Triton XX, Lot: 1612. Estimate $1500. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IRELAND. Charles II. 1660-1685. Pattern CU Farthing (18mm, 1.92 g, 6h). Armstrong’s coinage. Tower (London) mint; manufactured by Thomas Rawlins. Struck 1660. CAROLVS II D G M B, crown over crossed scepters; quadrate stops / FRA ET HIB REX, crowned harp; quadrate stops. Nelson, Coinage -; cf. D&F 338 (for issue with plumes); SCBI 22 (Copenhagen) –; cf. Grueber, Handbook 103 (same); cf. SCBC 6566 (same). EF, brown proof-like surfaces with hint of underlying luster. Apparently unpublished.

An experienced soldier and ardent Royalist, Colonel Sir Thomas Armstrong, fought for the Crown in Ireland during the Great Rebellion. Imprisoned twice under the Commonwealth Armstrong was rewarded for his loyalty by Charles II following the Restoration in 1660 with a patent to coin farthings for use in Ireland for 21 years. It appears that the dies were prepared by Thomas Rawlins on account of the R evident on the band of the crown on obverse and the use of lozenge stops; both features characteristic of Rawlins’ dies at Oxford during the Civil War. Comparatively few of these farthings appear to have been issued before Armstrong’s death in 1662, partly due to opposition from the Duke of Ormonde, Armstrong’s old comrade in arms. Coins issued for currency tend to be struck on thin flans and all bear the feathers mint mark on the reverse unlike our pattern piece.