Elizabeth I One Testern, Portcullis Money AU50

Elizabeth I (1558-1603), silver One Testern or Eighth Dollar, trade coinage "Portcullis Money", crowned quartered shield of arms, crowned E to left, crowned R to right, beaded circles and legend surrounding, initial mark O (1600), O:ELIZABETH. D:G: AN: FR: ET. HI; REGINA., rev. crowned portcullis with chains, beaded circles and legend surrounding, initial mark O, O:POSVI. DEVM. ADIVTOREM. MEVM. 3.31g (Pridmore 4; S.2607D). Evenly toned with just a little weakness in part of legend, just a few hairline marks, has been graded and slabbed by NGC as AU50, rarely this well preserved.

NGC Certification 6318877-002.

Currently the highest graded example at NGC.

The four denominations of Eight, Four, Two and One silver Testern were an attempt at producing a trade coinage sponsored by the newly formed East India Company to be used in overseas trade principally in the Far East. However the competition against the Spanish Eight Reales and its fractions was too much at this time and ultimately the coinage did not succeed rendering the surviving coins a rarity. The surviving coins probably all being coins retained in London as souvenirs at the time.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Elizabeth by the Grace of God, Queen of England France and Ireland; and on the reverse "I have made God my Helper" a Psalm from the Bible.

Provenance:

Ex Christopher Comber Collection, part II, St James Auction 48, 23^rd September 2021, lot 273.