Search


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services



Research Coins: The Coin Shop

 

Newark Under Siege

498111. Sold For $3500

STUART, Siege money. Newark. 1625-1649. AR Halfcrown (29mm, 15.05 g, 12h). Dated 1646. Large crown; C R across field, XXX (mark of value) below / OBS: / NEWARK / I646. Brooker 1222 (same dies); Hird 246; North 2638; SCBC 3140A. Good VF, attractively toned, minor flaw at edge on obverse. Well struck.


During the English Civil Wars of 1642-1651, the countryside of the English Midlands and West tended to side with King Charles I, while the wealthy “cathedral cities” tended to support the Parliamentarians. Newark-on-Trent, located in the East Midlands, was a vital nexus of Royalist control and, along with Oxford, represented dual salients into Parliamentarian-controlled territory in eastern England during the early phase of the first Civil War, 1642-1646. It was the target of Parliamentary sieges in 1642/3, 1643/4 and, finally, 1645/6, when the famous siege coinage was struck on cut up pieces of silver plate. Newark held out against the Parliamentarian armies until May 1646, when Charles surrendered himself at Southwell.