Middlesex [Specious and Collectors’], Westwood’s British Commercial Proof Halfpenny, 1797, in gilt-copper, bust of George III right, rev. Britannia seated left on cannon, edge armis tvteris moribvs ornes, 14.22g/12h (DH 1006a). Obverse die flaw in very early stage, extremely fine and brilliant, a great rarity and the first gilt Proof to appear at auction in over 50 years £400-600

Provenance: A Collection of 18th Century Trade Tokens, Part II, Mark Rasmussen FPL 9, Spring 2006 (276).

Part of a series of specimen coins struck by John Westwood Jr for submission to the Committee on Coin in 1797, when the contract for striking Britain’s new regal currency was being discussed. In the event the contract was awarded to Matthew Boulton, but Westwood later attempted to sell his British Commercial dies and remaining specimens to Boulton in 1800 (Dykes, forthcoming)