The Lost Collection of Simon English Esq. | Henry VII (1485-1509), Double Ryal or Sovereign, 14 November 1501 - January 1504, Type IVa, Tower, (m.m.) hENRICVS x DEI x GRA x REX x ANGL x ET x FRAN x DNS x hIBN , saltire stops, King holding orb and sceptre, seated on tall, wide throne with high Gothic canopy, ornamented with fine latice work and pellet backing, flanked by sprays of fleur-de-lys in fields, rev. (m.m.) : ihESVS : AVTEM : TRANSIENS : PER : MEDIVM : ILLORVM : IBAT :*: double saltire stops, rosette privy [?] mark at end, Royal shield set on Tudor Rose inside ornate floral tressure, alternating leopards and lys in inner spandrels, saltires in outer spandrels, 15.38g [237.2grns], 11h, p.m. lis / dragon (Brooke IVa; Potter & Winstanley IVb; Grierson D; Martin [1859], 131 = same dies; Marsham 363 = Rashleigh [1909], 756 same dies; Murdoch 382 = Vaughan-Morgan 1 same dies; Bruun 533 same dies; J C S Rashleigh [1953], 17 same dies; SCBI 23 [Ashmolean] 79-80 same dies; Schneider I, 550 same dies; North 1692/1; Spink 2175), light traces of crimping to a brighter flan, otherwise full and broad, a really bold fine / near very fine, the most frequent survivor from the reign of the Winter King with 19 specimens recorded by Potter and Winstanley, but only fourteen available to commerce, very rare thus Provenance The Lost Collection of Simon English Esq. SNC, December 1986, no. 8237 - fine and extremely rare - £8,500 [acquired 18 November 1987, evidently following comparison with SNC XCV, no. 6364] Augustus Thellusson, First Portion, Glendining, 19-20 October 1931, lot 25 [and Pl. I, 28] * - very fine and extremely rare - £46.0.0 [Spink] Talbot-Ready, Sothebys, 15 November 1920, lot 494 - fine and rare - £28.10.0 [Thellusson]
