REVIEW: THE SANDERS COLLECTION OF EARLY MILLED COINS 19 JULY

The final £60,000 bid on the extremely rare Commonwealth Pattern Halfcrown that led this collection was a fine tribute to the scholarship and discernment of the late Peter Alexander Sanders.

The 1651 Pattern Halfcrown, by David Ramage, had been catalogued as the leading highlight with an estimate of £40,000-50,000 and only 10 examples are known, four of which are in museums. Among other prominent previous owners for this very rare coin were the Lord Pomfret Collection and the R. Carlyon-Britton Collection.

The obverse shows the arms of England within laurel wreath surrounded by the legend THE COMMON WEALTH OF ENGLAND, the reverse shows the legend GAURDED WITH ANGELES 1651 surrounding an angel holding the arms of England and Ireland. The edge is inscribed Trvth and Peace 1651.

Another highlight was the extremely rare Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Pattern Threepence dating from 1575, which took £22,000. Both lots sold to a dealer in the room.

“This was an exceptional and detailed collection which is like no other that I have seen before, and I doubt we will see anything similar again,” said As Tim Wilkes, Head of the Coin Department at Noonans. “We were very pleased with the results from this sale – it demonstrated the continuing strength of the market, even for comparatively specialised material like this.”