Half Crown of Charles I

Pictured here is the second find to come in this week from Steve Bartlett. It’s a hammered silver coin of Charles I but is a larger denomination than usual. It turned up in Cumbria and Steve wanted a valuation to pass on to the owner of the land from which it was unearthed.

Not only is the denomination unusual but this coin was struck at one of the provisional mints set up by Royalists during the Civil Wars of the 1640s. It’s a halfcrown, which was struck at Bristol during 1643.

On the obverse King Charles is depicted on horseback with no ground line below.  The mint mark on this side is a plume and there is another plume behind the king.

Within the inner circle on the reverse is the ‘Declaration’ (in Latin) in which King Charles promises to uphold the Protestant religion, the laws of England and the liberty of Parliament; there are three plumes above and below is the date: 1643. There is no mint mark on this side. The legend starts at 9 o’clock and is preceded by four wedges in the form of a cross.

A large number of halfcrowns were struck at Bristol; the end result of this is a long list of varieties and die pairings. The combination used to strike Steve’s find must be very rare as after quite a thorough search I didn’t trace another example.  

Valuation

The obverse is very weak in the centre and this side would grade only Fair. The reverse is not as weak and would grade better than Fine.  Halfcrowns of Charles I are popular with collectors, especially those struck at the provincial mints. The overall condition of this one leaves something to be desired but it should still be worth at least £250 to a specialist collector.

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