The Ian Gordon Collection of Coins of Charles I and the Civil War

CNG 90, Lot: 2516. Estimate $2500. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

STUART. Charles I. 1625-1649. AV Unite (34mm, 9.11 g, 11h). Group A, class II. Tower (London) mint; im: lis. Struck 1625. · CAROLVS D’ · G’ · MAG’ · BR’ · FR’ · ET HI’ · REX ·, bust 1 left, crowned and mantled; XX to right / FLORENT CONCORDIA REGNA, crowned and garnished coat-of-arms. Cf. Brooker 22-5 (for type); Schneider 112/116 corr. (same obv./rev. die); North 2146; SCBC 2685. VF, struck on a slightly wavy flan.

From the Ian Gordon Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group 69 (8 June 2005), lot 2152.

Although it appears as an amorphous blob, Schneider lists the initial mark on the reverse of coin 116 as a cross cavalry (which is clearly on the coin's obverse). A comparison with the present coin, though, reveals that the reverses of both coins were struck from the same reverse die. Thus, the initial mark on the reverse of Schneider 116 must be a lis, but perhaps a bungled attempt had been made to change the die over to the new mark.

Introduction to the Ian Gordon Collection

Ian Gordon is the president of the Longwave Group, an investment advisory company that provides strategic advice to institutional and retail clients based on Ian’s Longwave Principle, which he developed from the Kondratiev wave economic cycle.

Ian was born in India during the Second World War. His father was the commanding officer of an Indian Army infantry battalion and his mother was the daughter of a Brigadier in the Royal Artillery. After the War the family returned to the United Kingdom. Ian’s interest in history, and particularly military history, was thus fostered from a very early age. In 1961 Ian followed in his father and two older brothers’ footsteps and entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. At Sandhurst one of the compulsory academic subjects was the study of military history. Incorporated within that curriculum was a study of the English Civil War. Ian continued to study this period in British history and from that study was inspired to build a coin collection based on this very interesting numismatic period. The resulting collection, more than 12 years in the making, is evidenced in this sale.

The collection is arranged herein by mint (organized as in SCBC), then date, and finally denomination. It commences with an impressive run of the various denominations struck at the Tower mint during the reign of Charles I (1625-49) both prior to and after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. Charles’s Scottish coinage is also represented, as are some of the emergency issues struck during the Great Rebellion in Ireland. Among the many coins in the collection from the Royalist mints of the Civil War, the magnificent Triple Unite struck in Oxford in 1644 (Lot 2588), which has a pedigree reaching back to the celebrated Rashleigh sale in 1909, is of particular note. A desirable group of siege issues includes a very rare Carlisle Shilling of 1645 (Lot 2611), and two Pontefract Shillings struck in the name of Charles II after the execution of Charles I (Lots 2619 and 2620). The collection culminates with coins of the Commonwealth (1649-60) including those in the name of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.