Spink
Auction 16021 26 September 2016
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Edward III (1327-77), Leopard or Florin, 3.55g, third coinage, first period, edw[ ] d g[ ] franc dns hib, annulet stops, crowned leopard walking left, bearing banner with the arms of England and France, rev. [ ]re tvo ar[ ], double annulet stops, ornate cross, each arm ending in three trefoils, within quatrefoil, a lis on each cusp, a lion in each spandrel (N.1106; S.1477; Schneider -; Stewartby p.196), a 'found' example - scraped, broken and repaired otherwise fair, with some clear detail, a denomination of the greatest historical importance, very few known..
:Spink Auction 164, 23 July 2003, lot 379 Since the thirteenth century English merchants had become increasingly dependent upon foreign gold coins for large business transactions and, since 1337, the king himself had become reliant on loans from Italian bankers to finance his war with France. In 1339, Parliament had suggested that foreign gold coin should be acepted as legal tender in England for payments of 40s or more. This idea was not implemented and in 1343 Edward resolved to proceed with a domestic gold coinage.
In 'English Coins 1180-1551' (2009) Lord Stewartby writes 'With the exception of the debasement of the 1540s, the seven years from 1344 constituted a period of more rapid structural change than any other in the history of the English coinage. In addition to two reductions in the weight of the silver penny, they saw the beginnings of a sustained English gold coinage, which passed through three experimental stages before settling down to a lasting pattern in 1351, and which vividly illustrates the problems of meeting the needs both of the domestic economy and of international trade with a bimetallic currency.'
The Proclamation authorising the currency of the Florin and its parts has been known for four centuries and is still extant. It is in Norman French, and is given by Sir John Evans in 'The First Gold Coins of England' Numismatic Chronicle, Third Series, Vol. XX pp. 218-251 (1900) :-
'The King to the Sheriffs of London, Greeting. As it has been accorded and agreed by our prelates and other great persons of our Kingdom of England, for the common profit of our people of the said kingdom that three coins of gold be made in out Tower of London, that is to say :-
One coin of two Leopards, the piece current for six shillings, which shall be of the weight of two small florins of Florence of good weight; and one coin of gold of one Leopard, weighing the half of the other aforesaid coin, the piece current for three shillings.
And one coin of gold of a Helmet, weighing the fourth part of the aforesaid first coin, the piece current for eighteen pence.
The which coins of gold ought to have course among all manner of persons within the said realm of England
We command that in the said city, and in the places where you shall see that it ought to be done within your bailiwick, you shall have proclaimed and published the aforesaid things, and that every man of whatever condition, private or stranger, shall receive the said coins of gold in every manner of payment, and likewise that the coins be refused of none under evident peril
And herein fail in no manner
Given at Westminster on the 27th day of January' (1344, or 1343 O.S.)
Lord Stewartby notes 'The designs of the three new denominations introduced in January 1344 are among the most attractive of any in the whole of the English coinage. They can fairly stand comparison with the magnificent gold coins of France and Flanders at this high point in the flowering of Gothic art. The leopard is a splendid coin. On the epitaph in Westminster Abbey Edward III is described as invictus pardus, and the lion, known heraldically as a leopard, was already a powerful symbol of the English crown'
Four examples of the leopard survive (all from different pairs of dies) -
1) British Museum, acquired in the B. C. Roberts collection, purchased en bloc by the Trustees in 1810 for 4000 guineas. The first recorded example, formerly in the possession of Thomas Sharp, a well-known antiquary of Coventry, and published by him in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1800, vol. ii, p.945.
2) British Museum, acquired from J Pierrepont Morgan in 1915, formerly in the J. Brumell (Sotheby, 19 April 1850, lot 196 £126), E. W. Wigan and Sir John Evans (d. 1908) collections
3) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 'a small piece broken away from edge, otherwise fine', purchased from the celebrated R. C. Lockett collection (Glendining, 11 October 1956, lot 1223 £920). Acquired by Lockett from Puttick & Simpson in July 1922 for £170
4) This coin
It is curious that nearly five hundred years elapsed between the time when these coins were in circulation and the date when an example was actually seen by an antiquary, and that during all this period the proclamation and indenture relating to their striking and currency were extant.
Estimate: £4,000.00 - £5,000.00
:Spink Auction 164, 23 July 2003, lot 379 Since the thirteenth century English merchants had become increasingly dependent upon foreign gold coins for large business transactions and, since 1337, the king himself had become reliant on loans from Italian bankers to finance his war with France. In 1339, Parliament had suggested that foreign gold coin should be acepted as legal tender in England for payments of 40s or more. This idea was not implemented and in 1343 Edward resolved to proceed with a domestic gold coinage.
In 'English Coins 1180-1551' (2009) Lord Stewartby writes 'With the exception of the debasement of the 1540s, the seven years from 1344 constituted a period of more rapid structural change than any other in the history of the English coinage. In addition to two reductions in the weight of the silver penny, they saw the beginnings of a sustained English gold coinage, which passed through three experimental stages before settling down to a lasting pattern in 1351, and which vividly illustrates the problems of meeting the needs both of the domestic economy and of international trade with a bimetallic currency.'
The Proclamation authorising the currency of the Florin and its parts has been known for four centuries and is still extant. It is in Norman French, and is given by Sir John Evans in 'The First Gold Coins of England' Numismatic Chronicle, Third Series, Vol. XX pp. 218-251 (1900) :-
'The King to the Sheriffs of London, Greeting. As it has been accorded and agreed by our prelates and other great persons of our Kingdom of England, for the common profit of our people of the said kingdom that three coins of gold be made in out Tower of London, that is to say :-
One coin of two Leopards, the piece current for six shillings, which shall be of the weight of two small florins of Florence of good weight; and one coin of gold of one Leopard, weighing the half of the other aforesaid coin, the piece current for three shillings.
And one coin of gold of a Helmet, weighing the fourth part of the aforesaid first coin, the piece current for eighteen pence.
The which coins of gold ought to have course among all manner of persons within the said realm of England
We command that in the said city, and in the places where you shall see that it ought to be done within your bailiwick, you shall have proclaimed and published the aforesaid things, and that every man of whatever condition, private or stranger, shall receive the said coins of gold in every manner of payment, and likewise that the coins be refused of none under evident peril
And herein fail in no manner
Given at Westminster on the 27th day of January' (1344, or 1343 O.S.)
Lord Stewartby notes 'The designs of the three new denominations introduced in January 1344 are among the most attractive of any in the whole of the English coinage. They can fairly stand comparison with the magnificent gold coins of France and Flanders at this high point in the flowering of Gothic art. The leopard is a splendid coin. On the epitaph in Westminster Abbey Edward III is described as invictus pardus, and the lion, known heraldically as a leopard, was already a powerful symbol of the English crown'
Four examples of the leopard survive (all from different pairs of dies) -
1) British Museum, acquired in the B. C. Roberts collection, purchased en bloc by the Trustees in 1810 for 4000 guineas. The first recorded example, formerly in the possession of Thomas Sharp, a well-known antiquary of Coventry, and published by him in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1800, vol. ii, p.945.
2) British Museum, acquired from J Pierrepont Morgan in 1915, formerly in the J. Brumell (Sotheby, 19 April 1850, lot 196 £126), E. W. Wigan and Sir John Evans (d. 1908) collections
3) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 'a small piece broken away from edge, otherwise fine', purchased from the celebrated R. C. Lockett collection (Glendining, 11 October 1956, lot 1223 £920). Acquired by Lockett from Puttick & Simpson in July 1922 for £170
4) This coin
It is curious that nearly five hundred years elapsed between the time when these coins were in circulation and the date when an example was actually seen by an antiquary, and that during all this period the proclamation and indenture relating to their striking and currency were extant.
Estimate: £4,000.00 - £5,000.00