Charles I gold Crown Tower Mint under Parliament, mm sun over (P) or (R)

Charles I (1625-49), gold Crown, Tower Mint, group D, fourth crowned bust left, bust 5, jewelled crown, value V behind, initial mark sun (1645-46) both sides, struck over either (P) or (R) on obverse, beaded circles and legend surrounding, CAROLVS. D; G; MAG; BRI' FRA; E HIB; REX., note unusually only E for ET, rev. crowned quartered oval shield of arms with frame, crowned C to left, crowned R to right, CVLTORES. SVI. DEVS. PROTEGIT, weight 2.10g (Schneider 258/261; Brooker -; N.2185/2187; S.2716/2716A). A little double struck on obverse giving an excellent strike on reverse, some light striations in obverse field from past tooling, otherwise very fine to good very fine and a very unusual die variety with the overstruck mint mark on obverse and the "E HIB" reading, presumably extremely rare.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on obverse "Charles by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland," and on the reverse "God protects his worshippers."

The original pyx trial records show that a total of £34,518 of crown gold was struck under both the mint mark of eye and that of sun. The latter mint mark being struck for only four months from 10^th November 1645 until 15^th February 1646. This is the lowest crown gold output of the reign of Charles I and the fact it is shared with mint mark eye which was issued for just under six months means likely only a very small proportion was of the sun mint mark. The obverse overstrike is unusual in that it utilised an older die from either P or R in brackets and not one of the mint mark eye dies. This is then coupled with the E for ET reading and HIB makes for a very interesting die variety. Schneider 258 has an obverse with a sun struck over P or R in brackets but reads ET as usual. This coin maybe unique as such a variety.

Provenance:

Ex Dr Rolf Baumhauer, British gold Collection part 3, Sincona Auction 79, 24^th October 2022, lot 1136.