Spectacular Oxford Mint Charles I Silver Pound of 1643

Charles I (1625-49), silver Pound of Twenty Shillings, dated 1643, Oxford Mint, armoured King on horseback left with upright sword of good style, walking over arms and armour, Oxford plumes behind flowing scarf of King, beaded circles and legend surrounding, initial mark Oxford plumes, :CAROLVS: D: G: MAG: BRIT: FRA: ET: HIBER: REX:, rev. two line Latin motto at centre, RELIG: PROT: LEG / ANG: LIBER: PAR, three oxford plumes over value of .XX. above, date below, beaded circles and legend surrounding, legend commences at left, initial mark seven pellets, EXVRGAT: DEVS: DISSIPENTVR: INIMICI, weight 119.95g (Morrison A-2; Brooker 863; North 2397; S.2938). Toned well struck obverse, double struck reverse, some light striations from the striking in the fields, one small rim bruise on reverse, otherwise good very fine / very fine and an impressive piece of the art of coinage from the Civil War period.

This silver Twenty Shillings or silver Pound was struck at the Oxford Mint where Charles I had moved his capital from London after the Battle of Edgehill, to the Royalist Universities of the City of Oxford; where he made a state entrance on 29th October 1642. The King lived at Christ Church, with the Queen installed at Merton; the Royalist Parliament met in the Upper Schools and Great Convocation House; the Privy Council at Oriel; and the Mint worked at New Inn Hall from the 3rd January 1642/3.

These coins are the largest British hammered coin ever made weighing in at near 120 grams and were made from donated silver plate from the colleges and silver mined at Aberystwyth. This large denomination, and its smaller companion denominations were used to pay the Army to boost morale, with certain denominations being given to the various ranks within the army hierarchy. Regular soldiers would have received a Halfcrown, their superiors a silver Crown, the next rank up a silver Half-Pound and finally the highest ranks of the army the silver Pound. The costs of war were huge and Charles let it be known that the pay for his army was greater than that of the Parliamentarians, as cavalrymen for Parliament received two shillings a day, whereas Royalist cavalrymen received a Halfcrown, (Maurice Bull, Charles I Halfcrowns volume III, page 5).

As a further morale booster, if the viewer of the coin was literate and knew their Latin, the abbreviated legends translate as on obverse "Charles by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland," and on the reverse the cartouche Declaration, as Charles I gave to the Privy Council at Wellington, Shropshire on 19th September 1642 as "The Religion of the Protestants, the Laws of England, the Liberty of Parliament" which when shown in full Latin should read "Religio Protestantium Leges Angliae Libertas Parliamenti," the outer legend translates as "Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered," a Psalm from the Bible. OX for the City of Oxford is shown below the date.

At Oxford there were five different obverse varieties across the three years of issue 1642-44 of which this is the most ornate and life-like; there are two reverses for each year of 1642 and 1643 which are all similar, and one more ornate reverse with the Declaration in a cartouche for 1644. These are all detailed by Col. H W Morrieson in his article “The Coinage of Oxford 1642-46” which featured in the British Numismatic Journal, volume 16, 1921-22.

Provenance:
Ex F Willis Collection, part I, Glendining, 5th June 1991, lot 278.
Ex Triton IV, Classical Numismatic Group, 5th December 2000, lot 1003.
Ex A. H. Baldwin, Fixed Price List, Summer 2014, item BH108.

An illustration of this coin is featured in the new coin publication "In the Money" by Dominic Chorney.