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The 1642 Exeter Halfcrown

The Royalist army captured the city of Exeter on 4th September 1643 under the command of Prince Maurice, younger brother of Prince Rupert and nephew of Charles I. Sir Richard Vyvyan who had operated the Truro mint from the end of 1642 was quickly ordered to move the Royalist mint to Exeter and by the end of September plate was being received at the new mint. The Exeter mint was active for a period of about two and a half years, until Exeter surrendered in April 1646.

During this time, denominations ranging from the half pound to the penny were struck in silver and in the period from October 1643 to April 1644 alone it has been estimated that nearly £4000 worth of silver plate was coined [2]. Many of the types struck at Exeter remain rare however, and few more so than the halfcrown dated 1642.

Clearly there is an anomaly with the date on the coin if these pieces were struck at Exeter, and this has long troubled numismatists. Earlier in the 20th century, some numismatists questioned the authenticity of the 1642 halfcrowns and considered them, or at least some of them, to be later copies. In 1960 Liddell and Rayner [1] studied the type and concluded by microscopic and spectrographic analysis, weight and historical evidence that they were all contemporary, but offered little in the way of explanation as to their date and position in the Truro and Exeter series. Furthermore they concluded that they were struck by machine rather than by hand, a theory that was challenged by Besley in 1992 [2].

In his study of the Truro and Exeter mints, Besley demonstrated, by examinining the punches used in the shield on the reverse, that the 1642 halfcrown was struck on two separate occasions but during the period in which Exeter was active in 1644, and not at Truro.

As yet there has been no firm evidence as to why the date 1642 was used and further intrigue is provided by the obverse design. The somewhat similar obverse design depicting the king on horseback carrying a baton and trampling over arms was used on the Scottish Rebellion medal by Thomas Simon in 1639. Perhaps significantly, the king raised his royal standard in 1639 in preparations for the Bishops War and again in Nottingham in 1642 at the start of the English Civil War and so the design and date are possibly in commemoration of the event.

One does not normally look for a reason for why a particular coin was struck other than for the fact that currency was required of a particular denomination, and in the case of the English Civil War, at a particular location. However these coins were, in general, produced to a very high standard and in small numbers which has led to numismatists postulating that they may have been struck for a specific event. Possible candidates for this during 1644 would be the Royalist victory at Lostwithiel where the Royalist army was commanded by King Charles in person, or king Charles I stay in Exeter in September 1644.

We are very pleased to be able to offer one of these historic and rare coins for sale. Liddell and Rayner examined and listed 13 examples in total from both dies and there have been various estimates since in sales catalogues as to the number of coins from each reverse die. Below is the most complete listing to date, with images provided where possible. The reverse dies are described using the Besley classification (L22 and L28).

Coins with reverse L22

No.	Provenance	Liddel & Rayner	Weight (g)	Obverse
1	British Museum (1844)	1	14.58
2	Ashmolean Museum	11	13.35	P1
3	ANS collection R C Lockett Glendinings 11/10/1956 lot 2515 F G Hilton Price 1910 sale? not in 1909 sale J G Murdoch Sotheby 8/6/1903 lot 160 A B Richardson Sotheby 22/5/1895 lot 246 G W E Bieber So 13/5/1889 lot 170 J H Young So 7/4/1881 lot 243 Bank of England	12	14.90
4	Magnus collection, Spink 212, 28-29 Mar 2012 SNC 3/1979, number 2817 J G Brooker 1013A H Platt Hall Glendinings 26/7/1950, lot 198	3	14.51
5	C Adams, Spink 1/12/2005, lot 220 D Dupree, SNC 10/1989 number 5408 K V Graham 12/06/63 lot 248	4	14.45
6	Baldwin Carter	7	14.90
7	L Bennett HC1686-1480 4/2008 A Morris, from Studio Coins H M Lingford, collection bt Baldwin 1951 Note: Gilt	8	14.00
8	N C Ballingal J C S Rashleigh, Glendinings 10/6/1953, lot 280 A D Heath 123, Glendinings 9/9/1937	9	14.32
9	W D Ferguson, SCMB Sep 1960, 942 V J E Ryan, Glendinings 21/1/1952, lot 1181 Cumberland Clark, 22/1/1914, lot 133	13	14.71
10	AMR Coins St James 7, 8/2/2008, lot 163 SNC April 1982, 2892 J G Brooker 1013 H H Snellenburg colln, bt Spink 1965 G Hamilton-Smith III, Glendinings 23/5/1927 lot 332 BM duplicates	-	13.91
11	Bridgewater House, Sotheby 15/6/1972, lot 292	-	-
12	Glendinings, 1 May 1985, lot 63 Miss H L Farquhar Glendinings 25/4/1955, lot 120 J G Murdoch Sothebys 8/6/1903, lot 161 Note: Pierced and plugged	-	-
13	E W Rashleigh Sothebys 21/6/1909, lot 935 Note: Dig to centre of reverse	-	-
14	Glens 12/10/1994 lot 213	-	-

Coins with reverse L28

No.	Provenance	Liddel & Rayner	Weight (g)
15	British Museum Clark-Thornhill Perhaps Thorburn	2	14.32
16	Fitzwilliam Museum J Henderson, bequest to FM 1933 H Montagu So 13/11/1896 lot 466 W Brice colln bt H Montagu 1887 J B Bergne Lt.Col. W Durrant M Trattle 30/5/1832 lot 886 S Tyssen 1802	10	14.77
17	Museum of Wales J G Brooker 1014 Dr E Burstal Gl 15/5/1968 lot 455 V Brand?	5	14.13
18	Baldwins FPL Summer 2014, BH131 Arthur Chesser, DNW 113, 17/09/13, lot 60 Glendinings 17/03/61 lot 461 Dr E Burstal sold privately?	6	13.80
19	AMR Coins 2011 Baldwins FPL, Summer 2009, BH100 Clarendon pt.2 Bonhams, 17/10/2006, lot 1467 Property of a lady, Glendinings, 30/03/1985	-	14.16
20	Slaney, Spink 163, 15 May 2003, lot 60 Baldwin Dr E C Carter, purchased en bloc by Baldwin, 1950 SNC 6/1906 number 27753 FDC £29/10/- J G Murdoch, Sotheby 18/06/1903, lot 159 Sotheby, 25th Jun 1895, lot 488	-	14.76
21	Exeter Museum G S Hopkins Baldwins 7/5/2002 lot 265 Sir H Reddish K Woodhouse Glendinings 11/12/1968 lot 189	-	-
22	Glendinings 15/12/1993 lot 83	-	-

There are examples which can be found in some early auction catalogue which cannot currently be connected to the above examples with any certainty as neither images nor weights are present in the catalogues. References that we are aware of are:

H A Parsons Glendining 11/5/1954 480pt
Vaughan Morgan Sotheby 17/6/1935, lot 284pt
H W Morrieson, Sotheby 20/11/1933, lot 506
H W Thorburn, Sotheby 27/11/1918, lot 239
W Whittaker, Sotheby 2/5/1894, lot 123
H Clark, Sotheby 23/5/1898, lot 271
F A Walters, Sotheby 24/10/1932, lot 501
E Wigan colln bt Rollins & Feuardent 1872
H W Cholmley, Sotheby 26/5/1902, lot 55
W N Clarkson, Sotheby 16/4/1901, lot 124
E W Rashleigh,Sotheby 21/6/1909, lot 936

We should like to thank Rob Pearce with his assistance in researching some of the provenances included here.

References:

[1] Charles I Truro/Exeter Half-crowns, D.G. Liddell and P.A. Rayner, British Numismatic Journal volume XXX, 1960-61

[2] The English Civil War Mints at Truro and Exeter 1642-1646, Edward Besley, British Numismatic Journal volume 62, 1992

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