Item 2009/1 - Letter from Philip Skingley with attachments

3 items, paper

Letter from Philip Skingley, manuscript, one page, undated but, based on context, from very early in the new year, with three attachments. PS wishes IS a Happy New Year and encloses a copy of a letter from Brad Shepherd and an article that he has submitted for publication in the Numismatic Circular. The letter and article draw attention to an erroneous attribution of Lord Stewartby in his book on English coins. PS asks for IS's advice about the proposed article, asking whether the author, Brad Shepherd, has a point.
The three attachments are as follows:
(a) Photocopy of a letter from Brad Shepherd to Philip Skingley, typescript, single page, dated 21 December 2009, recounting that he recently acquired "the new 'English Coins' volume by Lord Stewartby" and noting that the "rose" mint-mark commonly associated with a unique farthing of Henry VIII from his second coinage is not a rose at all but a lis. BS says that he is the owner of the coin, having acquired it from DNW [i.e. Dix, Noonan and Webb] several years earlier; he also states that his attribution is confirmed in an article by Tim Webb Ware from the 1980s and through correspondence with Paul Withers. Accordingly, there are no Henry VII second coinage farthings with a rose mint-mark.
(b) Draft paper, typescript with illustrations, two pages on two folios (recto only), undated, entitled "Misattribution of the Henry VIII 'rose' mintmark farthing", by B. Shepherd. The paper argues that the mint-mark of the rose reputedly on the second coinage farthing of Henry VIII from the Tower mint is not a rose but a lis. The mark on this unique coin resembles that on other Henry VIII farthings, where it is clearly distinguishable as a lis.
(c) Published version of the same paper of B. Shepherd, entitled "Misattribution of the Henry VIII 'rose' mintmark farthing", excerpted from the Numismatic Circular, May 2010, p. 73.