# Archaeologia/Volume 13/Description of an unpublished Gold Coin of King Charles I.

Read Nov. 10, 1796.
Reverend Sir,
PERMIT me through your hands to lay before the Society of Antiquaries a drawing of a gold coin of king Charles I. with some account of it, because I flatter myself it is a very curious and select piece of money, and which, I believe, no writer has ever noticed.
The coin exhibits his majesty's profile crowned with a laced band. The inscription upon the obverse is, carolvs d. g. ma. br. fr. et hi. rex. and behind the head iii.
Upon the reverse is a shield of the royal arms; in the first and ​fourth quarters France and England quarterly; in the second Scotland, and in the third Ireland; the bars of the shield extend to the extremities of the coin, and terminate in ornaments. Round the piece is the king's usual motto upon his silver money. christo avspice regno. Over the shield is in smaller letters ebor, and the mint-mark upon both sides is a lion passant guardant.
This curious piece of money is of very elegant workmanship, and appears to be from a dye of that great artist Briot. Both the letters placed over the shield upon the reverse and the mint-mark evince that it was coined in the city of York; and the numerals iii. behind the king's head, that it was struck for a three Shilling piece.
Snelling, in his view of the silver coin and coinage of England, acquaints us that about the year 1629 there was a mint erected in York, but he supposes that the silver-money, consisting of the penny, half-groat, threepence, groat, sixpence, shilling, half-crown, and crown, were all coined in this city in 1633, or later, and that all these sorts are very common, owing to the quantity of each being great that was issued from this mint.
The same author, speaking of the gold coin of this monarch, says, "There is not so great a variety of the gold money coined by this king as there is of the silver, he having but two mints wherein any gold was coined, which were those in the tower of London and at Oxford." The different kinds of gold money were angels, value ten shillings; the unitie, or twenty shilling piece; the half unitie; double crown, or ten shilling piece; and the British crown, or five shilling piece; besides these he coined at Oxford the treble unitie, or three pound piece. So that there is no money of gold that was coined of less value than the British crown, or five shilling piece, that had come to the knowledge of Mr. Snelling; nor did he know of any gold money coined but in the tower of London, at Oxford, ​and, as he afterwards subjoins, Pontefract, where was struck a unitie, or twenty shilling piece of an octagonal form, like the Pontefract shilling.
It must be remarked that it is not unfrequent in modern times to strike from fine dyes pieces of money in different metals from what they are designed to be made current in; these are given to the friends of such as are favoured by the persons in office in the mint; many cabinets shew this by having such specimens. I should at first have thought this had been struck off from the dye of a silver threepence; especially, as it is exactly like that given in the plates published by this society, had the size been the same; but this drawing shews that it is much larger than the threepence given in those plates. Snelling gives types of the threepences of the York mint very different from this. The motto, which never appears upon any of king Charles I.'s gold coins, is another argument in favour of its not having been a regular coin, but a piece struck from the dyes of a silver threepence. But, as such specimens in other metals are very rarely, if ever, found so far back as this reign, and as the monarch, who struck the piece, the drawing of which I have the honour to lay before the society, coined a far greater variety of money than any other of his predecessors, or successors, I do not see any reason why it should not be looked upon as a real coin, struck in York, of the value of three Shillings. If it is so, it may be pronounced very valuable, as it is, I apprehend, an unique.
All the York coins exhibit the king in armour, otherwise I should have supposed this piece coined after the commencement of the unhappy civil war. King Charles visited York in the years 1633, 1639, and 1642; probably in one of these years it was struck, and as it is of peculiar elegance, though from its smallness difficult to be done justice to in a drawing, it might be for the express ​purpose of being shewn to his majesty whether it was a pattern piece for a three shilling piece, or as a fine type for a threepence.
I purchased this piece in London a few months ago, and having long since disposed of my cabinet of coins and medals, I passed it into the hands of my valuable friend Wilson-Aylesbury Roberts, Esq. F.A.S.