HERTFORDSHIRE, Sawbridgeworth, Robert Orchard, Penny, 1801, full-face bust in high relief, robert orchard sawbridgeworth herts, rev. book lying below tree, church in distance, sawbridgeworth penny token, edge plain, 32.66g/12h (DH 1, this piece noted). Usual die flaw on reverse, several cuts and other defacing marks both sides, otherwise about very fine and patinated; the worst of the four attested specimens of this classic token £1,200-1,500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Late Robinson S. Brown Jr Collection.

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Provenance: W.J. Davis Collection, Sotheby Auction, 11-15 March 1901, lot 56 (part); Mrs Eileen Judson Collection, Part II, DNW Auction 57, 19 March 2003, lot 1057 [from Baldwin July 1971]; R.S. Brown Jr Collection, Part I, DNW Auction T7, 7 October 2009, lot 206 [from J.A. Bobbe April 2003].

The four known specimens of this token are a single example from the cracked obv. die, originally in the Thomas Lloyd collection (Sotheby’s, May 1878, in lot 278), subsequently illustrated by Hamer (BNJ 1904, pl.ii, 13), later in the Hamer sale (lot 91) and the first ‘Baldwin Basement’ sale (2014, lot 83, £6,600) and at the time of writing still privately owned; and three from the repaired obv. and flawed rev., namely that in the British Museum from the Sarah Sophia Banks collection, acquired by her on 31 December 1802 (the DH plate coin), the Longman/Jan/Noble/Bobbe specimen, last sold for Aus$60,000 (then £22,550, or US $41,500) in 1998 (the Bell plate coin), and the present piece