NGC Certification 2119563-043.

This wonderful and highly important piece of numismatic art, the only example currently in private hands, is an intriguing pattern of the same physical weight as a gold George Noble of Henry VIII as detailed in the Pembroke auction sale catalogue of 1848. This coin is struck on a lighter weight flan than the other surviving example in the Hunterian Museum which weighs 7.37g, (the weight of a Double Crown of the Rose at the time). A note "K" on page 408 of Ruding alludes to the weight being heavier than the piece offered herewith and therefore refers to the Coats Collection (1027) example at the Hunterian.

These coins are part of a small series of artistic gold patterns produced of Half-Sovereign diameter and of weights from that of a full sovereign down to that of a gold crown (WR 3 to 10 inclusive). They are all of the highest rarity with most housed in museums and demonstrate a new skill in numismatic art after the more austere times of the debasement of coinage by Edward's Father King Henry VIII. What with the Latin inscription on the reverse which describes the obverse as the "insignia of the most potent King of England" this pattern and its stablemates of other designs give a message of confidence in the coinage after such an ordeal as debasement in the previous reign. The design also shows the new boy King is in power as the new Head of the Church of England in his Coronation year, which commenced with accession on 28^th January 1546/7 and his crowning on 20^th February 1546/7.The engraver of these pieces of art is not known for sure, and it was once theorised it was the work of the French engraver Anthony Levens, however his arrival in England in October of 1547 potentially quashes the theory, though he may well have worked on these patterns as soon as his employ commenced. The surviving records of the time are very few and all we factually know is that the Chief Engraver of the Tower Mint was Henry Basse Goldsmith of London. The Under-Engraver at Tower Mint I was Robert Pitt Goldsmith of London and later promoted to Chief as of 1550. More importantly the only surviving indenture from the time dated 5^th April 1547 is only 45 days after the Coronation and does not provide for a gold George Noble denomination, so this could well be indicative that these patterns were actually produced in time for, or immediately after the Coronation of King Edward VI, as the indentures of the previous reign which did provide for a George Noble, would still be relevant and in force, and as this piece is dated 1547 it may well date to the Julian style calendar new year of 25^th March 1547. The coin is one of the only patterns of King Edward VI in private hands and so numismatically significant.

Lord Thomas Herbert Pembroke (1656-1732) was the earliest recorded owner of the piece in his lifetime, later illustrated in the Numismata Antiqua of 1746, and as 8^th Earl of Pembroke was a noted collector having the first pick of Sir Andrew Fountaine's Collection ahead of the Duke of Devonshire. The collection was added to by the 9^th Earl Henry Herbert Pembroke who had the publication produced in 1746 and it was his son the 10^th Earl also Henry Herbert who first attempted to sell the collection en bloc and unsuccessfully to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1780. It was later offered to the Trustees of the British Museum in 1828 who refused it and then found its way to public auction sale for the first time with Sotheby in 1848.