Rare Coins in Some Cabinets I have Seen, of our English Money - SAL 264, ff.41-2

Manuscripts of Unpublished Works

Martin Folkes

Rare Coins in Some Cabinets I have Seen, of our English Money - SAL 264, ff.41-2

FINA IDUnique ID of the page ᵖ	14793
TitleTitel of the book.	Rare Coins in Some Cabinets I have Seen, of our English Money
InstitutionName of Institution.	London, Society of Antiquaries
InventoryInventory number.	264, ff.41-2
AuthorAuthor of the document.	Martin Folkes
Publication dateDate when the publication was issued: day - month - year .
PlacePlace of publication of the book, composition of the document or institution.
Associated personsNames of Persons who are mentioned in the annotation.	James West, John Sharp I, Thomas Granger, Henry Herbert, 9th Earl of Pembroke, Thomas Bryan, John Bettesworth, Thomas Welham, Hugh Howard, Bryan Fairfax, Scroop Egerton
KeywordNumismatic Keywords ᵖ	English , English Collectors , Rarity , British Coins , Collection Price , Saxon
LiteratureReference to literature.	Burnett 2020b, pp. 1649-52, 375, 390, 11061
LanguageLanguage of the correspondence	English
External LinkLink to external information, e.g. Wikpedia ᵖ

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Grand documentOriginal passage from the "Grand document".

'Rare Coins in Some Cabinets I have Seen, of our English Money

Duke of Bridgewater
A Most fine Half Noble of Richard 2^d
An uncommon Angel of Edward 4^th with a Rose & Sun on y^e reverse over y^e arms
Irish Seige peices in Gold with the Penny Weight on them no Legend on any of these Peices in the Silver
Charles the first’s Angel exquisittly fine
Oliver Cromwells 3£ & 50s. peice in Gold
Chester Seige peice half Crown, the King on Horsback with Castrai under the Horse’s feet Scarborough Seige Peice or Colchester, being the rim of a Dish with the Weight being 2s & 6d Stampt on it

M^r Sharps now Mr Archdeacon Dr Sharps Coins
A Crown of Oxford & half Crown of Chester, with Oxford & Chester under the Horse’s feet
A Seige peice in a Square a Castle impres’d on it and the Weight 1sh & 4d
A Waterford groat of Edward 4^th
A Copper farthing, on one Side the Royal Oak on the other a Crown Legend
“The King graces the Poors releif”
Olivers farthing very fair, different from all else I have Seen, on one side his head with this Legend, Oliver Pro; Eng; Scot: Ire: &c [ change 1651 R. the arms on his Shilling &c Legend Convenient
Henry 8^th two pence of a triple thickness on the face side his title on the reverse Side his arms with H.I. i.e. Henry & Jane with Civitas Eboraci this the only 2^d I saw his Queens name upon.
Henry 8^th Crown no larger than a Groat but of Vast thickness & the impress the same as the groat
He has Edward 4^th Penny of A triple thickness
A neat Irish Penny of Henry 7^th with 3 Crowns the same as the groat Ascrib’d to Edw^d 4^th.

Mr Graingers
Edward the Black Prince printed n^o 3 in y^e Antiquary Societys Collection
the half Angel of Edw^d 4^th & George Noble of Henry 8^th
Henry 8^th Double Rose Noble Seemingly in Weight, but Like his Soveraigne
Edw: 6^th Double Rose Noble. his half Quarter Peice in Armour with his Demi Effigies very fine. I fear this was once mine & parted with also his half Crown
A fine Gold peice of James 1^st weight £2: 5s: 1d. A fine Gold Medal of Oliver in Gold, by Symons, the Lyon holding the arms in his Paw.
The Irish halfpenny of Charles the 1^st in Gold very broad.
The Commonwealth farthing in gold of a double thickness.
The Pomfret Shilling in Gold, with Post Mortem Patris.
Spurr Royals of Queen Mary and Elizabeth.
Henry 4^th Groat. Very Rare Peices Silver

Eusteches Penny. Henry 4^th Groat. this is exactly like Richd 2^d & Edw. 3

the Letters Civitas London weight &c. in all respects exactly answering

it in evry Minute Circumstance being the only real groat of Henry 4^th

I Could ever pronounce to be So, it is very well preserved and seems

not to have been Current. Both hoarded from the ….

Legend Henricus: Di: Gra: Rex ang: et Franc: Hib: R. Posui Deum: Civitas London

The half Irish Groat of Henry 7^th with 3 Crowns falsly attributed to Henry 4^th
The halfpenny Irish of Edw^d 4^th with the Star in the Center. a Consecrated peice on one Side the Holy Ghost Like a Dove Legend S^ti Spiritus Gratia assit nobis et vivamus R. a building Supported by an Angel, with 1490 & this Legend – Pax hinc Domini at Omnibus habit-antibus in Ecclesia.
A Most Exquisite fine groat of henry: 8^th the king in a Chair of State, at his feet London neatly wrote.
A very fine Shilling of Edw^d 6 of Double thickness neatly Coin’d.
Elizabeths Irish 12^d & 6^d like Q: Marys with the Single harp.
James the first a beautifull Silver Medal with this date 1602, on one side a Ship
A very fine penny of him with two S S & france & England impaling france alone
A very heavy Silver alliance Medal with the rose & thistel
the Common wealth farthing with Letter round the rim
James 2^d Scotch Six penny peice
the Quarter ½ Crown of Charles the 1^st
the Crown, half Crown & 1 2^nd of the Scarborough Seige peice
the Medals & foreign peice I did not observe
600£ askt for the whole Cabinet

Earl of Pembroke’s
Wigmund Rex a Saxon Gold Peice, the only one I ever saw
Oliver Cromwel 3 broad different from all I ever saw
the Black Prince’s Gold Peice
George Noble of henry 8 & angel of Edward 6t^h
the Noble of henry 4^th & Quarter Spur royal of Edw^d 4^th
Ethelwolf & Hardecanute. 2 Saxon Coins very rare.
Penny of Henry 4^th & Edw^d 4^th of triple thickness
Queen Marys Irish two pence Like her Shilling
A Most beautifull Shilling of Henry 7^th with Henricus Septimius valued at 20 guineas
Perkin Warbeck
Edw^d 4^th Irish Penny, with the Sun in the R.
Edward first Groat
Robtus & Eustachius Oliver & the Common wealth farthing
King Johns Irish farthing. the Scarborough Seige Crown

M^r Brians Coins at S^t Edmondesbury
A Pomfret Seige peice of Carolus 2^nd in gold weighing 23 Shillings
the George noble of Henry 8^th, a Quarter noble of Edwd 3d full weight
A well preserved peice of Hen: 5^th Coin’d in france with Henricus Franciae

Brian Fairfax Esq^r
A Quarter Floren of Edw^d 3. The first Gold Coin.
A fine Spur Royal of Edw^d 4^th & a fine half noble of Edw^d 3^d
A ten Shilling peice of Edward 6^th with the Date 1553 the Legend very particular Lucerna Pedibus &c.
A very beautifull Small mill’d Peice of Q. Elizabeth in Silver a fine Eustaches penny.

In Cambridge Publick Library
two of Henry the 7^th Shillings one has Henric.^s Septim.^s Di: Gra: the other Henric: VII. so there are 3 sorts of them
Edward the 1^st groat, a Penny of an Hen: of a triple thickness on the reverse Villa Calis.

Mr West.
has 2 different \Silver/ Coins of the Black prince Coin’d in Aquitain
Eustachius penny
two gold half Crowns of Edw:^d 6 with the kings head Crown’d, the titles of one of on the arms Side.
A Beautifull Crown of Charles 2.^d 1668 by Symonds with the George in the Center instead of the Starr.
Edw:^d 1^st groat. Henry 7^th Shilling & his Spur Royal.
Aliter Oliver 50s peice in gold, & most fine medals the greatest variety of any gentleman.

Dr Bettesworth Dean of the Arches
Has a groat of hen: 4^th that weighs down a Queen Annes half Crown. R. Villa Caliciae this seems a Quadruple Groat.
he has also Several peices in most excellent preservation, Collected by M^r Welham of D^rs Commons

Mr Hugh Howard Hen: 6^th half Salute. Ric: 3^d half Angel. Q: Marys Half Angel. and the best & greatest Collection of our English kings Coins in Ireland of any whatsoever'

(SAL 264, ff.41-2; Burnett 2020b, pp. 1649-51)

RemarksRemarks regarding the annotation. (en)

'The list is not signed. It is a copy of another document, and is written in the same hand as several of the other items in the same manuscript volume, so we cannot use the handwriting to identify the author. The volume contains a series of papers relating to the Society of Antiquaries, and the list was identified by Woolf as ‘a list of cabinets visited by Stukeley from 1720 to 1730.’ Woolf’s date seems a little early. The biographical details the list contains suggest that it was drawn up in c. 1735, and we know that Bryan Fairfax acquired his quarter-florin of Edward III after 1736 and before 1745. Thus, the list can be dated to 1736–7.
William Stukeley (1687–1765) would fit the dates as author, and he was the first Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, from its foundation in 1718. However, the author of the list seems most interested in the later medieval and early modern coinage, which were not among Stukeley’s principal interests. One might, then, suspect that it was written by someone else. The only other clue to the author is his statement about Thomas Granger’s ‘Edw: 6th ... half Quarter Peice in Armour with his Demi Effigies very fine. I fear this was once mine & parted with.’ However, there is no listing of such rare pieces, and no firm conclusion can be drawn from it.
There might seem to be several other candidates for the author. One possibility is George North, who is recorded as having seen the strange piece with a date 1490, described the list as being in the Granger collection, though only much later, in 1752. North is known to have visited Cambridge, though abortively, in 1744. But the date is perhaps a little early for North. George Vertue also made a list of important English coin collections in 1737/8, but his list is somewhat different.
The most likely candidate is, in fact, Martin Folkes, who was assigned the gold and silver English coinage as part of the 1724 initiative taken by the Society of Antiquaries, and who, when it was abandoned in 1731, embarked on his own publications of English coins. He is known to have consulted the Bettesworth (the same piece) and Cambridge collections,4 and had good access to the Pembroke collection after the Earl’s death in 1733. He also cited Bryan Fairfax’s acquisition after 1736 of the previously unrecorded quarter florin of Edward III.5 Finally, Folkes reported in 1745 that ‘I have seen among what are commonly called the siege pieces, a TWENTY-SHILLING-PIECE of gold, struck at Pontefract.’ ‘Mr. Brian’s’ piece was unique at the time, and for a long time thereafter, so this effectively identifies Folkes as the author of the list. As he was abroad from 1733 to 1735, the list would have been prepared a couple of years after his return.' (Burnett 2020b, p. 1649) (en)