The Lyall Collection of Cut and Countermarked Coins

Bob Lyall

Bob Lyall has been a cornerstone with respect to research on the West Indies cut and countermarked series for many years. A major achievement was the publication of a very important booklet, West Indian Coinage – Some New Discoveries, by Spink in 1998. This work brought to light a significant amount of contemporary documentation not previously published in the numismatic domain. Additionally, his work covers much more as evidenced by his book on West Indies tokens, and publications on Gibraltar, identifying this colony as the original location for the series of heart-shaped piercings (the earliest examples of mutilated coinage for British colonial use) in 2008, his book on the tokens of Malta, along with a number of articles published in Spink’s Numismatic Circular over the years.

Bob developed a collecting interest at quite an early age, starting off with artefacts and objects of interest given to him by family members. By the age of twelve his interest focused primarily on numismatics. He was already on his way to forming a significant collection of the coinage of Charles I (sold in these rooms in 2015 and 2016) when he had his first...