LOT Heritage Rare Coin Galleries  /  2007 Jan New York World Coin Auction #425  / 

51609

Elizabeth I (1558-1603) gold Pound. S-2534. N-2008. 5th

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) gold Pound. S-2534. N-2008. 5th
<B>Elizabeth I (1558-1603) gold Pound.</B></I> S-2534. N-2008. 5th issue. 3rd gold issue. Woolpack mm, #123 (unusually placed to left of the portrait), struck 1594-96 at London. Annulet reverse stops. This is an <I>extraordinarily beautiful</B></I> example of one of the finest of all Elizabethan coinages! Virtually Mint State, just light wear (mostly rubbing from being in collector cabinets over the centuries, although the coin shows evidence of having circulated as money, too). As our color photos illustrate, the planchet or flan is round and fully formed, if a little wavy (not to be unexpected in gold of this era). We cannot truly show the warmly glowing, soft mint luster, which is like a thick frost on grass on this wonderful coin, but we can show the phenomenal engraving details--about as fine as this cataloguer has ever seen on one of these Pounds. Museum collections do not have coins of much better quality than this, not even the best cabinets given to public collections. In an ideal world, one could hope for a tad more crispness of strike, to achieve perfection in such a coin, but realistically this has to be among the finest known examples of this plentifully struck but mostly long-gone, highly artistic coinage of the English Renaissance. Sadly, of the considerable mintage over a period of years, almost all have been lost or melted for later coins. A search through the plates and details of the coins from the marvelous Schneider Collection reference book (by Peter Woodhead) reveals some interesting information about this coin. In style it is much like Schneider #799 (plate 73), with woolpack mm placed to the right of the crown, but the portraiture style seems finer on the presently offered coin than on any of the Schneider specimens. That is quite a statement, considering the quality of the Schneider Collection. As well, the leopards on the shield on this coin are more elongated than on most pieces of this period, suggesting that this was engraved, by a true master engraving artist, late in the reign, perhaps even on the eve of Elizabeth's death, in 1603 at age 70. Here indeed is a masterpiece from the very end of the Tudor Age.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coin/Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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