Superb Slaney Noble
PLANTAGENET. Edward III. 1327-1377. AV Noble (35mm, 7.70 g, 4h). Fourth coinage, Treaty period. Calais mint. Struck 1361-1369. ЄD WΛRD : DЄI : GRΛ : RЄX : ΛnL: DnS : hУB · (retrograde Z) · ΛQ T’ (trefoi and double saltire stops), Edward standing facing in ship, holding sword and shield; ornaments -11-11, ropes 3/2, quatrefoils 4/4, lis 4; flag at stern / + IhC : ΛVTЄm : TRΛNSIЄNS : PЄR : mЄDIV : ILLORVm : IBAT, voided short cross potent over cross fleurée; in each angle, crown over lion passant over voided trefoil; at center, C within quadrilobe; all within polylobe, with trefoils in spandrels. Lawrence 3; Schneider 96; North 1235; SCBC 1504. In NGC encapsulation 6532184-001, graded MS 64+. Well struck on a full round flan. Lustrous and much as made. Very rare thus.
Ex Slaney Collection (Part II, Spink 229, 14 May 2015), lot 286, purchased Baldwin 1946.
At the Treaty of Bretigny, ratified in October 1360, Edward III renounced his claim to the throne of France in return for recognition of his right to rule a host French territories without doing homage for them. A new coinage was ordered for the Tower mint of London and the recently opened mint at Calais to reflect the change in the king’s titles and also to convert the huge quantities of gold paid by the French as a ransom for their king, Jean II, captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.
Edward’s new ‘Treaty period’ coinage, in the words of Potter ‘undoubtedly represents the highest level of workmanship reached during the reign.’ The gold in particular, struck from deeply engraved dies of excellent style, ‘was as perfect as technical skill could care to make it.’
The Calais Treaty period Noble offered here hails from the exceptional Slaney collection, formed in the 1940s and 50s and sold in 2003 and 2015 and undoubtedly the finest cabinet of English coins to be offered for sale this century. The coin is heavier, of fresher dies and has more luster than the example of the same type offered by Heritage in their January 2023 NYINC sale, graded PCGS MS 65, and which hammered for $35,000. Indeed we see little difference in quality to the NGC MS 67 specimen which hammered for 50,000 euros in the MDC sale of June 2021.
