Two Choice Hardi d’or of the Black Prince

Triton XXII, Lot: 1406. Estimate $15000. Sold for $19000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PLANTAGENET (ANGLO-GALLIC). Edward the Black Prince. As Prince of Aquitaine, 1362-1372. AV Hardi d'or – Guyennois (27mm, 4.01 g, 6h). Bordeaux mint. Struck circa 1368–1371/2. + ЄD’ · PO · GnS · RЄGIS · ΛnGLIЄ · PnS · ΛQITΛNIЄ (rosette stops), half-length figure of Edward facing, wearing plain diadem, holding sword in left hand and pointing at it with his right, within tressure of arches / + : ΛVXILIVm · mЄVm · Λ · DOmInO · B : (rosette stops within), cross quernée, with quatrefoil at center; leopards and lis alternating in angles; all within tressure of arches. AGC 178, 3/a; Elias 161; Elias Collection 250 var. (obv. legend); Schneider 60 var. (same); Duplessy, Féodales 1122; Poey d'Avant 2940; SCBC 8128. In NGC encapsulation, 4833043-001, graded MS 64. Superb portrait. Rare.

Humphrey Sutherland praised the restraint and foresight of the unknown master who designed this type, who "in age when sumptuous decoration of all redundant space was the normal fashion, was content - and dared - to leave the field totally devoid of ornament within its encircling tressure. By this means he concentrated upon this larger and more personal portrait, so lifelike in its almost voluptuous forms, an emphasis which the Italian artists themselves were only just beginning to estimate and enjoy.” Art In Coinage, p. 154.