Auction Catalogue

30 June 2004

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Important British and World Coins, Tokens, Historial and Art Medals, Numismatic Books and Banknotes

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

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Lot

№ 797

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30 June 2004

Hammer Price:
£7,000

Free State (1921-1937), Pattern Halfcrown, 1927, by P. Morbiducci, in silver, harp, rev. horse right, edge grained, 10.17g/12h (Brady, SNC June 1976, p.238, no.5, this coin; S –; DF 849 variant; KM. Pr 8). Minor graze above right shoulder of harp, otherwise brilliant and practically as struck, somewhat irregularly toned, of the highest rarity, only seven specimens known (£5,000-6,000)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Norwich Collection.

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Collection

Provenance:
King Farouk Collection, Sotheby Auction (Cairo), 24 February-6 March 1954, lot 2354 (part)
Jess Peters Auction (Decatur), August 1971, lot 1129
Jess Peters Mailbid Sale 57, May 1972, lot 478.

The patterns entered by the Roman sculptor Publio Morbiducci (1889-1963) for the competition to design Ireland’s new money in 1928, in which he was ultimately unsuccessful, have, as Gerard Brady stated, ‘an ageless character and beauty.’ Struck by the Milanese medallists Lorioli Castelli (now Lorioli Fratelli), the precise numbers of pieces which exist are uncertain, although the best previously published estimates were by Brady in 1976. Of the other silver halfcrowns, two are in the complete sets owned by the National Museum of Ireland since 1927, a third was in the set owned by Brady himself (Millennial Collection, 29 April 2000, lot 449, ex Morbiducci archive, 1976), a fourth, slabbed in a PCGS holder and graded SP 62, was offered in
SNC February 2004 (IM 626, £7,500), a fifth was in a mixed metal set reputed to have been owned at one time by Major A.W. Foster and was certainly in the possession of Baldwin’s in the 1970s, and a sixth was in a different mixed metal set of nine coins in a green leather case offered for sale by Patrick Finn on behalf of Spink in December 1981 for £40,000, also reputed to be ex Morbiducci archive. Sold with PNG certificate of title signed by Jess Peters, 26 May 1972. See front cover