Quiet?

[Sylvester 52]

29 minutes ago, TomGoodheart said:

And some shillings ..an early Easter egg. 😄

I love these! Such character coins of this era have. A whole guinea worth t'boot.

Edited 13 hours ago by Sylvester

[Paddy 1,861]

3 minutes ago, TomGoodheart said:

As with the shillings, Charles starts the reign wearing a ruff. This gives way to a lace collar, with increasing amounts of armour added to his bust as the years go by!

I wonder why? 😁

[TomGoodheart 434]

There was a trend at the time in Europe for the wealthy and powerful to present visitors, or those they wished to impress, with small portrait medallions. Charles took up the habit with the most prestigious being impressive pieces in gold but also cheaper silver or silver gilt versions.  It seems unlikely that all of these were personally handed out by the king. Even at court I imagine others distributed the majority. And it's likely that, since they were cast and chased and therefore relatively easy to duplicate, others were made to order for supporters of the crown who wanted something to demonstrate their loyalty from existing badges, though likely with Royal 'consent' to the practice.

Obviously over time it became riskier to admit you were an ardent Royalist, hence the size of the later badges is much smaller with the one shown on my fingertip an example of one from the later years of the reign that could be easily concealed in clothing or, should the need arise, shown at the turn of a coat collar perhaps. 

[TomGoodheart 434]

This on the other hand, was personally touched by the king, having been handed to a participant at a royal Touching Ceremony.

The Touch was thought, due to the belief that kings were god's representatives on earth (see Divine Right) to be able to cure a number of illnesses, similar to a saint's intercession. The major one was scrofula, an unpleasant but rarely fatal disease that not infrequently went into remission. The habit appears to have dated from Edward the Confessor and the Stuarts were the last to practice the habit. 

Initially the Royal Touch was the main purpose of the ceremony but soon a small payment was added to charitably support the sufferer. From the reign of Edward IV a gold angel was the accepted form this took. An appropriate piece, given the presence of an angel on one side of the coin and the ship of state on the other. Additionally the value of the coin 6/4d was the accepted payment for a doctor at the time. 

Angels were officially pierced and the monarch then threaded them onto a length of white silk ribbon, before hanging the coin around the neck of a sufferer. One of the most famous was Dr Samuel Johnson who received his from Queen Anne, the last monarch to Touch. Johnson's touchpiece is now displayed in the British Museum. This is another example I was very pleased to be able to find for my collection. S. 2684A Portcullis privy mark ( 11 Jul 1633 - 27 Jun 1634)

[Sylvester 52]

I've seen a few of these touch pieces for sale, some being hammered angels converted for the purpose and others of Charles II and James II vintages being token angel-like coins specially struck for the purpose. Some fascinating bits of history, thanks for sharing some of your wonderful collection with us! I guess, like myself, the history plays a big part of your interest in coins? It's always what drove me to get the items I've ended up with.

[Peckris 2 2,190]

On 3/14/2025 at 4:03 AM, Sylvester said:

A symptom of the drive to a cashless society? I don't think many young people use cash in everyday transactions, if at all. I guess with no exposure to coinage, there'd be no reason to have their interest sparked by it? I can only think of it as that. Believe it or not, but twenty years ago this forum had a core group of teenage members leading a lot of the discussions! So there was interest from the younger groups once upon a time. In fact, there were quite a few robustly attended forums in the 2000s, very few seem to be left.

 

Doesn't seem to affect the collectors of vinyl, cassettes, and now CDs ! The lack of an object in everyday use can actually spur collectors.