The first reference I have found to a mint in England is a coin of the Catuvellani Celtic tribe around
AD 40 just as the Romans were arriving. A gold coin has the letters CAMVL Camulodunum that we
now know as Colchester.January 2008.
Next club meeting Monday 2nd February 2009.
We will try to have the lots displayed by 7.l0pm and start the auction just before 8pm in order to be completed by l0pm. Please give the committee members time to put out the lots before charging in!
All members will be given a bid number, you must sign in to be assigned a bid number. Please pick up your paddle bid card prior to the start of the auction.
Finally, while some of the lots have been graded it is still up to prospective purchasers to verify the grading description is to their satisfaction prior to bidding, There will be no returns other than postal lots or coins that are subsequently shown not to be genuine.
Dealer's tables will not be allowed until after the auction and only if time permits.
January meeting.
This meeting was devoted to short talks by members and to award the Mark Myhill memorial shield. Five talks were given.
John Quinn spoke on photographing his collection and making it accessible from a computer. The aim was to be able to see an image of any coin at the touch of a button. Ultimately, this would be a ‘wireless’ facility, enabling the condition of any prospective purchase to be compared with the current version in the collection, by viewing the images on a portable computer.
All the photographs were digitally stored using compression. The image size was 1600X800, and both obverse and reverse were pictured together. The average amount of storage for an image was 375KB. “Tabular Data Control” software was used to handle the display of the images and other pertinent data, eg. Mintages, estimated values, type etc… .
An example can be seen by clicking here entering 1967 in the box and clicking the filter key.
Tony Martin gave a talk on “Some Interesting Provenance Initial and Mintmarks of the last 2000 years”.
The first reference I have found to a mint in England is a coin of the Catuvellani Celtic tribe around
AD 40 just as the Romans were arriving. A gold coin has the letters CAMVL Camulodunum that we
now know as Colchester.
It wasn't until the later Roman period when Carausius took over England and set up a mint in London with the ML mm and later rulers used PL, PLN and PLON.
In later Saxon times the silver pennies in York had an annulet 
in one quarter of the reverse. I
have no explanation why.
Moving on to Edward II pennies of Durham, pennies struck by Bishop Kellawe used a crosier 
as part of the reverse cross. These types of mark were expanded during the first coinage of
Edward III. Coins from Durham now had a small crown 
in the centre of the reverse, York a quatrefoil,
Berwick a bear's head in one quarter and Reading an escallop 
in the second quarter. The club badge.
Pennies of Henry V have a number of different marks each side of the bust. They include mullets,
not the fish but a star, annulets , whole or broken, trefoil 44 and crown. These were used to
identify the various issues for control purposes
In the reign of Henry VI this system was expanded by using annulets but also, roses, 
mascles,
leaves 
and pinecones. 
During the reign of Edward
IV a number of provincial mints were opened.
Coins from these mint bore on the kings breast an E for York, N for Norwich, C for Coventry and b for
Bristol.
During Richards III short reign a boars head 
was used as the mintmark, which was the personal
badge of the king.
An interesting mm was used for very short time during the reign of Henry VIII when his one
and only son were born. This was a sunburst 
to show his joy on having a son. This could be
called the first English commemorative coin. Also Henry on some of his gold coins shows the initials
of some of his wives, K for Katharine of Aragon, A for Anne Boleyn and J for Jane Seymour. Cardinal
Wolsey had the right to strike coins at York. He put the Cardinals hat under the king's
bust. 
Posthumous coin was struck at Bristol and they have the initials of the mint master. WS for
William Sharrington 
and later TC for Thomas Chamberlain 
Some of the poor quality shillings of Edward VI were struck in Durham house in the strand, London by John Bowes with the mm BOW.
Base shillings of the second period coinage that were still in circulation when Elizabeth succeed and were stamped with a portcullis valued at four pence halfpence and 3rd period shillings with a seated grey hound at two pence farthing.
During the reign of James I a comparatively large amount of silver was mined in Wales and
coins were struck with the plume 
over the reverse shield. This continued into the reign of Charles I.
An interesting mark is the during Charles reign is the Negros head, formerly called a
blackamores head. 
Due to the civil war many interesting marks were used. At Aberystwyth Mint Thomas Bushel used
an open book 
as the mm to show that his accounts were available for all to see.
The mm (P) in brackets was used during the occupation of the tower mint by parliament. 
Bristol mint coins have BR monogram and oxford coins have OX. The crown by Rawlins has a
superb view of the city under the horseman
Chester mint has three gerbs, wheat 
Early milled coins have many marks. The first are some of the Charles I crowns showing arose 35 This may indicate that the silver was mined in the SW England
The most popular marks are the elephant or elephant & castle. Unfortunately they are all rare. The EIC also used their initials on some gold.
The great recoinage of William III gives us silver half-crown, shillings and sixpences with the mint marks of Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Norwich and Your. Some coins have roses revere struck from w o e silver. Most of the 1703 coins of Anne have VIGO. I don't need to tell you that tale.
George I ssc for the SS Co and are shillings with WCC for the Welsh Copper company.
George II brings us the LIMA coins. Again, a well-known story. Apart from the countermarked coins of Spain marks do not appear until Victoria with the H pennies and halfpennies. Sovereigns were struck in Australia with the initial of the city. And later during the reigns of Edward VII and George V they inclued India, South Africa and Canada
And not forgetting the KN & H pennies of Kings Norton and Heaton's.
I believe that there has been no provenance marks etc until the millennium year when five pounds struck at the dome were given the dome mm. Maybe some more in the future. Thanks
Mick Martin spoke on Industrial Tokens. He started by showing a token of John Wilkinson who believed in Iron and machinery. His token has an edge inscription which says “payable in Bursham, Shedshill and Wiley”. Mick thought that these places had long since disappeared but one day saw a sign for Bursham Industrial Site and came across the ruins of the works. He discovered that the technology of the day was only capable of smelting about 1 ton of ore at a time. He then showed further slides of industrial works from about the same time, before moving on to the famous iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, for which he had a token showing a faithful depiction. It is not known where the iron for the bridge came from but as Wiley is only 3 miles away it is a safe bet that some of the iron came from the Wiley works. To further substantiate this Mick had discovered that Wilkinson was the largest subscriber to the bill for the bridge.
Graham Kirby pointed out that tomorrow is Epiphany and his title was "Following a star" or "Symbols, gods and Sundays"
2009 has been designated among other things as the International year of Astronomy.
Hinode is the spacecraft currently studying the solar dynamo, our sun and nearest star, and its magnetic fields.
Reverse types of Greek and Roman coins that touch on that orb are also worth a closer look in contempory context.
Introduction:
The supreme symbol desired of all from antiquity was the sun. What characters of variety. We have the night-travelling sun-barque of the Egyptians - bound up with their beliefs of the next world, we have the sun-worship of the Roman peasant - essentially a religion of men with their feet on the ground; we have the Helios Pater of Greek tragedy, the sublime transcendencies of Plontinus' solar mysticism and the brilliance of Roman State religion; we can pass from Plato's myth of the cave down to the debased levels of the magic papyri, and up again to the visionary utterances of Hermetic literature that often truly penetrate to the secret places of the heart; and I want to tell you how Christianity, as it developed within this area of Mediterranean culture, reacted to the solar beliefs of the various peoples among whom it conceived its mission to lie. P89/90
It is easy to understand why in ages when people were more in tune with nature - regularly watching as the sun went down into the depths to travel overnight, being washed by the sea, and rising refreshed with new vigour... and seeing everything as it arced overhead.
David R Sear in Greek Coins and their values defines Helios (Sol.) The sun-god, who crosses the sky from east to west in his chariot each day, seeing and hearing everything. He was later identified with Apollo. He is usually depicted nude or with chlamys (a short mantle or military cloak), with radiate head and holding a globe, whip or torch. On some coins he rides in a quadriga of horses.
In the past there was little or no light pollution to prevent the study of the night sky.
"Transported on the wings of his enthusiasm the man of antiquity ascends to the holy choirs of the stars and follows their harmonious movements; he partakes of their immortality and even before death has conversed with the Gods."Vettius Valens.
Since the lst century B.C. the universal custom was to name the days of the week after the seven planets. [Originated in Chaldean and Egyptian astrology & book of Petosiris]
The first day began with Saturn [Saturday]
So the day of the sun, dies Solis, was the day after the Jewish Sabbath Literally our SUN - DAY.
The `certain day was the day of Helios and on that day the Christians turned to prayer to the rising sun as a symbol of Christ rising from the dead and ate, as Pliny tells us, "an ordinary and innocent meal." So unusual was the Christian worship on that day of Helios to the pagan way of thinking that they regarded the Christians as a species of Sunworshippers.
Tertullion defends the Church against the accusation... "Others hold more humane opinions about us and mistake Sol for the Christian God because they have heard that in praying we turn towards the rising sun and because on the dav ofSol we give ourselves over to joy-- though this has nothing to do with any religious honour paid to the sun. [Ad Nationes, I, 13.] By the late Roman Empire the Romans had begun to count Sunday and not Saturday as the first day of the week. (F Boll, Realertzyklopadie der klassischen Alterumswissenschaft, VII, col. 2577, IL 3067)
Constantine instructed his whole army to celebrate with zeal the day of the redeemer which was also named after the light and the sun. [Vita Constantini, IV, 18] PI07
Sunday was regarded as a day of light and good fortune and there was a blessing on "Sundays child" for heathen and Christian alike, and epitaphs expressly mention death or birth occurred on the dies Solis and a Roman 2nd Century inscription refers to a Christian child born on a Sunday as `Sun child.'
...The name of Sunday is the most lasting legacy which astrology left us centuries ago and which lives on even after astrology's demise.
The orthodox Christian Jerome says to his monks at Bethlehem, "The Lord created all the days of the week, and the ordinary weekdays could be the day of the Jews, of heretics or of the heathen; but the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection, the day of the Christians, is our own. And if the heathen call it dies Solis, we are quite ready to accept this description too, for on this day the light appeared, on this day the Sun of Righteousness shone forth." [Anedota Maredsolana, IIP418, IL 7-19.]
Isidore of Seville says `Sunday derives it name from the fact that the sun is the chief of all the stars" and it is with the sun of Christ that the week begins. [Etymologiae, V, 30 (PL, 82, 216]
In most countries Sunday has triumphed over its rival and perhaps Boll is right when he says that the name of Sunday is the most lasting legacy which astrology left us centuries ago and which lives on even after astrology's demise. On the whole it is not such a bed legacy, since for millions of people - though they might be quite unaware of the fact - the day of the Lord is illuminated by a sense of the beneficent physical brightness of the day of the sun. (F. Boll, Realenzyklopadie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, VII, col 2578, II 61-7.]
It is only so because the early church gave new content to this day of Helios by filing it with her own mystery of the resurrection. [Russians speak of the day of Resurrection from a very ancient tradition of whose existence there is evidence in Greek and Latin sources.] John 18:28; 19:14 P109 1 Cor 5:6-8 PI 10
The cry of the dying emperor, Julian, whom Christians called the Apostate, was "Helios, thou hast forsaken me." A hymn was sung to comfort him glorifying the shining chariot of Helios that would receive his soul; we can surely detect a hidden Christian note, "Helios give thee release from every pang of the body Leading thee up to the Father and light eternal of heaven." P91
The world the church entered into was the pious world of the Hellenistic star cults; she was able to find in antiquity's deep awe for Helios and Selene (the moon) something which she could absorb and utilise in her theology and cultic activities. Book of Wisdom taken up by Paul in Romans, "if they being delighted ...with the lights of heaven... took them to be gods, let them know how much better the Lord of them is; for the first author of beauty has created them (Wisdom 143:1-3) P97
SYMBOLS are the essence too of Reverse coin designs.
I quote from `Coins and Christianity' an article by Peter Selby Coin News 10/02After several centuries of sporadic persecution and harassment by the State the early Christians were granted official recognition by the Emperor Constantine I (the Great). This momentous event came about in AD 312 when Constantine was campaigning against a rival emperor Maxentius who had taken refuge in Rome. A battle was inevitable, but before the fatal encounter at the Milvan Bridge outside the city, Constantine maintained that he had seen in the sky a vision of ... What did he see?
Answer ...the cross superimposed upon the sun. Greatly encouraged by this Christian sight he ordered that the monogram Chi Rho (initial letters of Christ's name in Greek) should be painted upon the shields of his soldiers, and fortified by this good omen they went on to win the battle, the emperor giving the credit for his resounding success to the Christian god. But another reason for his conversion could have been his realisation that Christianity, with its assurance to the true believer of salvation and life after death, was a potent force, and that the old pagan gods were on the way out. Small bronze coins of Constantine minted in large quantities after his conversion depict the sun god Sol holding a globe (symbolising the Roman world) with the accompanying inscription SOLI INVICTO COMITI (To the Sun and Unconquered Comrade). The Emperor would have found the pagan god together with the Christian cross perfectly compatible; both were life giving forces and both had featured in his vision. Christianity article by Peter Selby Coin News 10/02
Other Symbols: In the sun washing its face overnight in the sea & rising to new birth we have the origins of Baptism.
An early Baptism hymn says: "As the sun is a joy to those who seek the daylight So is my joy in the Lord, for he is my sun. His rays have raised me up, His light has wiped all darkness from my face. Through him have I received eyes and now I behold the day I have left the ways of error: to him have I gone."
The Odes of Solomon, 15, 1, 2, 6 (German translation from the Syriac in Ungnad-Staerk, Die Oden Satomos [H. Lietzmann's Kleine Texte, 64], Bonn, /910 pp 16f, also in H. Gressmann, Die Oden Salamos... ]
The Acts of Thomas so strongly developed this thought that they represent Jesus after his baptism, as a youth with a torch - exactly as the sun-god is represented in Graeco-Roman art. sot Salutis, P367; "Acts Thomae" 27, in Acta Apostoloram Apocrypha, ll, 2 (ed Bonnet, p. 143,11. 4-10); German translation in Hennecke, op. cit, p. 266] P126
The Cross - needs no further comment from me.
The Christian was free to let his thought elaborate the hidden significance of the sun in the mystery of his faith.
Resurrection:If Jesus had risen on the day of Helios, if in every year the day of waxing vernal spring light, the day when the moon was irradiated with the new brightness of the vernal sun, signified the resurrection of Christ, when the whole sequence of triduun sacrum - the Friday when Christ died, the Saturday when he rested in the grave, the Sunday when he rose from the dead - might be considered to have a kind of counterpart in the setting of the sun, in his nocturnal journey and in his rising on the following day P112 Severianus of Gabala writes: "Adam ran towards the West and sank like the sun into his grave. Christ came and made man who had thus descended rise again... in Adam man sank down, in Christ he ascends again. " [De Mundi Crearione, oratio 5, 5 (PG, 56, 477)] P124
Christmas day was moved in the West from tomorrow the 6th January to take over the slot of December 25th. Why, what was previously celebrated on that date? Answer: Sol's birthday - it prevented the early Christians from joining in the pagan celebrations!
A quote from the writing of a Syrian in 1721, "The reason why the Fathers changed this feast from January 6th to December 25th was... The heathen were accustomed on December 25th to celebrate the birthday of the sun and to light fires in honour of the day, and even Christians were invited to take part in these festivities ...so the doctors of the church decided to celebrate this day as the true anniversary of Christ's birth and to keep January 6th for the celebration of the feast of Epiphany. (P152):
During the lull between the persecutions of Decius [AD. 249-51] and Diocletian [AD284-305] the church must surely have regarded the rise of the imperial sun-cult as an ever-increasing menace. To catch something of the spiritual atmosphere of the time, we should have to imagine ourselves in that vast temple of.Sol on the Campus Agrippa, the temple built by the Emperor Aurelian after his victory over Palmyra, with its solemn collegium of the Pontifices Solis. We should have to witness the new feast ofNatali.s Invicti to be celebrated from now on, on each December 25th P146
P147 An early 4th century text deals with the question of the winter solstice and its relation to the nativity of Christ. In reference to December 25th the author says, "But they also call this day the birthday of the unconquered sun. Yet who is as unconquered as our Lord who threw down death and conquered him? They may call this the birthday of Sol, but he alone is the Sun of Righteousness of whom the prophet Malachi said There shall arise to you who fear his name the Sun of Righteousness and there shall be healing under his wings. " Critical text of the Dissertation, "De solstitiis et sequinopctiis" in B. Botte, pp93-105. P'105,11.434-9
The Moon: Selene too was a symbol, a symbol of that being which humbly receives and absorbs the light, the being that came alive in the person of Mary and the Church.
The church's fortunes in history are comparable to the moons varying phases. The moon wanes, it disappears, it grows red, as with the bloodshed of persecution. Yet, like the moon, the Church ever renews herself as she circles around the sun which is Christ, and when at every Easter she sees the brightness of the moon when it is full, she knows she too moves towards a brightness of which there will be no end. P168
The passing away of the of the light when Christ suffered on the cross repeats itself in the fate of the Church, and the renewal of the light in the full moon at Easter shows forth the light, that in the end, will shed most gloriously upon herself Before our eyes passes once more the divine drama of the dying and rises Christ, but now we see it in the mirror of Selene, the Church. Luna suffering and Luna radiant was how the Christians of the day loved to picture their virgin Church. It could satisfy their longing for immortality in so different a fashion from the lunar mother-goddesses that had spread over the whole late Graeco-Roman world
So symbols are the essence of Reverse coin designs.
The Greek mind had an excellent understanding of the nature and purpose of symbols and such an understanding was native to the culture in which Christianity developed. A symbol retains a hidden background, like a garment indicating and concealing the body beneath. The mysteries are as things wrapped up in swaddling clothes by the protective covering of the symbol. P40
The church is uncompromising as she begins to take over images, words, and ideas from the devotional life of the sun-worshipping Greeks, she interprets them in a manner only having relevance to the historically clear-cut figure of her founder, so in words you may have heard again over Christmas - it is Jesus of Nazareth who from the very beginnings of Christian theology is the `Sun of Righteousness' who (Malachi 4:2 will rise with healing in its wings) the "Dayspring_from on high" (Luke 1: 78)
No longer are we children under compulsion from the stars." [Justin, Apologia, 1, 61 (Corpus Apologetarum, 1, p. 166).]
"Now there are no more horoscopes and there is no longer such a thing as fate." (Methodius, Svmposium, VIII, 15. 16 (GCS, p.103, 11. llf]
In certain un-essential matters Christianity and cults may have exercised a reciprocal influence on each other and in certain instances is nothing less than a matter of historical fact. The church was not fashioned in a vacuum, it is the continuation of God becoming man, it turns to man with the revelation Christ entrusted to it, meaning at the time it had to turn to the men of the Graeco-Roman world with their distinctive speech and culture. These were the media through which it had to work, the flesh in which its spirit had to be clothed; for the history of the Church is essentially the putting on of a body by the Word of revelation. The soul inhabiting that body -we call it the Church - is from heaven, but its blood is Greek and its speech - the speech of Rome. And its history can be handled in the coinage of the time. And it is part of our history too.
Parting thought:
Trust you have found the words from this star-studied cast not moonshine but illuminating.
Michael Gouby started by passing round a piece of paper with a short paragraph on it in which the first and last letters were correct for each word but the middle letters were jumbled. This was to illustrate that the mind reads by looking mainly at the first and last letters and providing the rest of the letters are there (in whatever order) the word can be read. The original research indicated that only 55 out of 100 people should be able to read the passage, but in fact most of the people in the room could read it with ease. Maybe numismatists are stranger than we thought?
Michael then showed a beautifully hand engraved coin or as he preferred to call it a “Love Token” with
amazing detail. At least four different types of trees, clearly distinguishable, a stream, clouds, birds
and much more detail. This was followed by more examples. Michael calls them “Love Tokens” because the main
themes found on the tokens is Love, rather like Valentines. For example “When you see this, Remember me”.
Others had girl’s names on, optionally with flowers in the surrounds. Another on an Edward Vii shilling said
“In loving memory of Dad”. Finally Michael showed a beautiful painting of Salisbury Cathedral, painted on the
back of a bronze Victorian farthing!
As usual, a very high standard of talks, thank you to all the members who participated. The talks were then voted on and Michael Gouby went away with the Marc Myhill Memorial Trophy for this season.
The answers to Gavin's quiz are given below.
Numismatic Quiz
Future Events.
Birmingham Coin Fair - National Motorcycle museum – 8th February
London Coin Fair, Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury – 14th February
Past Events
In January 1979 Peter Seaby gave a talk on Norman Coinage.
In January 1989 Barry Greenaway spoke on An Introduction to Evasion Halfpence of the 18th Century
In 1999 the January meeting was on Genuine Forgeries by Thomas Curtis.