Spink
Auction 22105 5 Jul 2022
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William III (1694-1702), 'Plumes' Sixpences (2), 1698, third laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, rev. large crowned shields cruciform, plumes in angles, four strings to harp, six billets, edge obliquely milled, 2.91g, 7h ('Some Notes and Observations on the Silver Coinage of William III, 1695-1701', SNC (1961), K.53; Jackson-Kent (1965), lot 227b; Pywell-Phillips 189; Hardcastle 2680; Viles 3805; Bull 1244 [R]; ESC 1575), rubbed and lightly cleaned, otherwise uniform circulation wear, fair / fine, scarce; another, 1699, similar, rev. four strings, six billets, 2.91g, 5h (SNC (1961), K.55; Bull 1245; ESC 1577; Spink 3546), small scratch before nose and a subtle bend to flan, otherwise toned, a really bold fine / near very fine, rare (2).
The incorporation of 'plumes' in the overall design was used to denote silver bullion originally supplied by Welsh mines from September 1623; a custom mark originating from the reign of King James I and his encouragement of the Cardiganshire enterprise of Sir Hugh Myddelton.
,
George C Boon's excellent study: 'A Case History on British Bullion, Cardiganshire Silver and the Feathers Coinage: 1671-1731 (BNJ 1993, pp. 65-83 + Plate 9), noted the following developments at the time of production of this specie.
, ,
"Between the Ystwyth and the Dovey as many as 28 mines were leased by the Company of Mine Adventurers, and there were others which did not fall into their hands. Some had been worked for over a century as Mine Royal by Customer Smyth, Sir Hugh Myddelton, and above all Thomas Bushell, but the region is one of high rainfall - 60 to 80 inches - and many an enterprise, enthusiastically begun and pressed forward at great expense, foundered as the veins of ore ran on beyond the reach of the primitive pumps available. The only satisfactory answer, in Bushell's word to 'eternize' a mine, was to cut a drainage adit from the hillside at the lowest possible level; but before the advent in Cardiganshire of black-powder blasting - and the earliest record is of 1698 at Cwmystwyth - the procedure was cripplingly expensive.
, ,
The silver raised was destined for the coinage, and the distinctive badge of the three ostrich feathers issuant from a coronet, a device of the Prince of Wales, was the first of a number of marks of provenance applied to the coinage. It had first been granted by James I as an encouragement to Sir Hugh Myddelton's Cardiganshire enterprise, and because the silver was
raised in mines deemed rich and therefore royal, it was to that extent a proprietary mark (though the royal arms proper were stamped on the silver-cakes sent to the Mint, as a security measure). As time went on, however, the appearance of the feathers on the coinage gave rise
to the notion that they were 'the arms of Wales', and in this looser and very pervasive sense their use was sought by the joint-stock companies concerned, even remotely, with Welsh silver when once the shadow of the Prerogative had been removed. For them, the device was in part a seal of royal approval, but above all an advertisement of success in the field, and a testimony to their creditworthiness to the extent that the appearance of large silver, above the standard shilling and sixpence, may be taken by us in a sense opposite to that intended at the time - as a danger-sign rather than as proof of riches. The feathers badge appears on Shillings of 1671 after an abeyance of several decades. Its occurrence thereafter down to 1731 has not been studied in relation to the fortunes of the mines, but is not to be understood otherwise. The story is not without interest, for there are times when we have feather coins, but no Cardiganshire silver is booked at the Mint; times when silver is booked, but we have no feathers coins; and even times when no silver was produced, yet amounts are booked and feather coins are known. When there was to be a coinage with a distinctive mark, a warrant had to be obtained from the Lord High Treasurer on every occasion, though its text might lead one to suppose that it was not only the first, but the only one ever to be required. As a branch of the Tower, Aberystwyth alone was excepted, but Myddelton had had to abide by this rule, as is shown by the fact that the first recorded warrant, of September 1623, falls two months after the pyxing of the thistle mark, which the earliest-known feathers coins carry. Few records of feathers warrants survive, but to demonstrate the persistence of the original practice as late as the reign of Anne, can be cited the minutes of the Company of Mine Adventurers: on September 8, 1702, the Secretary reported that he had taken the silver to the Mint, but could not get a die cut without a renewal of the warrant; on December 11 he announced that he now had it; and from the appropriate Mint journal we find that on January 13 he brought two cakes of silver weighing together some 80lb. Unsurprisingly, in the rush for this speculative investment at the dawn of the 18th Century, the colloquial nickname for one of their mines quickly became advertised as 'the Welsh Potosi'.
, ,
The Mine Adventurers sought the cachet of a distinctive coinage, and a warrant for dies placing the feathers in the spandrels of the reverse was obtained. An early issue was secured by bullion available on the spot when they took over. However, 1699 is the first entry in the Mint journals, when Alderman Floyer, a big bullion-dealer, brought on May 13 and received on June 1 the equivalent of 77 lb.t.s. - the dies of the 1698 coinage must have been prepared well in advance. A second consignment of 83 lb.t.s., still noted as from 'the Royal Mines', was cleared on November 18 and evidently gives us the 1699 dated coinage. In 1700 there are no identifiable bringings. The coins of that year are very different from their predecessors or their successors, having just a tiny badge below the bust, and a plain reverse. Some 80 lb. of silver was refined in September and January, but what became of it is uncertain; as in 1708, it may have been pledged for ready money. in the annals of shareholders in the Company of Mine Adventurers as at 1 May 1701 included brothers Elmes and Nathaniel Spinckes, the Northamptonshire branch of the family from which Spink and Son traces its history.
Estimate: £140.00 - £200.00
The incorporation of 'plumes' in the overall design was used to denote silver bullion originally supplied by Welsh mines from September 1623; a custom mark originating from the reign of King James I and his encouragement of the Cardiganshire enterprise of Sir Hugh Myddelton.
,
George C Boon's excellent study: 'A Case History on British Bullion, Cardiganshire Silver and the Feathers Coinage: 1671-1731 (BNJ 1993, pp. 65-83 + Plate 9), noted the following developments at the time of production of this specie.
, ,
"Between the Ystwyth and the Dovey as many as 28 mines were leased by the Company of Mine Adventurers, and there were others which did not fall into their hands. Some had been worked for over a century as Mine Royal by Customer Smyth, Sir Hugh Myddelton, and above all Thomas Bushell, but the region is one of high rainfall - 60 to 80 inches - and many an enterprise, enthusiastically begun and pressed forward at great expense, foundered as the veins of ore ran on beyond the reach of the primitive pumps available. The only satisfactory answer, in Bushell's word to 'eternize' a mine, was to cut a drainage adit from the hillside at the lowest possible level; but before the advent in Cardiganshire of black-powder blasting - and the earliest record is of 1698 at Cwmystwyth - the procedure was cripplingly expensive.
, ,
The silver raised was destined for the coinage, and the distinctive badge of the three ostrich feathers issuant from a coronet, a device of the Prince of Wales, was the first of a number of marks of provenance applied to the coinage. It had first been granted by James I as an encouragement to Sir Hugh Myddelton's Cardiganshire enterprise, and because the silver was
raised in mines deemed rich and therefore royal, it was to that extent a proprietary mark (though the royal arms proper were stamped on the silver-cakes sent to the Mint, as a security measure). As time went on, however, the appearance of the feathers on the coinage gave rise
to the notion that they were 'the arms of Wales', and in this looser and very pervasive sense their use was sought by the joint-stock companies concerned, even remotely, with Welsh silver when once the shadow of the Prerogative had been removed. For them, the device was in part a seal of royal approval, but above all an advertisement of success in the field, and a testimony to their creditworthiness to the extent that the appearance of large silver, above the standard shilling and sixpence, may be taken by us in a sense opposite to that intended at the time - as a danger-sign rather than as proof of riches. The feathers badge appears on Shillings of 1671 after an abeyance of several decades. Its occurrence thereafter down to 1731 has not been studied in relation to the fortunes of the mines, but is not to be understood otherwise. The story is not without interest, for there are times when we have feather coins, but no Cardiganshire silver is booked at the Mint; times when silver is booked, but we have no feathers coins; and even times when no silver was produced, yet amounts are booked and feather coins are known. When there was to be a coinage with a distinctive mark, a warrant had to be obtained from the Lord High Treasurer on every occasion, though its text might lead one to suppose that it was not only the first, but the only one ever to be required. As a branch of the Tower, Aberystwyth alone was excepted, but Myddelton had had to abide by this rule, as is shown by the fact that the first recorded warrant, of September 1623, falls two months after the pyxing of the thistle mark, which the earliest-known feathers coins carry. Few records of feathers warrants survive, but to demonstrate the persistence of the original practice as late as the reign of Anne, can be cited the minutes of the Company of Mine Adventurers: on September 8, 1702, the Secretary reported that he had taken the silver to the Mint, but could not get a die cut without a renewal of the warrant; on December 11 he announced that he now had it; and from the appropriate Mint journal we find that on January 13 he brought two cakes of silver weighing together some 80lb. Unsurprisingly, in the rush for this speculative investment at the dawn of the 18th Century, the colloquial nickname for one of their mines quickly became advertised as 'the Welsh Potosi'.
, ,
The Mine Adventurers sought the cachet of a distinctive coinage, and a warrant for dies placing the feathers in the spandrels of the reverse was obtained. An early issue was secured by bullion available on the spot when they took over. However, 1699 is the first entry in the Mint journals, when Alderman Floyer, a big bullion-dealer, brought on May 13 and received on June 1 the equivalent of 77 lb.t.s. - the dies of the 1698 coinage must have been prepared well in advance. A second consignment of 83 lb.t.s., still noted as from 'the Royal Mines', was cleared on November 18 and evidently gives us the 1699 dated coinage. In 1700 there are no identifiable bringings. The coins of that year are very different from their predecessors or their successors, having just a tiny badge below the bust, and a plain reverse. Some 80 lb. of silver was refined in September and January, but what became of it is uncertain; as in 1708, it may have been pledged for ready money. in the annals of shareholders in the Company of Mine Adventurers as at 1 May 1701 included brothers Elmes and Nathaniel Spinckes, the Northamptonshire branch of the family from which Spink and Son traces its history.
Estimate: £140.00 - £200.00