Auction details
6:00 AM PT - Mar 14th, 2012
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Dated 1786. Obv: profile bust with date below and GEORGIVS III DEI GRATIA legend. Rev: triskele with QVOCVNQVE IECERIS SATBIT legend. Edges: one example plain and one milled (grained"). S. 7413/7413d; 14.12, 14.32 grams. From Clay's Currency: The English Government became the purchasers of the island, in 1765, by Act of Parliament, entitled, An Act for carrying into execution a Contract made, pursuant to the Act of Parliament of the twelfth of his late Majesty King George the Third, between the Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury and the Duke and Duchess of Atholl, the Proprietors of the Isle of Man, and their Trustees, for the Purchase of the said Island and its Dependencies, under certain Exceptions therein particularly mentioned, &c. With the new government, a new currency was a necessity, not merely from the fact of so little even of the Athol, and still less of the 1733 coinage, being in the island, but from the desire to exhibit on the new coinage that supremacy which the government was now entitled to; hence was produced two of the most beautiful coins the English mint had perhaps ever issued. We can hardly appreciate fully the delicacy of the government in not introducing a national coinage at once; but to wait twenty-one years was something remarkable, and even then the intrinsic worth of the issue was much greater than the island issues had been previously. This delicacy was still more remarkable, as the supremacy was modestly confined to the Obv. only; whilst on the Rev., the island triune was retained, with greater respect to the antique character of both triune and motto than was shown on the Athol pieces. Lastly, the splendid execution of the coins was a convincing proof of a wish to please the new subjects of the realm. I might, without disparagement, place these coins of 1786 in comparison with any known coins of that period. The penny, fully the size of the English penny of the period, has on its Obv. a magnificent head of George III., laureated, looking to the right; the motto GEORGIVS III . DEI GRATIA; date 1786 ; the edge is milled; the rim toothed, leaving a clear space beyond the teeth. Rev. The triune, not much flexed, and only semi-armed, giving the appearance of running rather than kneeling; the Motto QVOCVNQVE. IECERIS . STABIT; the rim toothed, with outside space, as before; the spurs brought nearer the heels (previously appeared near the ankle"). The halfpenny answers this description exactly, with one exception ; the tail of the figure 7 in the date is straight, whilst in the penny it is turned backwards at the end. In this coinage we have neither triangle, as in the early coins, or the three cones point to point, as in the Athol pieces, in the centre of the triune; but a simple line division between the armour of the different legs, or, as it is termed heraldically, fleshed to the centre. The limbs not being severely flexed (as almost kneeling"), but rather standing, in my opinion makes the translation of the motto more correct, Whichever way it is thrown, it stands. I trust this coin will long continue an ornament in the cabinets of collectors; for a fine proof of it is extremely scarce, and becoming daily more and more so. (Vide photo. plate ii., figs. 8, 9, 10, l l?) I have a variety of the penny of this coinage with a plain edge. [2]
Condition reportFine, the plain edge type extremely rare.
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