I purchased this coin from Atlas Numismatics (good people by the way) and it arrived Tuesday. It is a Henry VI Silver Groat minted 1431-1432 at the English Mint operating in Calais. It is listed as Spink-1875 and has been graded EF-40 Ex. Archbishop Sharp by PCGS. The pedigree supplied by the seller is as follows: Biography courtesy of Morton and Eden: "DR JOHN SHARP (1644-1714), Archbishop of York from 1691 until his death, was an enthusiastic collector and student of coins and medals. His interest seems to have begun around 1687 when, as Rector of St Giles in the Fields, he ‘found it a good divertisement in the evening’. In contrast to nearly all his numismatic forbears and contemporaries who were interested in Ancient Greece and Rome, Sharp selected the coinages of the British Isles and, to a lesser extent, the Colonies and Continental Europe, as his chosen fields. He wrote his Observations on the Coinage of England with a letter to Mr [Ralph] Thoresby in 1698-99, which was to circulate amongst numismatists in manuscript form for nearly a century before being finally printed in 1785. Subsequent owners of the Sharp collection evidently added to it and the Northumbrian stycas in this sale (lots 10-17) might well represent a parcel from the immense Hexham Hoard discovered in 1832 and 1841. There are also a few examples of ‘new’ circulating coins of George III and even a Britannia groat of Victoria (lot 291); see also lots 302-311. The historical sequence of ownership of the collection runs as follows: (i) Dr John Sharp (1644-1714), Archbishop of York; (ii) John Sharp (1674-1726), eldest son of the Archbishop, of Grafton Park, Northamptonshire; (iii) Dr Thomas Sharp (1693-1758), his brother, who was Archdeacon of Northumberland and Prebendary of Durham; (iv) His son Dr John Sharp (1723-1792), Vicar of Hartburn, Perpetual Curate of Bamburgh, who succeeded his father as Archdeacon of Northumberland and who oversaw extensive restoration of the largely-ruined Bamburgh Castle; (v) His daughter Anne Jemima Sharp (1762-1816), who bequeathed it in her will to her uncle Granville Sharp (1735- 1813), the prominent Anti-Slavery campaigner (see lots 301-311). In the event Granville died before his niece, so that on her death in 1819 it passed to her first cousin, another great-granddaughter of the Archbishop: (vi) Catherine Sharp (1770-1843) of Clare Hall, near Barnet, whose husband Rev. Andrew Boult took the name Sharp on marriage; (vii) Her nephew Thomas Barwick Lloyd-Baker (1807-86), the social reformer and ornithologist who was also a direct descendant of the Archbishop through his maternal grandfather William Sharp (1729-1810), George III’s surgeon; thence by descent. During the 1960s and 1970s material from the celebrated Archbishop Sharp Collection was sold through the agency of dealers A.H. Baldwin & Sons, and Owen Parsons of Gloucester. There were auctions of Continental Coins (Sotheby & Co., 14 March 1966) and the particularly important English Coins and Medals Charles I – Anne (and Colonial Coins) held by Glendining & Co., 5 October 1977. The cataloguer of the latter sale drew attention to the distinctive toning found on many of the Archbishop Sharp silver coins, a feature which applies equally to the pieces offered here."
@Aethelred What an absolutely wonderful purchase. I love the coin. I still need a coin of Henry VI. That provenance...wow. It just adds so much to the coin. I love having the provenance of my coins.
I just could't resist a coin that had a pedigree going back that far and this is my second coin to be owned by someone with a Wikipedia page.
Another great medieval coin @Aethelred with a wonderful provenance. You are adding some great pieces to your collection. Now all you need to do is set it free
kool Aethered...i have some from the ominus1 collection....><(actually 2 other members and i have them ALL...so far..)
When I saw the title to this thread I expected something a bit different. Under Henry VIII there are coins bearing the initials of the Archbishop of Canterbury flanking the shield on the reverse. My half groat has T-C for Thomas Cranmer who became Archbishop in 1533 and presided over the change from the Catholic to Protestant churches including interaction with Henry's six wives. Cranmer was executed following Henry's death and during the reign of his very Catholic daughter 'Bloody' Mary. I wonder who has the Sharp specimens of the Archbishop marked coins?
Very nice Halfgroat @dougsmit, I used to own one that looked very similar to yours, but I believe mine was Archbishop Warham.
