PREVIEW: BRITISH & WORLD COINS 7-8 JUNE

The smooth succession of Charles III to the British throne is an event all but taken for granted in the 21st century, but it was not always thus.

A reminder of how fragile the English State can be when the succession does not go according to plan was unearthed in January in North Yorkshire and appears for sale in this auction.

 

A penny struck for King Stephen (1135-1154), it is a rare survivor not just because of its age, but because, with the silver penny as the only coin of the period, it was often cut in half or quarters for trading purposes.

Each surviving coin can be rarer still because, as with this example, they were sometimes struck by barons rather than on the authority of the king, leading to numerous variants. This also means that the moneyer or mint are often not identifiable.

The lack of central control of currency was, at least in part, a symptom of the instability of Stephen’s reign, often referred to as The Anarchy.

The crisis dated back to the sinking of The White Ship off the coast of Normandy in November 1120. It claimed the lives not only of illegitimate offspring of Henry I of England – youngest son of William The Conqueror – but critically that of his son and heir William Adelin, then aged 17.

Despite pledging loyalty to Henry I’s daughter Matilda as the new heir, her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the throne on Henry’s death in 1135. The result was civil war, which broke out three years later as Matilda, aided by her husband Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, fought to gain the crown.

Despite Stephen being captured in 1141, Matilda could not win enough support to pursue her claim and the war continued until 1153, when Stephen finally agreed to acknowledge Matilda’ son Henry (later Henry II) as heir in place of his own son.

During this period, numerous variants of the silver penny appeared, with some surviving examples cut or clipped.

The coin offered in this sale is in better condition than most. The obverse is struck with a small bust right with sceptre, and with large crescent-shaped serifs, the reverse with a long cross and saltire imposed over centre, with both pellet and pellet-in-crescent motif in each angle.

A detectorist find in Bossall in January 2023, the unrecorded mint signature renders it unique among coins discovered until now and the estimate is £5,000-6,000.