Ever bought by a weight description and not by looks?

This coin turned up today and I am very pleased with it as I took a chance. I based my decision to bid on it at a provincial auction house because of its weight and not for its looks as these were pretty indistinguishable as a result of poor photography.It was the only Civil War coin in the auction amongst a pile of modern commemoratives and attracted no real interest. I was lucky.

This is the auction house image.


And the description.

A Charles I silver half-crown in clear plastic capsule, approximately 31mm diameter, 15.2g.

The standard weight for these is 14.5 g to 15.1 g so at 15.2 I was banking on the fact that it would be unclipped and with good detail.

This is what turned up.


Mint mark @triangle in Circle. This mark was used at the Tower Mint between 1641 and 1643 was a pivotal period at the very start of the English Civil War. Coins struck with this mark were produced just as the conflict between the King and Parliament was intensifying. It weighs 15.28 g which is exceptional and no evidence of clipping although on a irregular flan.
Ironically it would have been minted in London during the Civil War and used to pay the very troops fighting the King featured on the obverse.

As far as the Brooker Classification is concerned, I believe it is a Group IV, Type 4 specimen recorded as Brooker 371.

It is quite distinctive by the flying King's sash and the foreshortened horse, which are key features for this Brooker number. The reverse features the oval "garnished" shield, which was the standard design for the Tower Mint during the early 1640’s.
The Triangle in Circle mark is quite significant as it places the coin at the very start of the English Civil War. During this period, the Tower Mint was actually under the control of Parliament, though they continued to strike coins in the King’s name and style.

The period between 1641 and 1643 marks the descent of England into a brutal internal conflict and the establishment of the early battle lines between the Royalists (Cavaliers) and the Parliamentarians (Roundheads).
When measured as a percentage of the total population, the English Civil War (1642–1651) was significantly more devastating to the British Isles than the American Civil War (1861–1865) was to the United States.

While the American conflict had higher absolute numbers, the proportional impact on the British population—particularly through disease and the collapse of social infrastructure—was staggering. It is estimated that the total population was decimated by 40% as a result of conflict, disease and starvation.

Although the American Civil War involved industrial-scale slaughter (Antietam, Gettysburg), the English Civil War was a total war in a very intimate sense:

Because England is relatively small, the conflict was intimate and inescapable; almost every county was scarred by skirmishes, protracted sieges, or the heavy footfall of troop movements. No one was truly "away" from the war. Beyond the battlefield, a cultural revolution was being enforced by the Parliamentarians, or "Roundheads."

The Parliamentarian zeal led to the wholesale destruction of religious artefacts. To the more radical Puritans, stained glass, statues, and even organ pipes were "idolatrous" remnants of Catholicism that obscured the "Plain Word of God." This was not merely about theology; it was a physical dismantling of the medieval English aesthetic.
By 1647, Parliament had officially abolished the feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun.
Puritans viewed Christmas as a "Pagan-Popish strumpet"—a blend of Roman Catholic "mass" and old pagan revelry.

Shops were ordered to stay open on the 25th of December, and soldiers were known to patrol the streets of London, sniffing the air for the scent of roasting meat or "sinful" plum pottage. These strictures were deeply unpopular and sparked what became known as the "Plum Pudding Riots." In cities like Canterbury and Norwich, citizens rioted specifically to demand the right to celebrate Christmas, even capturing city magazines to protect their festive traditions.
"Needless to say, in an age already darkened by war, disease, and poverty, the prohibition of joy was a bitter pill. This 'Godly' austerity proved so brittle that it could only be sustained by the sword; it was never to last, and the Restoration of 1660 was greeted as much for the return of the Maypole as for the return of the Monarch."

The cost of the war led to the highest taxation in English history to that point, often enforced by the military (the "County Committees"). We now have a government seeking to emulate this 385 years later and they are pretty good at it.

Battle of Marston Moor 1644.

Other than bullion have you bought a coin based on weight and instinct and not by image?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Whats the date?

 

Between 1641 and 1643.

 

Wow! that's one old coin! what's your oldest coin?

 

I would not buy a coin by weight. I like to have old/new uncirculated coins.