Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1991. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Edward IV. First reign, 1461-1470. AR Halfgroat (1.39 gm). Light coinage, class Va/VII mule, 1466-1467. Canterbury mint. Crowned facing bust in tressure of arches; knot below bust, fleurs on cusps, nothing in fields; initial mark: pall / Long cross pattée, trefoils in angles; no spurs, no initial mark. Blunt & Whitton pg. 166 (obv.)/pg. 168 (rev.); cf. North 1590; cf. SCBC 2025. Lightly toned VF, typical flat spots. Unpublished mule. ($150)

This interesting coin is an unpublished mule of Edward IV. Blunt & Whitton's comprehensive study of Edward's coinage notes that the class VII issues are the last phase of the ecclesiastical coinage at Canterbury, and mark a transition to the royal coinage that began subseqently. During Edward's time, the coins of the ecclesiastical mint were struck under Archbishop Bourchier, who placed a personal mark on each side of the coins: the knot on the obverse and a "spur" in one or more quadrants of the reverse. The class VII coinages omit either of these, and thus the side of the coins still retaining the Archbishop's mark are struck from dies of earlier classes. Until now, only a class VIb obverse is known with a class VII reverse (which has no spur). The present specimen, with a class Va obverse, is a new mule and is significant, as the class Va obverse occurs early in the light coinage, with an end date at least a year before the class VII dies appear.