British and World Coins, Historical Medals

Great Britain, Battle of Lowestoft, 1665, a silver medal, unsigned [by J. Roettiers], laureate and draped bust of Charles II right, rev. pro talibvs avsis, King dressed as a Roman general standing at right, watching battle from the shore, 62mm, 91.536g (MI I, 503/139; E 230; MH 52). Very fine, minor edge bruise and with two neat piercings in the rim at 12 o’clock £800-£1,000

On 3 June 1665 a British fleet under the Duke of York, Prince Rupert and the Earl of Sandwich defeated the Dutch off Lowestoft. Nineteen of the Dutch ships were either destroyed or captured. This medal was struck as a Naval Reward, in both gold and silver, and presented to officers of the rank of Captain or above who had ‘signalized themselves in the engagement’. MI states that ‘these medals are purposely without date, or any peculiarity of design, that they might be equally applicable on any occasion ‘for any such enterprises’ [pro talibus ausis].