Oliver Cromwell 1656 pattern gold Broad of 50-Shillings PCGS PR62CAM

Oliver Cromwell (d.1658),gold Fifty Shillings, 1656, laureate head left, legend and toothed border surrounding, OLIVAR. D. G. R P. ANG. SCO. ET. HIB &c PRO.,rev.crowned quartered shield of arms of the Protectorate, date either side of crown, legend and toothed border surrounding, PAX. QVÆRITVR. BELLO., edge inscribed in raised letters, +PROTECTOR. LITERIS. LITERÆ. NVMMIS. CORONA. ET. SALVS., (Lessen A1; Schneider -; WR 38 R4; Bull EGC 74 R4; N.2743 ER; S.3224). Attractively toned with red colour, a few spots with hairlines evident both sides, a touch of wear only to the higher points of the hair in the portrait, has been graded and slabbed by PCGS as PF62 Cameo, extremely rare and infrequently offered for sale, the rarest gold denomination in the milled series being the only time a 50 shilling face value coin was issued and in very limited numbers, 14 examples thought to exist with half this number in commerce and half housed at institutional collections, the senior and rarest denomination of the Commonwealth period.

PCGS Certification 515774.62/46901175.

We note that there are four grading records for Fifty Shilling pieces at PCGS all being given a "Proof" designation with the highest being a 64+ cameo. This contrasts with just one grading record at NGC who have not graded their coin proof and is an AU55.

The milled portrait Twenty Shilling gold pieces and larger thicker companion Fifty Shilling pieces with lettered edges that carry Oliver Cromwell's portrait as Lord Protector, along with the silver Halfcrown, are the first currency pieces of a non-Royal personage on the British coinage and are dated 1656. Thomas Simon's masterly engraving in miniature of the coins of Cromwell were rightly considered one of the finest examples of the art of die engraving; and were still being used as a model and an inspiration to young die engravers of what could be achieved right up until the Victoria era, when a young Leonard Wyon produced a pattern Crown imitating the Cromwell portrait by Simon.

This lettered edge Fifty Shilling gold coin which weighs in at over 22 grammes and the smaller gold pattern Half-Broad are extremely rare, and very seldom seen for sale. The 1656 coinage in gold and silver was struck on new machinery set up in Drury House on the Strand, by the French engraver Pierre Blondeau who had invented the edge lettering process with his castaign machine, which he had demonstrated previously in the Commonwealth period in two competitions with the hammered workers in 1651 and 1656. Competition was so rife with resistance to mechanisation from the Corporation of Moneyers, that to avoid sabotage the machinery could not be set up in the Tower of London, hence why it was located off the Strand.

"A Summary of the Cromwell Coinage" by Marvin Lessen printed in the 1966 volume of the British Numismatic Journal tell us that in August and September of 1656 orders were given to Blondeau to produce £2,000 worth of gold and silver coinage. According to "Warrants and Sketches of Thomas Simon" by D F Allen in the British Numismatic Journal Volume 23, 1940, The warrant ordering Oliver Cromwell portrait coinage was dated 27 November 1656, and signed by Clerk of Council W Jessop. The order on vellum has Thomas Simon's name entered over an erasure of the name Blondeau, due to the fact that the coins were actually struck on Blondeau's machinery, but all engraving was by Thomas Simon.

The initial coins to be produced were to be the gold Twenty Shilling Broad and the silver Halfcrown though drawings were produced for seven different portrait denominations by 11th December 1656 some of which did not come to fruition but the gold Fifty Shillings, Twenty Shillings and silver Halfcrown all did.

This proportion of metal used all came from captured Spanish treasure consisting of £100,000 of silver and some gold, which had to be conveyed to the Mint in 22 wagons in November 1656. From this £2,000 of gold and silver was allocated to Blondeau to make his 1656 dated milled coinage and they were then struck from Blondeau's machinery in 1657 all dated 1656, the majority of the gold being the Broad and all the silver being the Halfcrown. (for further reading on the treasure see Dr Graham Birch's "The Metal in Britain's Coins - chapter 7).

Not all the contemporary written records survive, but a small proportion of the gold would have been used to make the Fifty Shillings denomination which utilised the obverse and reverse dies of the gold Broad. This senior denomination being a 2.5 multiple of the Twenty Shilling face value of the gold Broad which weighs 9.1grammes at full weight, therefore had to be thickened to 22.2 grammes and Blondeau's castaign machine was then used to apply the lettered edge. Marvin Lessen in his 1966 article alludes that the Fifty Shilling rather than being a pattern coinage as it was thought of traditionally was perhaps more correct to describe as a presentation piece, as the number existing today would suggest that (11 pieces existing as of 1966) plus there had been a further order in the interim for a gold coin with a lettered edge.

The Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector portrait coins revert to the use of Latin in their legends unlike the regular hammered Commonwealth coinage with their legends in plain English. The Latin legend translates on obverse as "Oliver, by the grace of God, Protector of the Republic of England, Scotland and Ireland" and on the reverse "Peace is sought by war." The edge inscription translates as "A protection to the letters are a garland and a safeguard to the coinage."

Much has been written on the Oliver Cromwell coinage over the decades starting with "Cromwelliana" by Henfrey in Victorian times and more comprehensively from the 1960s onwards in varying articles in the British Numismatic Journal by the late Marvin Lessen, starting with "A Summary of the Cromwell Coinage" in the 1966 volume which is the best starting point for the student of the coinage - see www.britnumsoc.org for this article.

Provenance:

Ex Bill Barber Collection, Stacks Bowers ANA auction, 14^th August 2023, lot 41306 sold for $504,000 = £395,564 on that day.

Bill Barber born 10th July 1924, Stamping Ground, Kentucky started collecting coins in late 1961 right through until he passed away in early 1989 with his interest in history ranging numismatically from USA territorial gold through to world coins and rare British patterns. Mr Barber also dealt in USA and British coinage from time to time out of Denver, Colorado under the names Barber Coin Company and Foster Barber Coins. Barber Coin Company at a PO Box in Englewood, Colorado advertised in Coin World from 1963-64 as Bill and Pat Barber. Foster Barber were regular advertisers in Coin World through 1964 at 1111 South Colorado Boulevard, suite 205. This Fifty Shilling coin must have been acquired in this active period from 1961 to as late as 1989.