Ancient, British and World Coins and Banknotes

Cambridgeshire, Newmarket, Wyon’s Penny, 1799, two racehorses passing winning post, rev. legend, craven meeting, etc, edge plain, 23.22g/12h (DH 11; D & W 323/19). Two minor spots in obverse field and a crescent-shaped cud of surface metal below hind legs of horses, no die-break on reverse, extremely fine with original colour, rare (£300-400)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by Dr David L Spence.

View
Collection

Provenance:
Fawcett/Litman Collection.

The race commemorated on the piece was that staged on the Beacon course at Newmarket on Monday 25 March 1799, between Durham landowner Sir Harry Vane-Tempest's Hambletonian, ridden by Frank Buckle, and the horse-breeder Joseph Cookson's Diamond, with Dennis Fitzpatrick up. The match was for 3,000 guineas a side, half of which was forfeit; Sir Harry’s horse, the 5-4 favourite, took victory by 'half a neck', even though contemporary reports remarked that he was thought the better horse overall. Both horses were born in 1792; Hambletonian was still alive in 1813 and Diamond died in France in 1819. A painting by George Stubbs, executed in 1800 and now at Mount Stewart, Belfast, may have been the instigation for this piece. Sold with much further background information on the two horses, including their competition history; this information contradicts some of that shown on the token, in respect of the date of the contest and the actual time it took to complete the race, which was eight and a half minutes