Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 2503. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PLANTAGENET. Richard II. 1377-1399. AR Groat (6.59 g, 3h). Type II/I mule. London mint. Struck circa 1382-1391. Crowned facing bust in tressure of arches; three pellets above / Long cross; trefoils in quarters, small M (type M1) in legends. Potter Type II(a), dies 1/IF and pl. XIX, 3 (this coin); North 1320b/1320a; SCBC 1679/1678. VF, toned, various marks under tone. Extremely rare.

From the Andrew Wayne Collection. Ex Dix, Noonan, Webb 63 (7 October 2004), lot 233; Spink 63 (28 March 1988), lot 317; W.J.W. Potter Collection; Richard Cyril Lockett Collection (Glendining, 11 October 1956), lot 1345.

Potter noted only one obverse die with the pellets above the bust, and determined that it constituted the earliest die of Type II. At the time of his article, Potter noted only eight coins struck from this die, three of which were mules with reverse dies of Type I. This coin is one of these three, and served as his illustration (pl. XIX, 3). The marks on the coin appear to have been intentionally placed on the obverse, and directed at the portrait – probably by one of the many who despised this king.