Henry IV light coinage Quarter-Noble

Henry IV (1399-1413), Light Coinage (1412-13), gold quarter-noble, quartered shield, fleur de lis flanked by demi-rosettes above, slipped trefoil to left and right with demi-rosette above and below, annulet at lower left and right of shield, all within tressure of eight arcs, beaded circles and legend surrounding, +hEnRICxx DIxx GRAxx REXxx AnGL', rev., lis in central compartment of ornate cross with lis terminals, lion over trefoil in each angle, all within beaded and linear tressure of eight arcs, legend with beaded border surrounding, initial mark cross pattée, EXALTABITVRxx Inxx GLORIA +,slipped trefoil after gloria, weight 1.28g (Schneider 212; N. 1357; S. 1717). Has been clipped, otherwise toned, good very fine and very rare.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Henry by the Grace of God, King of England," and on the reverse "He shall be exalted in glory," a Psalm from the Bible.

The lighter weight coinage was issued toward the end of Henry's reign from the Easter of 1412 when the weight of a Noble was reduced from 120 to 108 grains and was approved by Parliament. The coinage amounted to approximately ten thousand pounds of weight in gold and somewhere in the region of £200,000 worth.

Provenance:

Ex Archbishop Sharp Collection, part II, Morton and Eden, 7^thDecember 2017, lot 111.

Archbishop John Sharp (1644-1714), the Archbishop of York from 1691 till 1714 collected coins and medals commencing circa 1687 when Rector of St Giles in the Fields, London. His "observations on the English Coinage" written to Ralph Thoresby in 1698-99 were still circulating in manuscript form nearly 90 years later when finally published in 1785.

The Collection passed down the Sharp family with part I sold at Sotheby in 1977.