Lot 2179
Great Britain. "Pattern" silver Shilling, "1658." A very rare example of the copy by J.S. Tanner of Thomas Simon's original 1658 coinage. Die-alignment opposite that used on the original Simon coins. Tanner's piece was made about 1738 within the Royal Mint and has long been accepted as a highly collectible specimen relating to the Cromwell era. Type of S-3228. ESC-1006a, on thick flan, rated R6: excessively rare. Also called the Dutch Copy, but this is misleading, an old error frequently repeated. Forrer tells us that Johann Sigismund Tanner emigrated from Saxe-Gotha to England in 1728, and that his engraving skills early demonstrated on snuff-boxes and the flint-locks of guns came to the attention of the Royal Mint's master, John Conduit, who employed him as assistant to master John Croker; on Crocker's death in 1741, Tanner advanced to post of Chief Engraver, Royal Mint. Evidently at some point he discovered the old, rusted dies used by Simon to produce Cromwell's coins back in 1656-58. Many of the original coins had been defaced or destroyed by those who detested Cromwell and his forbidding reign. Of particular rarity was the original sixpence; it is possible that Tanner wished to offer copies to collectors as a result of pressure, or requests for them, which seems sensible but cannot be proven. Certainly almost the only way a collector today may own a Cromwell sixpence is by buying one of Tanner's pieces. What is known is that Tanner used Simon's punches, tidied them up a bit, made tiny errors (perhaps intentional) in the legends, and produced inside the Royal Mint beautiful copies of the Simon coins, probably releasing the first of them in 1738. All were made in extremely limited numbers. Henfrey says: "The dies of this shilling still remain in the royal Mint, as well as Simon's original punches for the head and arms. It is therefore our opinion that Tanner made the dies of this piece, using Simon's punches, but engraving the legends himself." The present specimen, an extra-thick shilling, is among the rarest of his products; it is sometimes called the "Dutch two-shilling piece" or florin, but again those are misnomers. Henfrey states that all the shillings are in silver and generally have plain edges, but a few have milled or reeded edges; he also says the heavy pieces are sometimes called "pattern two-shilling pieces." The Cheshire collector notes that only 3 or 4 examples are known of this, making it the rarest of the Tanner/Cromwell coins. Henfrey knew of one in the British Museum, another in the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, and perhaps three in private hands, including the awesome Brice cabinet. All of the extra-thick pieces evidently have plain edges. This wonderful specimen is deeply toned and, says its owner, far finer than the Norweb specimen, sold in 1985 at auction (said to have had a test cut on its edge and been lacquered). A highly important coin, seldom available, and possibly the finest of just a few known. The cataloguer suspects it's the Brice coin, because of some tiny red wax dots, which were how Brice marked his coins for posterity; they are removable, of course, but that would be a crime. NGC graded Proof 64.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 12,500.
The Cheshire Collection.
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