Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

Edward V (1483), Suns and Roses coinage, Drogheda, mm. not visible, rose and sun by crown, sun and rose by neck, rev. large rose in centre, nothing in angles, 0.56g/7h (Burns S-1 (EV); Mac Conamhna, BNJ 2017, p.122, no. 25, this coin; S –). Very fine and probably much as struck £2,000-2,600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Irish Pennies of Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III from the Collection of O. Mac Conamhna.

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On 7 March 1483 Galmole was re-appointed by Edward IV to mint at Dublin and Waterford. In a prevailing spirit of increasing suspicion from Edward, the new mintmaster was bound to his indenture by making a ‘...bodily othe uppon the holy Evangelist…’. Also contained therein were stipulations which Mac Conamhna points out are specific to the inception of the three crowns coinage. Edward died on 9 April and his son, Edward V, was proclaimed King. A crude and hastily produced punch has been identified by Mac Conamhna, fig. 13, no. 25, as being used at Drogheda during this period. The type, suns and roses with large rose reverse, was current at Dublin at the close of Edward IV’s reign. Mac Conamhna states ‘...attribution to Edward IV requires that a mint would have been allowed to suddenly start operating within the Pale, in direct and open defiance of Edward IV’s personal command of 1479, and his patent and indenture with Galmole of 1483’. He concludes with a superior rationale for the inception of minting at Drogheda in 1483 as arising from the news of Edward IV’s death, a factor which would free the mint from his personal prohibition. Furthermore, the mint could have claimed its operations lawful under the last act of the Irish Parliament to authorise activity there in 1475, overwritten subsequently only by Edward’s own authority as King