![The Petition Crown](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/The_Petition_Crown.png)
The Petition Crown was a pattern
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
produced in 1663 by
Thomas Simon
Thomas Simon (c. 16231665), English medalist, was born, according to George Vertue, in Yorkshire about 1623.
Simon studied engraving under Nicholas Briot, and about 1635 received a post in connection with the Royal Mint. In 1645 he was appoi ...
, a celebrated English
medallist and coin-designer. The coin was submitted directly by the artist to
King Charles II as a personal 'petition' against the contemporary coins designed by the Flemish brothers
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Joseph Roettiers, and for the further Royal consideration that only Simon's designs be used for all future
specie
Specie may refer to:
* Coins or other metal money in mass circulation
* Bullion coins
* Hard money (policy)
* Commodity money
Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects ...
now that machine-made currency had been adopted universally for the production of British coinage.
The rivalry between the Roettiers brothers and Thomas Simon resulted from a Royal competition to design this new milled coinage. For unclear reasons, Simon did not submit his trial design in time, resulting in the Flemish engravers winning by default and their coinage being issued for circulation in 1662. However Simon's desire to win back the King's affections resulted in the development of this trial piece the following year. Not only did it dramatically differ from the coins produced by the Roettiers brothers, but also bore his 'petition' engraved in 200 letters in two lines around the coin's rim:
:
''THOMAS SIMON MOST HVMBLY PRAYS YOVR MAJESTY TO COMPARE THIS HIS TRYALL PIECE WITH THE DVTCH AND IF MORE TRVLY DRAWN & EMBOSS'D MORE GRACE; FVLLY ORDER'D AND MORE ACCURATELY ENGRAVEN TO RELEIVE HIM. ic'
The adoption of edge lettering on British coinage began under
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
, when Thomas Simon was engraver of dies at the
Royal Mint and where he also produced the
State Seal of the Commonwealth. The markings were intended to guard against the contemporary practice of
clipping
Clipping may refer to:
Words
* Clipping (morphology), the formation of a new word by shortening it, e.g. "ad" from "advertisement"
* Clipping (phonetics), shortening the articulation of a speech sound, usually a vowel
* Clipping (publications) ...
or the shaving of precious metal off the edges of a coin for illicit personal gain. At the time of production, Charles II's coinage bore the latin phrase DECVS ET TVTAMEN
An Ornament and a Safeguard'in relation to this practice. This phrase was still being used on British coins until the revision of the
pound coin
The British one pound (£1) coin is a denomination of sterling coinage. Its obverse bears the Latin engraving ELIZABETH II D G REG () F D () meaning, 'Elizabeth II, by the grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith'. Proclamation of 28 May 1 ...
in 2015.
Simon's coin shows the bust of King Charles II draped in his flowing hair and laurel leaves, with his celebrated lovelock over his right shoulder. The intricacy of the engraving portrays even the shadows of the King's veins on his neck. The inscription reads CAROLVS II. DEI. GRA and on the reverse are crowned cruciform shields of England,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, with the order of the Garter at the centre. There are two C's interlinked in each angle. The
reverse of the coin is slightly
convex
Convex or convexity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Convex lens, in optics
Mathematics
* Convex set, containing the whole line segment that joins points
** Convex polygon, a polygon which encloses a convex set of points
** Convex polytop ...
and the obverse
concave
Concave or concavity may refer to:
Science and technology
* Concave lens
* Concave mirror
Mathematics
* Concave function, the negative of a convex function
* Concave polygon, a polygon which is not convex
* Concave set
* The concavity of a ...
to show the King as a stronger feature of the coin. Ultimately however the Roettier brothers continued to produce the dies for the crowns, albeit from 1664 with subtle corrections as a result of the influence of Simon's pattern.
The earliest known sale of Simon's revered pattern coin occurred in 1742 at the sale of the
Earl of Oxford, wherein it fetched the princely sum of £20 (approximately £2,300 in 2017). Whilst the market price for examples has fluctuated dramatically over the centuries, from as little as £6.6.0 in 1795 to £500 in 1889, its spectacular artistry and noted rarity have gained it a passionate following amongst
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
s. Today the coin is known from only a handful of examples and is extremely sought after. Consequently copies of the coin known as
electrotypes have been made for collectors who were otherwise unable to afford the artist's original.
In 2007, an original example sold for £207,100
pprox. $420,000setting a new world record price for a British silver crown. More recently, an example sold in New York in 2018 for a reported $649,000
Reddite Crown
Simon's dies were also used to strike the similar 'Reddite' Crown, which differs from the Petition Crown only on the basis of the edge lettering:
''REDDITE QUÆ CÆSARIS CÆSARI''
On 27 March 2014, an example sold in London for £396,000
657,000 setting a current world record for any British silver coin.
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Art of Coins website
Coins of England