IS THIS RARE AND IMPORTANT IRISH GOLD PIECE OF NECESSITY WITH LIMITED

[kal 22]

In the upcoming CNG auction, the Dr. Lawrence A. Adams Collection, in the British gold section, is offered a very rare Irish gold coin or pledge. This emergency issue by Ormonde in 1646, if authentic, brings the total extant to twelve and thereby increases the number available to collectors from 2 to 3. This example, Lot 2751, appears to be unusually well struck and, condition wise, far superior to the recent Bullmore or Brady examples that sold in April 2000.

The origins of these important coins, being the only Irish gold issue, are fairly well documented. Other than the four pieces from the contemporary Bridgewater House collection, which contained two extremely rare double pistoles and two single pistoles, the six discovered in the Portarlington hoard, 1946, and the single examples in the Carruthers and Aquilla Smith Collections leave one of the two examples in the Chapman cabinet as a possible candidate. In 1850, James Carruthers, a Belfast collector, wrote “About this time five similar coins were discovered: two of which are in the British Museum, two in the cabinet of Sir Montague Chapman and the other belonging to Dr. Aquilla Smith of Dublin.

The two in the B.M. are from the Bridgewater House Collection, deposited for safe keeping, one of which is now in the Ulster Museum. the other example in the Brady sale and more recently La Rivere Spink 2006. The A. Smith coin now resides alongside the Portarligton hoard in the Irish National Museum Dublin. A Chapman example ended up in the American Numismatic Society via Murdoch, Brand and Norweb. The Carruthers coin, procured from the locality of Belfast in 1839, was mistakenly and tragically described as false in the Sotheby sale, January 1857, and accordingly sold for a pittance, its present whereabouts unknown. It may have been condemned because a number of Inchiquin silver counterfeits were also present in his collection. The Adams pistole now on offer may possibly be the other example mentioned by Carruthers, and was probably sold prior to the Chapman sale, Sotheby December 1894.

[SWANNY 25]

We love pictures

[Coppers 58]

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=1355&lot=2751

[azda 979]

Or

[DaveG38 408]

Not very eye appealing.

[Nordle11 564]

By the way that's a nice write-up Kal, a great bit of reading for anyone interested in Irish gold.

[kal 22]

Thanks for posting a photo of the piece,and the comments

Very few examples of Obsidional /necessity money can be described as appealing, not surprising considering the conditions under which they were made.This Pistole like its predecessors the "Inchiquin "silver issue are particularly crude,displaying only a stamp giving its weight in penny weights and grains.

Their historical context is considerable; the double Pistoles are especially rare as only two examples survive, now both in National museums. I would consider them as equally important and as rare as the Scarborough pieces in the English siege series.

[Peter 615]

Historically important but not on my Xmas list.

I'm sure it will go to a specialist Irish collector with very deep pockets.