A recently discovered gold Half-Florin or 'Helm' of Edward III (1327-77) will be offered in the sale of Ancient, Islamic, British and Foreign Coins and Commemorative Medals taking place between the 22nd-23rd September 2015 in London.
Many will recollect that Spink handled the last specimen to be unearthed in March 2013, which sold for £90,000 (incl. buyer's premium). These two examples of this excessively rare denomination comprise 100% of the known specimens which are available to the collectables market. There are just three others known to exist, two in the British Museum and one in the Hunterian in Glasgow.
In 'English Coins 1180-1551' (2009) Lord Stewartby comments on Edward III's Florin gold as being; '...among the most attractive of any in the whole of English coinage.'
This experimental issue was conceived and executed during the 'high summer' of gothic art. The coinage was a worthy medium for conveying this artistic vibrancy and the skills innately required in its production. Using continental gold issues for inspiration and utilising aspects of Edward's III's own great seal the designs are imbued with Edward's desire to stake his claim to the French throne. Here we see the first instance whereby the French royal title is assumed on the obverse of a British coin. Surrounding the helm and dappling the fields are fleur-de-lis, an allusion to Edward's French lineage through his mother, Isabella of France. It was here at the outset of the Hundred Years War in the context of disputed lines of succession and with King Edward's claim to the French crown that the rest of British late medieval history was to be shaped. A highly important piece for which production lasted just six months between January and July 1344 and for which a parallel has not since been seen in the British coinage.
Of course, one has to mention in the same breath the Double-Florin also known as the Double-Leopard, issued contemporaneously with the Helm, which Spink handled in June 2006. It realised £480,000 (incl. buyer's premium) and set a new world record for the highest price ever reached for a British Coin. To complete Spink's hat-trick of Double-Florin, Florin and Half-Florin we have the Florin that Spink sold in 2003 for £5,680 (incl. buyer's premium). Therefore Spink is the only auction house to have handled all three denominations of Edward III' s iconic 'Leopard' coinage.
The sale includes the Andy Scot Collection of Copper and Bronze Pennies, a selection of Constantius and Constantine from the London Mint, from the Lee Toone Collection and a large collection of excellent Abbasid Coins.
For more detail information about the sale of Ancient, Islamic, British and Foreign Coins and Commemorative Medals you can visit Spink website www.spink.com.
