Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXIV 28 Mar 2022
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Great Britain, Tudor. Henry VIII AR Testoon of Twelve Pence. Tower (London) mint, third coinage, 1544-47. ✠ ⚜ ҺЄNRIC' ˣ VIII' ˣ DI' ˣ GRA' ˣ AGL' ˣ FRA' ˣ Z ˣ HIB' ˣ REX, facing crowned bust of Henry, wearing ruff and mantle / ✠ ⚜ POSVI ⁑ DЄVM ⁑ ADIVTORIVM ⁑ MЄVM ⁑ ⚜, crowned Tudor rose; crowned Һ to left, crowned R to right. Stewartby type A, page 525; North 1841; SCBC 2364. 7.30g, 31mm, 8h.
Near Extremely Fine; minor surface marks, attractively toned and featuring a remarkably bold and handsome portrait for the issue. Rare in this condition.
Ex Rymer Collection;
Ex A. H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd, FPL, Winter 2015, no. BH064;
Ex St. James's Auction Ltd., Auction 34, 21 September 2015, lot 48;
Ex Spink & Son Ltd., Auction 84, 21 May 1991, lot 112.
This remarkably well-preserved testoon features an instantly recognisable portrait of one of the most iconic kings of England, Henry VIII, with his characteristic broad face, piercing eyes and majestic full beard. Indeed, his features as engraved on this type bear a striking similarity to the renowned portrait of the Tudor king by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted about a decade prior. In the interlude, however, much had changed: the painting may have been commissioned to celebrate the birth of his only son and heir (the future Edward VI) in 1537 by his third wife Jane Seymour, but by the time this coin was minted, Henry was married to his sixth and last wife Catherine Parr, and the dissolution of the monasteries for which his reign is remembered had been completed. The reverse of the coin features the emblematic Tudor rose, a famous amalgamation of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York, the two warring factions of the 'Wars of the Roses' which Henry VIII's father Henry VII had united after the Battle of Bosworth Field and his dynastic marriage to Elizabeth of York.
This coin was minted in London at the royal mint, which had operated out of the secure Tower of London since at least 1279, when government records referenced "the little tower where the treasure of the mint is kept." The dating of Testoons is one of the most secure of Henry VIII's issues and can be divided into three distinct phases by portrait types. The first use of this striking frontal portrait coincided with introduction of the title 'Rex Hiberniae' or 'King of Ireland' in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, 1544. The majority of these coins are poorly struck and rarely survive with as much remaining detail on the portrait, which has been described as possibly the most expressive portrait of the king to be found on a coin, as this example. By this period, Henry VIII's coinage was debased as the king took more profit from the issues to pay for his expensive military campaigns on the continent and his extravagant personal spending. Some testoons, which had base cores plated with silver as a result of this debasement, earned him the nickname 'old copper-nose', since the nose was the first place any base metal would show through as the silver eroded.
Near Extremely Fine; minor surface marks, attractively toned and featuring a remarkably bold and handsome portrait for the issue. Rare in this condition.
Ex Rymer Collection;
Ex A. H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd, FPL, Winter 2015, no. BH064;
Ex St. James's Auction Ltd., Auction 34, 21 September 2015, lot 48;
Ex Spink & Son Ltd., Auction 84, 21 May 1991, lot 112.
This remarkably well-preserved testoon features an instantly recognisable portrait of one of the most iconic kings of England, Henry VIII, with his characteristic broad face, piercing eyes and majestic full beard. Indeed, his features as engraved on this type bear a striking similarity to the renowned portrait of the Tudor king by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted about a decade prior. In the interlude, however, much had changed: the painting may have been commissioned to celebrate the birth of his only son and heir (the future Edward VI) in 1537 by his third wife Jane Seymour, but by the time this coin was minted, Henry was married to his sixth and last wife Catherine Parr, and the dissolution of the monasteries for which his reign is remembered had been completed. The reverse of the coin features the emblematic Tudor rose, a famous amalgamation of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York, the two warring factions of the 'Wars of the Roses' which Henry VIII's father Henry VII had united after the Battle of Bosworth Field and his dynastic marriage to Elizabeth of York.
This coin was minted in London at the royal mint, which had operated out of the secure Tower of London since at least 1279, when government records referenced "the little tower where the treasure of the mint is kept." The dating of Testoons is one of the most secure of Henry VIII's issues and can be divided into three distinct phases by portrait types. The first use of this striking frontal portrait coincided with introduction of the title 'Rex Hiberniae' or 'King of Ireland' in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, 1544. The majority of these coins are poorly struck and rarely survive with as much remaining detail on the portrait, which has been described as possibly the most expressive portrait of the king to be found on a coin, as this example. By this period, Henry VIII's coinage was debased as the king took more profit from the issues to pay for his expensive military campaigns on the continent and his extravagant personal spending. Some testoons, which had base cores plated with silver as a result of this debasement, earned him the nickname 'old copper-nose', since the nose was the first place any base metal would show through as the silver eroded.