London groat of Edward III

The finder of this coin wanted to remain anonymous. He believed it was a groat of Edward III and he asked for a full ID and a valuation.

The coin certainly is a London groat of Edward III. It’s an example of a very rare post-treaty type. On the obverse there is a row of pellets on the king’s breast. On the reverse the inner legend reads CIVI TAS LON DON with a saltire before CIVI and before LON. There is also a contraction bar over the letter N in DON.

In the Standard Catalogue this type is listed as number 1638. Post treaty groats are discussed in more detail by Lord Stewartby on page 261 in English Coins 1180-1551. Stewartby lists specimens of this type as number 3.

Valuation

There was an example of this coin is the Brady collection (lot 49), which was sold at auction back in 2011. The coin was described as Fine but double struck and the hammer price was £720. A couple more examples in much better condition were recently offered for sale at auction with pre-sale estimates of £1,000+ but both failed to sell. Over the years not all coins go up in price. Lot 49 in the Brady collection is a good example, for today it would be likely to sell (at best) for half the figure it achieved back in 2011.

I was told that the coin pictured here weighs 4 grams, which pints towards it being clipped, albeit only slightly. It is otherwise an attractive and well struck specimen. If it was offered for sale at auction today I would expect the pre-sale estimate to be £700-800.

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