The First Sovereign of Elizabeth I

312, Lot: 28. Estimate $75000. Sold for $110000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TUDOR. Elizabeth I. 1558-1603. AV Sovereign (44mm, 15.44 g, 8h). First issue, fine gold coinage. Tower mint; im: lis. Struck 1559-1560. (lis) ELIZABETH : D’ · G’ · ANG’ · : FRA’ · Z : HIB ‘ : REGINA :, Elizabeth enthroned facing, holding lis-tipped scepter in left hand, globus cruciger in right; portcullis (with no chains) below / (lis) · A : DNO’ · FACTV’ · EST · ISTV’ · Z : EST : MIRA’ · IN : OCVL’ · NRIS’, royal shield in center of Tudor rose. Brown & Comber A1 (this coin referenced and illustrated); Schneider 729 (same rev. die); North 1978; SCBC 2511. EF, insignificant striking crack on edge at 5 o'clock on obverse. A superb coin, well struck on a broad, well-rounded flan. Extremely rare, probably the finest of only seven known, with two in museum collections (Ashmolean and BM).

From the Clearwater Collection. Ex Spink 208 (22 June 2011), lot 664; privately purchased from Spink, June 1983; Richard Cyrill Lockett Collection (English Part II, Glendining, 11 October 1956), lot 1948.

The first issue sovereigns of Elizabeth I bear a depiction of the young Queen similar to the austere portraiture of her sister Mary on her own sovereigns