The ‘Welsh Marches’ Collection of British Coins

Charles I (1625-1649), Chester mint, Halfcrown, mm. three upright gerbs, horseman left, Chester plume in field, chst below horse, rev. oval scroll-garnished shield, 14.54g/12h (Bull 576; Lyall B/2; SCBI Brooker 1111; N 2627/1; S 3130). Slightly bowed from the roller press, otherwise nearly extremely fine and virtually as struck, extremely rare £5,000-£6,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The ‘Welsh Marches’ Collection of British Coins.

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Provenance: P. Earthy Collection; Patrick Finn FPL 17, September 1999 (344); A Morris Collection.

The late Patrick Finn quotes Edward Besly from his book ‘Coins and Medals of the English Civil War’ (p.13), explaining the workings of the rocker-press: ‘A variant of the rotary technique, probably developed in response to practical problems encountered with the ‘roller’ method, involved the use of a simple hand-operated machine. Here, single pairs of dies with curved surfaces were mounted in pockets on two parallel axles. Prepared blanks were fed between them to produce the coins. This type of machine is usually called a ‘rocker press’ which refers to the to-and-fro motion of the dies’

Chester mint