On 17 September 2013, a thrupenny showing the head of King Edward VIII will be auction by Nottingham-based auctioneers Mellors and Kirk with estimate price of £30,000. Royal Mint made the 12-sided coin dated 1937 after King George V died. The coin only worth threepence, an experimental piece produced by the Royal Mint after the death of King George V.
Edward automatically succeeded his father but abdicated before his coronation so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Prince Edward was succeeded by his brother King George VI.
The piece now for sale was one of no more than 10 brass pattern threepence coins produced by the Mint.
Edward VIII, Proposed Coinage, Nickel Brass Dodecagonal Pattern Threepence, 1937 S4064B, with the more naturalistic thrift reverse, 6.05gm, lustrous EF or better with one small carbon spot on the reverse centre, with letter dated 4/3/1997 from Royal Mint, confirming their belief that the coin was genuine, signed by G.P. Dyer
Estimate: £20,000 - £30,000
The coin show left-facing portrait of the king on the obverse engraved by T.H. Paget (signed "H.P."). This is mated with a reverse design modified by Percy Metcalfe after sketches originally submitted in June 1936 by Miss Frances Madge Kitchener (niece of military hero Lord Kitchener). Her conception for the coin, introduced as a type in this pattern, was for a sideways-appearing trio of thrift (thistle plant) flowers atop curling tendrils. The edge is plain and polygonal (12 sides), with a raised and squared-off set of rims.
The coin has been owned by a private collector of historic British coins for the last 20 years and he has now decided to sell it at auction.
Nigel Kirk, of Nottingham-based auctioneers Mellors and Kirk, said: 'Very few of these coins were made, possibly only about five or 10.
"When Edward decided to abdicate all the makers of commemorative China had manufactured their wares.
"People who have pieces now think they are rare and valuable but they aren't.
"However the Royal Mint only experimented with coinage and hardly any of them crept into circulation in error.
"Edward was effectively King for a year and the Mint was a bit late in producing these coins, probably because they were experimenting with radical, art deco shapes like this one.
"This is coming from a private collector who has spent 25 years forming a large collection of English coins dating back to the 16th century.
We have had quite a lot of interest in it. It would be the jewel in the crown to many coin collections."
Source: Dailymail.UK
