13773

Great Britain. King Edward VIII brass threepence 1937. Peck-2366, list King Edward VIII brass threep

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:40,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Great Britain. King Edward VIII brass threepence 1937. Peck-2366, list King Edward VIII brass threep
<B>King Edward VIII brass threepence 1937.</B></I> Peck-2366, listed as Probably Unique. Choice Matte Proof. One of the greatest of all modern British coin rarities, struck for the abdicated Edward VIII, who gave up the throne for love and married the American Wallace Simpson; thereafter the pair became international celebrities and called themselves The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. This pattern is so ultra rare that, much as he tried, the Duke never managed to obtain a specimen for his own pleasure. <BR> In addition to its great rarity, this piece is also a fascinating die-combination, featuring the stark left-facing portrait of the king on the obverse engraved by T.H. Paget (signed "H.P."). This is mated with a reverse design modified by Percy Metcalfe after sketches originally submitted in June 1936 by Miss Frances Madge Kitchener (niece of military hero Lord Kitchener). Her conception for the coin, introduced as a type in this pattern, was for a sideways-appearing trio of thrift (thistle plant) flowers atop curling tendrils. Two models of this were prepared in 1936 but abandoned as overly ornate, in favor of a less realistic or more deco-styled image of the plant, but showing fuller flowers, which was finally adopted for the brass coinage of George VI later in 1937 (see Peck-2371 as well as illustrations on Plate G of Graham Dyer's monograph <I>The proposed coinage of King Edward VIII, </B></I> published in 1973 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London). The edge is plain and polygonal (12 sides), with a raised and squared-off set of rims. The purpose of this proposed coin was for use in transport (as bus fare), and the idea for the reverse motif surely had been borrowed from the 1928 Irish Free State coinages which introduced the use of "native flora and fauna" for reverse designs in place of the traditional royal insignia; and in subsequent commercial versions the coin proved popular, useful and durable. <BR> Here then is the prototype for this then-new coinage, the final version of the brass pattern struck in tiny numbers for King Edward VIII but abandoned at his abdication. Exceedingly rare! As well, this extraordinary coin is not the usual frosted 'bright brass' version but an even rarer Matte Proof (and, as Peck noted, "probably unique" as such). A major collecting opportunity to own the rarest of the rare, a coin which belongs in a museum as it is <I>a national treasure.</B></I>