PREVIEW: THE SANDERS COLLECTION OF EARLY MILLED COINS 19 JULY

Commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in December 1939, Peter Alexander Sanders fought with the Eighth Army in North Africa and Sicily, rising to temporary Captain and briefly temporary Major. In March 1944 he was awarded the MBE in recognition of his service.

That service came at considerable cost, with Sanders suffering traumatic amputation of both legs during the Sicily campaign.

Despite his disability, he continued his service to the country after the war, working with the Joint Intelligence Bureau – the forerunner of the present Defence Intelligence – until his injuries compelled him to take early retirement.

It was during the 1940s that he started collecting coins, possibly inspired by the coin dealers he may have met through his father’s chain of jewellery shops, James Walker Ltd. When he died in 1980, his collection passed to his son Robin, a Roman Catholic priest and Secretary of the St Barnabas Society until his retirement in 2014.

Now Noonans is honoured to present 340 choice lots from the collection in this sale.

Peter Sanders started by collecting the milled coinage of Elizabeth I, and wrote a short note on the subject, ‘The Milled Silver Coins of Elizabeth’ in 1949. Soon he expanded his interest to the Nicholas Briot’s milled coinage of Charles I, the Civil War coinage of the York mint, and the Scottish coinage of Charles I, among others.

Baldwin, Spink, and Seaby were the three main London dealerships from whom he bought.

The offering here reflects the depth and breadth of Sanders’ interest, including coins from Elizabeth I, Charles I, The Commonwealth, Charles II, Scotland and France.

Leading the highlights is a Commonwealth (1649-1660) Pattern Halfcrown, dating to 1651, by David Ramage.

The obverse shows the arms of England within laurel wreath surrounded by the legend THE COMMON WEALTH OF ENGLAND, the reverse shows the legend GAURDED WITH ANGELES 1651 surrounding an angel holding the arms of England and Ireland. The edge is inscribed Trvth and Peace 1651.

With a provenance to the Lord Pomfret Collection and the R. Carlyon-Britton Collection, among others, this extremely fine and toned, and very rare coin is estimated at £40,000-50,000.