396, Lot: 661. Estimate $500. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TUDOR. Henry VII. 1485-1509. AR Groat (24.5mm, 2.63 g, 2h). Facing bust issue, class IIa(/Ib mule?). Tower (London) mint. Struck 1489. Crowned facing bust; broken quatrefoils flanking neck / Long cross pattée, with trefoil in each quarter. Cf. Potter & Winstanley type IIa, pl. XX, 1 (same rev. die); cf. SCBI 23 (Ashmolean), 175 (same rev. die); Stewartby p.435, IIA/IB (see p. 387 and 389 for discussion); cf. North 1704; cf. SCBC 2195. VF, toned. Very rare.

The nature of this rare variety remains uncertain. Potter & Winstanley accept it as an early variety of Class IIa, while Stewartby suggests it is Class IIa/Ib mule, on the strength of an extremely rare late Class Ib groat with star stops on the obverse. No examples of Class Ib are known with stars stops on the reverse, and none of the known specimens depict ‘broken quatrefoils’ flanking the neck.