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Auction 20122 27 May 2020
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A MYTHICAL HALFPENNY OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE'. THE REMARKABLE 'COWBRIDGE' DIESINKER'S ERROR. Glamorgan, Cowbridge, William Bassett (Mercer), 'His Halfe Peny', 1669, in brass, 11h, m.m. sexfoil, (m.m.) WILL : BASSETT • MERCER, HIS | HALFE | PENY at centre, rev. reading (m.m.) IN • CAMBRIDGE • 1669 in error, *W *B *K in centre (Cooper [1845], -; Babington -; Searle -; Boyne & Williamson 15, cf. B&W 'Wales' 30, same obverse die; Dykes & Jacob [1965], pp. 132-34; SCBI Norweb I, -; cf. Dickinson, Glamorgan, 30), a trace of surface corrosion fine, otherwise one of only two known, the other in the Fitzwilliam Museum, consequently believed UNIQUE to commerce.
Provenance
Purchased N Clark, May 1992 - £295
, ,
This mysterious token was first reported as from a sole example to Boyne in 1866 by a correspondent of The East Anglian (October 1866, Vol. 3-4, pp. 12 refers.). This example now resides in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. However this token, or more specifically its obverse die is known from some dozen examples of an issue of in the name of the same man, but for 'Cowbridge' [Glamorganshire]. Dykes and Jacob writing for the BNJ, in an article penned: 'Two Notes on Trade Tokens: A Mythical Seventeenth Century Halfpenny of Cambridge' (Vol. 34, 1965, pp. 132-34), comprehensively assessed the evidence for the issues having emanated from Cowbridge, Cambridge or both, deducing that a diesinker's error is the onlky possible explanation in the face of overwhelming genealogical data for the Bassetts of Cowbridge but no trace of that name in the Cambridge Annals.
For further reading, see: https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1965_BNJ_34_20.pdf
Estimate: £250 - £350
Provenance
Purchased N Clark, May 1992 - £295
, ,
This mysterious token was first reported as from a sole example to Boyne in 1866 by a correspondent of The East Anglian (October 1866, Vol. 3-4, pp. 12 refers.). This example now resides in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. However this token, or more specifically its obverse die is known from some dozen examples of an issue of in the name of the same man, but for 'Cowbridge' [Glamorganshire]. Dykes and Jacob writing for the BNJ, in an article penned: 'Two Notes on Trade Tokens: A Mythical Seventeenth Century Halfpenny of Cambridge' (Vol. 34, 1965, pp. 132-34), comprehensively assessed the evidence for the issues having emanated from Cowbridge, Cambridge or both, deducing that a diesinker's error is the onlky possible explanation in the face of overwhelming genealogical data for the Bassetts of Cowbridge but no trace of that name in the Cambridge Annals.
For further reading, see: https://www.britnumsoc.org/publications/Digital%20BNJ/pdfs/1965_BNJ_34_20.pdf
Estimate: £250 - £350