M & H
1644 Charles I Bristol Mint Halfcrown - Ex Lingford Collection
£3,400
Charles I (1625 - 49) Bristol mint (1643 - 45), Halfcrown, 1644, m.m. plume/Br, ‘Bristol’ horseman, without groundline, small Shrewsbury plume behind, rev., Declaration in two lines, three Bristol plumes above, 1644 below, (S.3007; N.2489; Morrieson B1-1a; Bull 640/1a; Brooker - ) weight 15.08 grams
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An exceptional example, struck on a full flan, deeply toned with glossy surfaces, a strong pedigree and in a superbly preserved grade. This recorded by Bull as one of the finest known of this type.
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* The capture of Bristol, then England's second largest city by Prince Rupert on the 26th of July 1643, gave the royalist a much needed major port and it's potential economic importance to them helps to explain the establishment there of a branch mint derived from Oxford. King Charles ordered Thomas Bushell to go to Bristol, where it is claimed to have cost £1020 repairing the Castle and setting up the mint within it. Regular shipments of Welsh silver were until that late in 1644 diverted to Bristol via Swansea as well as continuing contributions in plate.
The mint closed in the summer of 1645 shortly before Prince Rupert surrendered the city to Fairfax on the 11th of September. Rupert had been forced to surrender for the lack of troops to guard the five miles of city walls. Unfortunately, King Charles ignorant of the situation was so furious at losing his stronghold in the west that he dismissed him from his services and exiled him.
After the fall of Bristol the Parliamentarian army under Sir Thomas Fairfax went on to wipe all royalists opposition in Devon and Cornwall, and Cromwell succeeded in doing the same in Hampshire and Wiltshire.
Within a matter of weeks all the provincial mints in the West Country were closed.