Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dafydd, post: 26369310, member: 86815&quot;]Going back to the comment made by [USER=40017]@PaddyB[/USER] about eye appeal. Here are mine but not with the best of photography but I hope to make a point about eye appeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are three Mary Groats side by side.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1682850[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1682852[/ATTACH] </p><p>The first one is a detectorist find and was originally bent and quite rippled, probably as a result of plough damage.</p><p>The original photograph I bought it from, was quite dark and showed two broad dark shadows so I knew it was bent but it was at a reasonable cost and I liked the portrait.</p><p>This is the coin &quot;in hand&quot; which looks better than the flat image.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1682853[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1682854[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I thought her face looked quite whimsical. This piqued my curiosity as I was brought up&nbsp; demonising her as the &quot;Bloody Mary&quot; who burnt 280 Protestants alive. I read a number of biographies after buying the coin, including &quot;Mary Tudor, Princess Bastard Queen&quot; by Anna Whitelock and also Linda Porter&#039;s book. &quot;The First Queen of England : The Myth of &quot;Bloody Mary&quot;. There has been a massive trend to rehabilitate Mary and put her actions in context to the times.</p><p>I approach such works with caution because there is so much woke and rewriting of history but in context with other things I have read I accepted the fact that she probably thought she was saving the soul of the nation. She certainly had far less people executed than her Father Henry VIII who executed people on both religious and political or financial grounds.</p><p>Of the three coins above I prefer the middle coin which was the least expensive.</p><p>The third coin was ex-Leu and I am not sure why I even bid on it. Having the coin in hand it takes me back to demonising Mary and she appears to have the look of a Batman movies villain.</p><p>Here is Leu&#039;s image.</p><p><img src="https://media.biddr.com/media/img/auction_lots/6014/7404643_1750434055.l.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>BRITISH, Tudor. Philip &amp; Mary, 1554-1558. Groat (Silver, 24 mm, 2.07 g, 6 h), Tower (London) mint, no date (1554-1558). PHILIP•Z•MARIA•D:G•REX•Z•REGI Crowend and draped bust of Mary to left. Rev. POSVI - MVS•DE - VM•ADIV - TO•NOS Coat of arms over long cross fourchée. North 1973. SCBC 2508. Beautifully toned. Minor areas of weakness and some scratches on the obverse, otherwise, very fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the collection of the American Mathematician and member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives Rodney David Driver (1932-2022), privately acquired from Spink in August 1969.</p><p><br /></p><p>Suggest to your friend that he does more that look up Mary on Wickipedia but read a couple of books, it will bring the coin alive for him.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in