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The Samuel King Collection of English Gold Coins - Auction to be held on May 5 2005

Spink is delighted to announce the sale of the highly important Samuel King Collection of English Gold Coins on Thursday 5 May. Featuring a comprehensive selection of exceptional pieces from the reign of Edward III to the early 20th century coinage, the collection offers an unrivalled opportunity to view and acquire some of the finest rarities in the English coinage. The 217 lots are expected to fetch in excess of £1 million, with individual estimates ranging from £200 to £50,000.

Jeremy Cheek, Spink Coin department comments, “This magnificent collection is one of the finest and most important collections of English gold coins to be offered for many years. The number of major rarities on sale at one time has not been seen for a very long time, and the high quality of many of these pieces is absolutely breath-taking.”

The sale commences with 86 handsome and attractive hammered gold coins, including a complete run of the magnificent and highly desirable Fine Sovereigns of the Tudor monarchs, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I. The Sovereign denomination was first coined by Henry VII (1485-1509) as a splendid renaissance gold coin, featuring the king seated on an ornate throne. Extremely rare and difficult to obtain, the Henry VII Sovereign is deservedly popular with collectors. The Samuel King Collection contains no less than two examples, the finer, the best to appear at auction for a decade, is estimated at £20,000-25,000.

Also included is the excessively rare Fine Sovereign of Edward VI (1547-53) of which only a very few examples survive. This piece, one of the rarest of all English coins, is one of the finest in private hands, with the added distinction of having been once in the British Museum collection. It is estimated at £30,000-40,000.

The medieval gold coins included such resonant denominations such as the Noble, showing the king standing in a ship of contemporary design, and the Angel, showing St Michael spearing the dragon. Two high grade Nobles from the reign of Richard II (1377-1399) are estimated to realise around £2,000 apiece, and a very fine early example of the Angel, struck during the brief restoration of Henry VI (1470-1) is expected to fetch to fetch the same figure.

The Samuel King Collection is particularly strong in the coins of the Tudors. A lovely example of the George Noble of Henry VIII (1509-47), features the only depiction of St George and the dragon on an English medieval coin. A coin whose popularity is equalled only by its rarity, this example was first sold at auction in the famous J. D. Cuff sale of 1854. It is expected to realise £10,000-12,000.

Particularly striking is the charming Ship Ryal of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), also extremely rare and estimated at £10,000-12,000. An updated version of the medieval Noble, it shows a realistic portrait of the Queen, wearing a ruff and elaborate dress, standing in a Tudor warship. The beautiful second coinage Spur-Ryal of James I (1603-25), of similar, but if anything even more elaborate, design, carries the same estimate.

The coins of Charles I (1625-49) include no less than five of the very rare and imposing Triple-Unites struck at the King’s Oxford headquarters between 1642 and 1644, at the height of the English Civil War. Parliament, still nominally in allegiance to the king continued to strike Unites bearing his portrait at the Tower mint. Charles, always an astute propagandist, ordered a new denomination of three times the weight, the Triple-Unite, a tangible reminder of this troubled period. The high grade examples in the King collection are estimated from £8,000 to £15,000.

The milled gold coins in the Samuel King Collection are, by a large margin, the finest and most extensive run to be offered at auction for many years. The highlight of the entire sale is the marvellous run of 60 Five Guinea pieces, dating from Charles II (1668) to George III (1773). It is strange that no collector has ever completed the set of 49 possible Five Guinea dates. The record set in the famous Murdoch sale, as long ago as 1903 is 45 dates and the Lady Duveen sale of 1964 achieved 43. The King collection boasts 41, the third finest set of all time.

The most dramatic of the Five Guinea pieces is the Queen Anne Vigo of 1703. Sir Isaac Newton personally supervised the coining of bullion captured from the Spanish during the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702, 4,500lb of silver and 7lb 8oz of gold, hence the remarkable rarity of this piece and the estimate of £40,000-50,000. Another outstanding example is the George III Pattern Five Guineas of 1770. No currency Five Guineas were issued during this reign and the Patterns were only struck in the smallest of quantities, probably less than ten of each date. Originally in the Sharps Pixley Collection, this coin is now expected to fetch £30,000-40,000.

A most desirable coin is the George III Pattern Five Pound piece of 1820, estimate £30,000-40,000. Following the Re-Coinage in 1817, there were plans to issue Five Pound coins. A mere twenty examples of gold Five Pound coins were issued before the death of the King in 1820.

Arguably one of the most beautiful designs on a British coin is the Queen Victoria “Una and the Lion” Five Pounds of 1839, designed by the Chief Engraver William Wyon RA. The Five Pound piece to be sold on 5 May, estimate £15,000-20,000, is a particularly rare variety as it has a plain edge rather than lettered and carries the Latin word “DIRGIT” on the reverse.

The collection includes a choice selection of the smaller milled gold denominations. A magnificent and deeply toned Charles II Two Guineas of 1679 is expected to fetch £10,000-15,000. The extremely rare Pattern Half Broad of Oliver Cromwell, dated 1656 though struck from dies prepared by John Tanner in 1738, is also estimated at £10,000-15,000; and three of the very rarely offered Victoria Decimal Gold Patterns, struck in 1867 and 1868, are expected to realise £2,000-2,5000 apiece.

For more information about any of the lots in this sale, please contact our Coin Department on 020 7563 4035, or email info@spink.com.