Extremely Rare Type IV Gold Noble of Henry IV

Henry IV (1399-1413), gold Noble of Six Shillings and Eight Pence, light coinage (1412-13), Tower Mint London, type IV, King standing in ship with upright sword and shield, three lis in upper left quarter of shield, pellet on rudder, trefoil on hull, legend and beaded border surrounding both sides, saltire stops, hEn RICx DIx GRAx REX 'ANGLxx Zxx FRAC’x DnSxx hIBx Z AQ', rev. h at centre of cross with ornamental lis terminals, lions in angles, trefoil behind lion in second quarter, all within linear and beaded tressure of eight arcs, fleurs in spandrels, double saltire stops in legend surrounding, +IhCxx AVTEmxx TRAnSIEnSxx PERxx mEDIVxx ILLORVmxx IBAT, weight 7.69g (Schneider 201; N.1355; S.1715). Weakly struck on castles of ship and King's head, otherwise a full coin, with clearest pellet on the rudder of the three known examples, about very fine and extremely rare.

The reign of Henry IV though relatively short at some 14 years shows quite sporadic outputs of gold coinage at the Mint. The very rare heavier coinage gold is produced earlier in the reign, the first couple of years producing some £22,000 worth with succeeding years much smaller to as little as some £1,500 worth in 1403-04. To encourage more metal to flow into the mint for coinage the weights of the Noble and its fractions was adjusted probably from Easter 1412 to a new lighter weight which kick-started minting again to a much higher degree, calling in the older heavier standard weight pieces to be recoined at the new light weight, and any left in circulation no doubt to become the victim of clipping down to the lighter weight standard. Some £288,000 worth of the light coinage gold was produced towards the end of the reign of Henry IV and are so identified by the presence of a trefoil on the hull and three lis in the upper left quarter of the King’s shield. The type IV of the light coinage is further defined by the pellet on the rudder of the ship. Such privy marks are there to no doubt show what accounting period and/or workers the coinages belong to, and this type is thought to be the last of the reign.

Provenance:
Ex Spink Coin Auction, 28th September 2005, lot 1372.
Ex A. H. Baldwin, Fixed Price List, Winter 2011, item BH007.