Classic Anglo-Saxon Coin Art Featured in Tyrant Collection

Feb 7, 2018 | Announcements, Shows & Conventions

(Long Beach, California) February 7, 2018 — Among the numismatic treasures that will be featured in the upcoming inaugural exhibit of rarities from the privately owned Tyrant Collection (www.TheTyrantCollection.com) will be the first public displays in the United States of some of England’s most important Anglo-Saxon era coins.

Veteran professional numismatist and English coinage specialist Bruce Lorich, on behalf of the Tyrant Collection’s anonymous owner, has cataloged the more than 500 “Tyrants of the Thames” exhibit coins to be displayed at the Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo (www.LongBeachExpo.com) in Long Beach, California, February 22-24, 2018. This is the second in a series of four articles by him about the historical significance of some of the coins in that unprecedented exhibition.

The Importance of England’s Anglo-Saxon Coinage

Rome’s invasion of the Britons’ island in the first century BC clearly influenced England’s early money. Mixing in use with the coins of the earliest known inhabitants of the island, the Celts, the Roman money was a blend of coins imported from Rome and copies made by local die-cutters. Some were silver. A few were gold. Most were copper. They were slowly absorbed into the circulating money in various areas of the island.

Early England consisted of regions even then called kingdoms, but these were small, essentially tribal enclaves. Largely to protect themselves from these warlord kings, the Romans put up forbidding stone and wood forts. To say the least, early Britain was a hostile place. The Romans eventually tired of trying to dominate the native inhabitants. By the early 5th century, Rome began to pull out of the island, and at the same time tribal kings began to expand their territories.

The island’s indigenous people were invaded again and again over centuries by tribal warriors whose origins were such northwestern European places as Jutland (in today’s Denmark) and ancient Saxony (Germanic tribes living along the North Sea). Gauls came from the northern coast of today’s France. Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to emigrate to Briton in the 5th century. Their bloodlines merged and they began to be called Anglo-Saxons in the 8th century. During these centuries Norse invaders also came many times to the island, mixing their Viking genes with those of earlier invaders and of ancient native Britons.

In the 7th century the scattered kingdoms began issuing their own coins, mostly small pieces, often borrowing Roman designs, but they displayed legends in their own Runic alphabet. They also featured Christian symbols, mostly crosses of varying styles. Over time, the Roman coins disappeared from circulation and were steadily replaced by these little silver coins (which had sizable copper content) called “sceats.” These were all of local artistry and local issue. They appeared independent of each other in the various kingdoms of the island.

The late 7th and early 8th centuries in England were the era of the Saxon sceats, and the Tyrant Collection contains a representative selection of all the kingly issues, from Aethelred, King of Mercia, circa 674-704 AD, to Osberht, King of Northumbria, circa 848-867 AD. Dozens of types exist, many anonymous, lacking any king’s name. After a little more than a century as the principal money of the island, these small coins featuring “fantastic animals” and sometimes abbreviated names of early kings and archbishops were gradually replaced by a complicated series of larger coins of better silver that depicted chieftains and their titles scattered among the island’s kingdoms.

Some of the early English coins, however, were made from locally mined ore containing gold blended with silver and other trace metals. The most impressive of these are called “thrysmas” by today’s collectors, but originally they were known as “shillings.” They began to be minted about 620 AD. Perhaps the most notable of these first gold coins, not of Roman origin, was issued by King Eadbald of Kent, south of London. It was struck in the capital city circa 616-640 AD. It shows a crudely engraved image of the king in armor facing to the right. On the opposite side is a central cross atop a globe, surrounded by a boldly engraved legend outside a beaded ring. This was the first coin ever minted in the name of an English king.

One of the most significant coins in the Tyrant Collection is in fact a gold thrysma of King Eadbald. It is possibly the finest known example of this extremely rare coin and its existence illustrates an historical truth. It was made within two or three decades of another early rarity in the collection, a “Two Emperors” pale-gold thrysma styled after a Roman gold solidus of Magnus Maximus; this coin shows a helmeted portrait of an unnamed king, the other side featuring a winged angel above small images of two emperors. The co-existence of these two coins demonstrates the evolution of Anglo-Saxon coinage art occurring at this time.

Graded PCGS MS64, this early 7th-century gold Thrysma of King Eadbald of Kent, the first English coin with the image and name of the issuing king, is among the highlights of the Tyrants of the Thames display at the February 2018 Long Beach Expo. Photo credit: Professional Coin Grading Service.

While these two coins were made from native ore containing some gold, the precious metal was rarely found in native Briton. Silver and copper naturally alloyed with tin were the coinage metals most abundant on the island. Silver coins of relatively small value soon became the dominant form of money. They were most useful for daily life.

Anglo-Saxon silver “pennies” were minted in various kingdoms over a period of some four centuries until they too were superseded by similar silver pennies issued by the Norman conquerors. Anglo-Saxon pennies got their name from Roman silver coins of a similar size called “denarii.” Early pennies were the forerunners of modern English “pence,” which traditionally were noted in writing using the letter “d,” alluding to the old Roman denarii. Hence the abbreviation “1d” for a silver penny.

A silver “light” penny of Offa, King of Mercia, 757-796 AD, graded PCGS AU58 and part of The Tyrant Collection. Photo credit: Professional Coin Grading service.

The Tyrant Collection contains examples of many of the kings of the 8th and 9th centuries who issued coins. Featured pieces include exceptionally fine portrait pennies from the kingdom of Mercia issued by Offa, Coenwulf, Coelwulf, Beornwulf and Burgred. The kings of Wessex, beginning with Ecgberht in the early 9th century, are exceptionally well represented, one of the most important being an astounding portrait coin of Alfred the Great showing the monogram of London on its reverse side-celebrating the invasion and capture of the capital city in the year 886, which in effect unified the kingdoms. Finally, the coins of unified England during the late Anglo-Saxon era are especially well represented, including coins of Edward the Martyr, Aethelred II, Edward the Confessor, and Harold II, who was killed at the definitive Battle of Hastings in 1066.

A silver penny with diademed “Roman style” portrait and LONDONIA monogram depicting Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, 871-899 AD, graded PCGS MS62, and part of The Tyrant Collection. Photo credit: Professional Coin Grading Service.

In all, the Tyrant Collection offers a wonderful assortment of Anglo-Saxon symbolism and superb portraits of kings on coins that are seldom available for viewing in America. These artistic expressions of the early inhabitants of England are most often seen in museums in Europe and the UK, the remainder being held in private collections that are never exhibited. Now, for a brief time, the public has a rare opportunity to examine these coinage classics in person.

All of these coins will be on display in the Tyrants of the Thames exhibition at the February 2018 Long Beach Expo. The one-of-a-kind exhibit is being presented by The Tyrant Collection’s anonymous owner with the assistance of Ira and Larry Goldberg Coin & Collectibles of Los Angeles.

First USA Display of Rare Edward III Gold Double Leopard, One of England’s Most Important Coins

Jan 29, 2018 | Announcements, Shows & Conventions

(Long Beach, California) January 29, 2018 – The upcoming inaugural exhibit of rarities from the privately owned Tyrant Collection of coins (www.TheTyrantCollection.com) will include the first public displays in the United States of some of England’s most important numismatic treasures. Among the historic items will be one of the three known Edward III gold “Double Leopard” coins. The other two examples are in museums.

Veteran professional numismatist and English coinage specialist Bruce Lorich, on behalf of the Tyrant Collection’s anonymous owner, has cataloged the more than 500 “Tyrants of the Thames” coins to be displayed at the Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo (www.LongBeachExpo.com) in Long Beach, California, February 22-24, 2018. This is the first in a series of several articles by him about the historical significance of some of the coins in that unprecedented exhibition.

King Edward III’s exceedingly rare gold Double Leopard

With only three known, the Edward III, Plantagenet King (1327 – 1377), gold Double Leopard, S-1476, third coinage (1344 – 1351), is perhaps the most important English coin in The Tyrant Collection. The coin in The Tyrant Collection is graded PCGS MS-62.

King Edward III was a widely admired knight who was also feared by his enemies as a bold military commander. Much of his reign took place during the Hundred Years War with France, and by 1340 Edward had declared himself also king of France. This was outrageous to the French, and the war continued until it was ended in 1360 by treaty.

Meantime, Edward ruled over a rich country at a time when chivalry was at its height. He held jousting and other tournaments, and he founded the Order of the Garter in the same year this coin was minted, 1344. This chivalric order was officially instituted in 1348, its membership limited to the king and just 24 knights. Its inspiration was the mythical Round Table of King Arthur, at which 300 knights sat with their king, reigning over and protecting England.

The Edward III Double Leopard is one of the earliest gold coins made in England, and today only three examples are known. Two are in museums in England, and the coin that will be displayed in Long Beach and in the United States for the first time is the only example in a private collection.

It is a large gold coin which was worth 6 shillings at issue. Twelve silver pennies equaled a shilling. Most people at the time worked for pennies a week, at best.

No gold coins had been minted in England since the 7th century, except for a pattern penny made for Henry III at the end of the 13th century. The renewed gold coinage of Edward III occurred only briefly from January to August in 1344. It suddenly stopped because of a fiscal crisis involving fluctuating values of silver versus gold, which caused hoarding and a consequent shortage of money in use, as well as melting of gold.

Edward III’s first gold coins consisted of three denominations: a half-florin featuring a royal helmet with a crowned lion standing on it; a florin of twice that size showing a crowned sideways-facing leopard holding the king’s royal shield on its back (from which its present name of “leopard” was derived); and a double-florin twice as large as the florin depicting the king seated and crowned with two facing leopards at his sides (popularly called the “Double Leopard”).

These pieces of money had enormous face value, especially the double-leopard, intended mainly for trade with countries on the continent of Europe.

The leopard was this king’s armorial animal; it was placed on his “arms” or official shield standing sideways, one paw raised with its head facing the viewer, growling, and it was also used on armor. The effigy of the king’s famous son, Edward the Black Prince, entombed in Canterbury Cathedral, is depicted wearing armor showing several leopards, and his head rests on a crowned leopard.

For centuries, silver coins were the only money used in England. These three coins, minted in nearly pure gold, were made for only a few months in 1344, but they failed in their intended use, and almost all known examples of all three denominations were melted during the 14th century. They were replaced beginning at the end of the same year they were made, 1344, with a new series called the Noble and its fractions. These coins became the standard issues for many years afterward, succeeding because their values equated with those of coins made in France and elsewhere in Europe.

The Tyrants of the Thames exhibition at the February 2018 Long Beach Expo is being presented by The Tyrant Collection’s anonymous owner with the assistance of Ira and Larry Goldberg Coin & Collectibles of Los Angeles.

Ship of Gold Exhibit Will Feature $40 Million Of “New Cargo” Gold-Rush Treasures In Long Beach

Jan 29, 2018 | Announcements, Shows & Conventions

First public exhibit of latest recovered glittering trove from fabled SS Central America will be at Feb. 22-24, 2018 Long Beach Expo

One of the 3,100 recovered gold coins from the SS Central America

This will be the first public display of a portion of the historic gold and silver coins, gold ingots and unopened sacks of treasure gold dust recovered during the 2014 expedition to the Atlantic Ocean site where the Gold Rush-era cargo was lost at sea 161 years ago. The California Gold Marketing Group LLC acquired the never-before-publicly exhibited treasure in a court-approved transaction this past November, and will be publicly displaying the legendary trove for the first time.

“The story of the SS Central America, its cargo, its lost passengers and crew and its survivors is a historic moment in American history, and the recovered items are a time capsule of the great California Gold Rush,” said Dwight Manley, managing partner of the California Gold Marketing Group. “For insurance purposes, we’ve estimated the display’s value at $40 million, but these extraordinary treasures are priceless.”

A 280-foot long, three-masted side-wheel steamship, the SS Central America was carrying tons of California gold that had been shipped from San Francisco to Panama when she sank in a hurricane during a voyage from Aspinwall (now Colón), Panama to New York City in September 1857. The shipwreck site and the gold were discovered more than 7,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in September 1988.

Housed in a 40-foot long re-creation of the famous ship’s hull, the Ship of Gold exhibit originally debuted at the February 2000 Long Beach Expo to display a portion of the vast treasure from the first SS Central America recovery operations in the late 1980s. The exhibit subsequently was seen over the years by millions of people across the United States and overseas.

A few of the 45 gold ingots found on the SS Central America

“The exhibit also includes a type of historic SS Central America items never before displayed: leather satchels filled with more than 1,000 ounces of 1857 California gold dust that were recovered from a safe on the sunken ship!,” exclaimed Manley. The gold dust is contained in the original pokes, hand-sewn sacks that remained sealed since 1857 or earlier.

“This is truly an international discovery. In addition to all the United States coins, the trove includes many coins from around the world, including two Australian gold sovereigns struck in Sydney in 1855 and 1856, and both are the finest known. There also are gold coins from France, including a Napoleon 20 francs, British gold sovereigns of Queen Victoria, Mexican eight escudos, Netherlands ducats, Dutch guldens and Peruvian gold, too,” said Manley.

Robert D. Evans, the chief scientist on the 1980’s mission that first located and recovered a portion of the fabulous sunken treasure and who assisted with the 2014 recovery, will be at the exhibit each day during the show to meet with visitors.

On January 9, 2018, the California Gold Marketing Group received court approval and formally took possession of the treasure recovered from the SS Central America in 2014. It had already been transported from Florida to the Professional Coin Grading Service headquarters in California, but remained in 38 unopened containers that were sealed in June 2014.

Manley and Evans promptly began opening the sealed containers on January 10, and started the careful process of examining, curating and cataloging the trove, one historic piece of treasure at a time.

The three-day Long Beach Expo will be open to the public, Thursday to Saturday, February 22-24, in the Long Beach, California Convention Center, 100 S. Pine Ave.