Great Britain: Cromwell Pattern or Trial Half Broad in copper 1658,...

Description

Cromwell Pattern or Trial Half Broad in copper 1658, VF30 NGC, a coin which seems to have circulated for years mistaken for a farthing, now light brown in color, showing more or less just even wear, no abuse, soft ancient scuff on Cromwell's jaw (serving to identify this specimen), ever so slightly porous, uneven details due to strike (half of rim denticles show, others missing). Called "Dutch Copy" on the grading insert. In fact, this is not Dutch at all, or a copy of anything, but a die-trial for the gold Half Broad, created in 1738 by J.S. Tanner, then assistant to the chief engraver at the Royal Mint. A very clear "dropped 8" slightly below the digit "8" in the date proves its connection to the gold piece, which shows the identical blundered version of the date. This curious and truly rare piece is struck in what was then called "soft metal," copper, which is what was used to test the dies, to see what the product created by reassembling Thomas Simon's punches from 1658 would look like. After this was made (and possibly a few others, no one knows for certain), it was probably put aside casually, and then a small number of pieces were struck from the same dies, in gold. That created a gold denomination, the Half Broad, previously unknown, and nonexistent in Cromwell's day. How the present specimen came down to us nobody can say, but more than likely it was just spent as a farthing. It is highly collectible as a memento of the event that created some of the most elusive of all milled English coins, Tanner's versions of the coinage of Oliver Cromwell.

More information about Great Britain Coins. See also: Great Britain World Coin Nationality.

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