies with mintmark escallop were used for this issue. The only other example we can trace of this coin with this specific die combination is an inferior example ex Talbot Ready collection, Sotheby, 15 November 1920, lot 595; then listed twice in the Spink Numismatic Circular 1923, January / February, item 14580 and at reduced price for September / October, item 22661; later in the Christopher Corbally Browne sale at Sotheby, 25 March 1935, lot 258; and later the E Fletcher collection, Glendining, 13 December 1937, lot 82.
Estimate: £40,000-50,000
A recent single discovery from the Continent
For further reading see Elizabethan Ryals and their Dutch Imitations 1584-92 by J D A Thompson, Numismatic Chronicle, sixth series, volume I, 1941, pages 139-168 with plates.
See also The Tudor Coinage by C E Challis, specifically pages 263-268 regarding these issues, and Gold Coinage of Elizabeth I by I D Brown and C H Comber, British Numismatic Journal, volume 59, 1989, pages 91-119 and plates.
The Gold "ship" Ryal or Rose Noble of Queen Elizabeth I is one of the of the rarest and most desirable coins of this reign, which only came into being during the sixth issue of her coinage and is one of the last coins struck in the mediæval design styled with full Lombardic lettering. Made for trade specifically with Europe for reasons more fully revealed in The Tudor Coinage by C E Challis, they were struck under the auspices of the Master-worker and Warden, Sir Richard Martin and Comptroller Andrew Palmer. The coinage was issued as a direct result of the struggle of the Low Countries against Spain, to finance an English presence governed under the Earl of Leicester, and military involvement as agreed by Queen Elizabeth I in the Treaty of Nonsuch of 1585.
A method of generating a profit from the issue and export of Fine Gold Rose Nobles became a reality, as defined in surviving documents and commissions with the Royal Mint. Tracing production of the officially named "Rose Nobles" and "Double Nobles" at 15 and 30 Shillings respectively, more familiar to us today as Ryals and Sovereigns, as those names fit with the earlier series of such denominations. The first commission was dated 24 April 1584 for the two denominations in fine gold, and all were issued physically between 3 May 1584, under mintmark A, through to 31 January 1587, then under mintmark crescent, to the total value of £27,936 of gold. Brown and Comber, cited above, give a total breakdown estimation of 15,000 of these as Double Nobles, and a mere 3000 as Rose Nobles or Ryals (at a time when the mint struck 100,000 fine gold Angels for circulation). This best fit estimate was based on the number of examples of both the Sovereign and Ryal that were offered for sale in modern times by Seaby 1937-1983 and Spink 1948-1983, giving a resulting multiple of just over 5.5 times the amount of Sovereigns available to the modern collector than the rarer Ryal that we offered here.
The reason for such a small issue of the Ryal is revealed by Challis in contemporary evidence from Richard Huddlestone, Treasurer to the English Forces in the Low Countries. Under his scrutiny in that location, someone was to purchase foreign gold at prices just above the market price, to then send back to England to re-coin as these Ryals, and subsequently to introduce them at the artificially higher level, that the respected English medieval Ryals still enjoyed in the Low Countries yielding a theoretical 5% profit. However in practice the mint charges had to still be deducted from the Queen's share of the profit, and the export of precious metal was very restricted in this time of duress. Therefore it proved difficult to obtain coinage for conversion and keep effective physical control, since sieges and battles had been raging during the Eighty Years Anglo Spanish War. British involvement had commenced after the Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585, with the Siege of Ijsselord and Capture of Arnhem, with the British contingent under the command John Norreys.
Apart from a flurry of mint activity at the Tower of London from 1 August 1585 to 30 April 1586 where 628lb and 8oz of gold was made into coin, the whole project was shortly afterwards abandoned due to the difficulty Huddlestone had in running the scheme through the controlled flow of bullion. This was magnified by the fact that the Dutch were producing their own Continental Rose Nobles in at least two rival schemes, leading one promoter to suggest that he mint the coins officially for the Queen, in a mint he had opened in Amsterdam during 1586.
However this was a step too far, never sanctioned by the Queen of England, and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was sent as Governor General to confiscate the coins and equipment being used. The other scheme was for the Rose Noble imitations, being produced in Gorcum (Gorinchem), which were more prolific as this inferior imitation had a head start in circulation. Therefore the English scheme, apart from some limited circulation, did not succeed and the gold Ryal of 15-Shillings is subsequently one of the rarest denominations for the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and the last type of coin being produced in the format of the original medieval Gold Noble of Edward III.
A few more Ryals were struck as late as 1592, as evidenced by one surviving coin of the mintmark hand in the British Museum, otherwise the initial mark escallop with this particular die combination and specific obverse is one of the rarest of this denomination, and die links in with the mintmark A preceding, and the mintmark crescent succeeding. From recent analysis of known examples it seems a total of only two obverse dies and four reverse dies with mintmark escallop were used for this issue. The only other example we can trace of this coin with this specific die combination is an inferior example ex Talbot Ready collection, Sotheby, 15 November 1920, lot 595; then listed twice in the Spink Numismatic Circular 1923, January / February, item 14580 and at reduced price for September / October, item 22661; later in the Christopher Corbally Browne sale at Sotheby, 25 March 1935, lot 258; and later the E Fletcher collection, Glendining, 13 December 1937, lot 82.
Estimate: £40,000-50,000