Item 1924/1 - Copies of four letters to Christopher Blunt

1 item, paper

Copies of four letters from three different correspondents to Christopher Blunt, manuscript in same hand, eight pages on eight folios of lined paper, entitled "Correspondence concerning the bears head Berwick coins":
(a) from L. A. Lawrence, dated from the Dept Coins and Medals, British Museum, on 21 July 1924, expressing great interest in CEB's "notes" on Berwick, recommending that he describe all the types of the coins in succession in preparation of a monograph article, hopefully in the Numismatic Chronicle, and offering to help with the illustrations. He mentions CEB's unique "method of printing", which gives him some trouble. He notes that "Berwick under English occupation ought to knock out the Scottish coinage" and therefore recommends comparison with the coinage of Edinburgh. He says that he has shown the work to Mr Brooke, who is much interested in it and will return it.
(b) from George C. Brooke, dated from the Dept Coins and Medals, British Museum, on 19 September 1928, enclosing casts of four Berwick pennies that formed part of a recent find from Belfast, which contained 54 pennies in all, including "one Alexander III sterling" and 49 of the usual Edward I-II coins, "the latest of which is a Kellawe penny of class XIII (say, 1315, ...)". He refers to CEB's Berwick paper, noting that it lacks plates and a list of the coins as well as further analysis and summary of the finds, especially those containing coins with the bear's head. He also notes that CEB appears to have operated under the assumption that the coins are all English royal issues, but he considers this impossible "in view of the extraordinary, almost autonomous position of the of the town", which, "on the withdrawal of English troops, 1318-1333", had its own Exchequer and presumably struck its own coins, thus accounting for the "barbarous issues" of perhaps 1297-1298 and certainly 1318-1333. This offers a plausible explanation for the bear's head, "which seems to serve no purpose on a coinage of the king of England. He says that CEB's paper comes to grips with a difficult problem regarding the production of pennies after 1331, when royal mints ceased to strike them and ecclesiastical mints struck base half-pence and farthings.
(c) from W. G. Wallace, dated from Doveshill, Ensbury Park, Bournemouth, on 6 January 1933, suggesting a possible solution to the matter of the bear's head coins of the Berwick mint. He says that the unusual symbol of the bear's head on the coins implies that they were issued under unusual circumstances, namely when "the Scots occupied the town and the English held the castle in 1297 and again in 1355". He notes that CEB has attributed the "uncouth coins" to the first period but wonders whether there is any definite reason why the bear's head pieces shouldn't belong to the latter period. He discusses the evidence for the production of half-pence and farthings during the interval between at some length and then lays out a scenario in which, "as in 1297, the garrison may have been in a state of mutiny owing to their pay being in arrears". He supposes that, to avert disaster until sufficient funds were available, the governor of the castle ordered the coinage in the absence of licence to do so in order to pay the soldiers, giving the coins a conspicuous mark to distinguish them from legal coins of the realm with the intention of redeeming them later, much like siege pieces of the early modern period. In 1355, pence were being struck in English mints and there is no reason why they would not have have been struck during an emergency at Berwick. WGW further supposes that the bear's head was representation of the standing bear on the arms of Berwick.
(d) from W. G. Wallace, dated from Doveshill, Ensbury Park, Bournemouth, on 13 January 1933, evidently in response to correspondence from CEB, agreeing that his argument that the bear's head coinage was issued throughout the period from 1333 onwards is more likely but noting that the argument does not provide a solution regarding the adoption of the mint-mark. He nevertheless remains convinced that here must have been a special reason for the use of the mark but promises to hold his "less prosaic theory in reserve until further information comes to light". He thinks, moreover, that the deviation from the standard reverse type on the other coins [?] militates against CEB's theory. He allows, however, that the fact of Berwick being Scottish would have made the inhabitant ill-disposed towards "everything their conquerors imposed upon them, including English money", boycotting it in favour of Scottish money. To overcome this difficulty, authorities might have decided to give them a coinage of their own with a bear's head on it, calling it Berwick money. WGW expresses interest in seeing CEB's collection but is unable to make any immediate plans to do so because of the little time at his disposal. The rest of letter is turned over to discussion of other collectors and their collections.