Triton XVI, Lot: 1603. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

WINDSOR. Elizabeth II. 1952-present. Full AR Maundy Set. London mint. Dated 1970. All coins: Laureate bust right / Crowned denomination within wreath. Contains five (5) Fourpence, four (4) Threepence, four (4) Twopence, and four (4) Pence. SCBC 4131. Proof.

Ex Classical Numismatic Auctions XX (25 March 1992), lot 1391; McIntire Numismatic Auctions [CSNS Sale] (7 May 1987), lot 1062.

In addition to the two white and one red pouch, this exceptionally interesting lot also includes the receipt of Royal Maundy application, invitation letter to the distribution, admittance ticket, Royal Maundy distribution inventory (with the secretary’s compliments concerning the proceeds), and program for the services at Westminster Abbey, all of which were presented to Mr. R. T. Strickland for the ceremony on 26 March 1970. On the back of the distribution inventory, Mr. Strickland provided the following first-hand account of the proceedings:

The Queen mother (sic) at the 1st distribution shook hands with each recipient and gave us the 1st purse. At the 2nd distribution she spoke to each recipient and asked me what the badge in (sic) my coat was. I told her that it was a Church Lads (sic) Brigade badge and she said that she was very pleased.

The total number of pence included in a Maundy set was determined by the age of the reigning monarch at the time of the distribution. Since Elixabeth II was born in 1926, she would have been 44 years old in 1970, hence the amount of 44 pence. The 1970 distribution was one of only four times during her reign to date that Elizabeth II herself did not perform the ceremony. Since the Queen was in New Zealand at the time for the James Cook bicentenary (along with Prince Charles and Princess Anne), it fell to Elizabeth, the Queen Mother to perform the ceremony. It is also the last distribution before the changeover to decimalisation in 1971.

For more information on the Royal Maundy Service and a listing of the locations where it has been performed since the Queen’s accession in 1952, see http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/RoyalMaundyService/Maundyservice.aspx.