The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins

V: Original Medals by Simon, Charles I, c. 1639-42 (possibly earlier), a uniface struck silver medalet by T. Simon, bust right, signed t.s.f below, carolvs d g mag brit fran et hib rex fid defen, 15.5mm, 2.68g (MI Supplement pl.182, 7). Paper label ‘24/A’ on the back, very fine and toned, UNIQUE £300-£400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The North Yorkshire Moors Collection of British Coins.

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Collection

Provenance: Glendining Auction, 12 October 1966, lot 133 (part); O.F. Parsons Collection, Baldwin Auction 12, 27 May 1997, lot 973 [from Baldwin 1966].

According to the MI Supplement Plates description, this medal was in Helen Farquhar’s collection, but it does not obviously appear in her sale in 1955. A most interesting work by Simon, this is one of his earliest known signed products, along with MI I, 363/241 and 358/226, all made while he was learning his craft in the 1630s. In Farquhar (1932) she says “there is a tiny badge portraying the king and queen (MI I, 363/241), of such poor workmanship that only the signature justifies its claim to be by Simon, a claim substantiated by a little trial piece in lead [which must be MI I, 358/226, but not recorded therein in lead] of Charles I’s bust on a thick flan, both in my collection.” The trial piece must be this one. It may have been a practice or apprentice piece, which has randomly survived. The bust is not well done and the lettering is a struggle, but there is an affinity with the lettering on Simon’s struck Essex death medal of 1646