Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXVII 22-23 Mar 2023
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Great Britain, Plantagenet. Richard III AV Angel. Type 3. Tower (London) mint, 1483-1485. (half sun half rose) RICΛD ˣ DI ˣ GRΛ' ˣ RЄX ˣ ΛꞂGL' ˣ Z FRΛꞂC ⁑, St. Michael spearing dragon, cross crosslet at end of spear / (half sun half rose) PЄR CRVCЄ' ˣ TVΛ' ˣ SΛLVΛ ꞂOS XPC ˣ RЄDЄMPT, ship bearing shield and cross; R and rose flanking cross. SCBC 2152; North 1677; Friedberg 145. 5.14g.
NGC graded MS 64 (#6295175-007). Top Pop. Amongst the finest known with this obv. legend error of RICΛD.
Ex Spink & Son Ltd, Auction 374, 16 January 2022, lot 23.
This coin is amongst the finest known and most desirable of Richard III, the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, whose defeat and death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the end of the Wars of the Roses.
After the death of King Edward IV, Richard was named Lord Protector to his brother's successor, Edward's twelve-year-old son Edward V, and he brought the young king and his nine-year-old brother to the Tower of London, seemingly in preparation for the coronation. Richard then immediately accused his sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, of plotting his murder and had many of her supporters executed, also declaring her marriage to his brother as invalid, due to Edward's earlier precontract with Eleanor Butler, thus making her sons by Edward illegitimate. These events precipitated a petition from the City of London for Richard to assume the crown, which he accepted and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483. Edward IV's marriage was formally declared illegal and Edward V therefore formally debarred from the throne by Parliament on 23 January 1484.
It is unclear what happened to the 'princes in the tower', but rumours that they were murdered on Richard III's orders in late 1483 emerged very quickly after their disappearance. This hearsay gained traction at the hands of Tudor loyalists, eager to discredit the Yorkist king, and in 1592 William Shakespeare ascribed the crime directly to Richard, having him instruct James Tyrell 'I would have thee deal upon... those bastards in the Tower' (Act IV, scene II). The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the young princes encouraged several pretenders, such as Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel, to claim to be one of the princes and challenge the throne after Henry VII became king. In 1674, workmen found a wooden box containing two small human skeletons buried under the Tower of London, matching the descriptions and account given by Thomas More in 1513. They were thus attributed to the princes and interred in Westminster Abbey on the orders of King Charles II.
Richard III's reign was short, having been immediately under threat from Henry Tudor, who returned from exile, pledging to marry Elizabeth of York, the princes' elder sister. His Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485 and his marriage sealed the union of the two warring houses, thus ending years of tumult and establishing a new Tudor dynasty. The remains of Richard III, identified through his unusual scoliosis and DNA analysis, were famously found underneath a car park in Leicester in 2012.
The angel as a denomination was introduced by Richard's brother King Edward IV in 1465 and endured well into the 17th century until the arrival of milled coinage under Charles II when it was replaced by the guinea as the standard gold coin. Those minted during Richard III's brief reign are particularly rare, none more so than this example with the legend variation 'RICΛD' for 'RICARD'. The handful of examples of this variation are especially prized, with this mint state coin amongst the finest.
NGC graded MS 64 (#6295175-007). Top Pop. Amongst the finest known with this obv. legend error of RICΛD.
Ex Spink & Son Ltd, Auction 374, 16 January 2022, lot 23.
This coin is amongst the finest known and most desirable of Richard III, the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, whose defeat and death in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the end of the Wars of the Roses.
After the death of King Edward IV, Richard was named Lord Protector to his brother's successor, Edward's twelve-year-old son Edward V, and he brought the young king and his nine-year-old brother to the Tower of London, seemingly in preparation for the coronation. Richard then immediately accused his sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth, of plotting his murder and had many of her supporters executed, also declaring her marriage to his brother as invalid, due to Edward's earlier precontract with Eleanor Butler, thus making her sons by Edward illegitimate. These events precipitated a petition from the City of London for Richard to assume the crown, which he accepted and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483. Edward IV's marriage was formally declared illegal and Edward V therefore formally debarred from the throne by Parliament on 23 January 1484.
It is unclear what happened to the 'princes in the tower', but rumours that they were murdered on Richard III's orders in late 1483 emerged very quickly after their disappearance. This hearsay gained traction at the hands of Tudor loyalists, eager to discredit the Yorkist king, and in 1592 William Shakespeare ascribed the crime directly to Richard, having him instruct James Tyrell 'I would have thee deal upon... those bastards in the Tower' (Act IV, scene II). The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the young princes encouraged several pretenders, such as Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel, to claim to be one of the princes and challenge the throne after Henry VII became king. In 1674, workmen found a wooden box containing two small human skeletons buried under the Tower of London, matching the descriptions and account given by Thomas More in 1513. They were thus attributed to the princes and interred in Westminster Abbey on the orders of King Charles II.
Richard III's reign was short, having been immediately under threat from Henry Tudor, who returned from exile, pledging to marry Elizabeth of York, the princes' elder sister. His Lancastrian forces decisively defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485 and his marriage sealed the union of the two warring houses, thus ending years of tumult and establishing a new Tudor dynasty. The remains of Richard III, identified through his unusual scoliosis and DNA analysis, were famously found underneath a car park in Leicester in 2012.
The angel as a denomination was introduced by Richard's brother King Edward IV in 1465 and endured well into the 17th century until the arrival of milled coinage under Charles II when it was replaced by the guinea as the standard gold coin. Those minted during Richard III's brief reign are particularly rare, none more so than this example with the legend variation 'RICΛD' for 'RICARD'. The handful of examples of this variation are especially prized, with this mint state coin amongst the finest.