FAQs

What makes a coin valuable?

Plus Icon

I have coins to sell, what’s the next step?

Plus Icon

How will my purchases be shipped?

Plus Icon

What happens if I’m not entirely happy with my purchase?

Plus Icon
BG02705

The Gunpowder Plot, 1605

James I, The Gunpowder Plot, Copper Jeton, 1605, a snake glides amongst lilies and roses, DETECTVS . QVI . LATVIT . S . C . [HE WHO CONSEALS HIMSELF IS DETECTED ... BY ORDER OF THE SENATE], rev. the name Jehovah radiates within crown of thorns, chronogrammatic date, NON DORMITASTI ANTISTES IACOBI [YOU, GUARDIAN OF JAMES, HAVE NOT SLEPT], 29mm (Eimer 86; MI i 196/19; Dugn 3599; vL II, 22). Good very fine.

Disenchanted with James at not doing more for British Catholics Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators planned to assassinate him in the most dramatic of ways - blowing up the House of Lords while he visited. Made aware of the plot by an anonymous informant the authorities discovered Fawkes guarding the gunpowder in a room under parliament itself. Along with the majority of his accomplices he was subsequently hung, drawn and quartered for his crimes.

The reverse legend is taken from Pslam 121, "He that keepeth thee will not sleep." The Jeton is Dutch and was struck on the order of the Dutch Senate who linked the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot with the expulsion of Jesuits from the Netherlands. The date is in code. The larger letters are Roman numerals which, when rearranged in descending order, give the date DMIIIICI = MDCIIIII = 1605.

FAQs

What makes a coin valuable?

Plus Icon

I have coins to sell, what’s the next step?

Plus Icon

How will my purchases be shipped?

Plus Icon

What happens if I’m not entirely happy with my purchase?

Plus Icon
1 of 4