The Godfrey Burr Collection

Royal Mint of England, One Pound specimen currency, L B/2 1338, signature of Anthony [Hall]; copy of a different style of One Pound, without portrait of Hall; copy of a Labor ticket dated 1936, signed by Anthony [Hall] as Master of the Mint [3]. First with holes and tape repairs on back, very good (£30-40)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Godfrey Burr Collection.

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Anthony Hall, aka Anthony Tudor (1898-1947) believed he was a direct descendant of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) and as such had a legitimate claim to the throne. A veteran of Ypres, where he was gassed, he served in the Shropshire Police from 1919 to 1927 before leaving in disgrace. At a meeting staged at the Bull Ring, Birmingham, in February 1931, he announced that his researches proved that he was the rightful King of England and that George V was a foreign imposter. He created his own currency and caused the royal family and the government of the day some concern, staging meetings across the country where he claimed to be King Anthony I. Under his so-called ‘Twenty Year Plan’ Hall pledged to solve unemployment, pay off the national debt, nationalize the police force, electrify the railways, make hospital and dental care free and build millions of homes for the working classes. Eventually the authorities caught up with him and he was fined £25 for preaching treason, although the King wanted him sectioned. At the end of his life he was working in the ordnance factory at Rotherwas, Hereford. He is buried at Little Dewchurch, Herefordshire, the village where he grew up. Details of Hall’s genealogy appear on the backs of his notes