Item 1960-1965 - Seven letters from Eric Harris to Edgar Winstanley, incompletely dated

7 items, paper

Seven letters from Eric Harris to Edgar Winstanley, incompletely dated with day and month but lacking the year:
(a) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 9 January, thanking EJW for his letter about the position of the key on the Rotherham pence and referring to Edwards with sloping key and Richards with vertical key. EJH then turns to EJW's interest in differences amonst 'sovereign', noting that he has identified thirteen sub-types, which include the well-known ones. There are manuscript annotations in the text of the letter that are intended to illustrate some of the differences.
(b) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 24 January, sending prints of the Richard III penny, noting that he recently saw an Edward IV penny with G and vertical key, and asking for comments on his previous letter.
(c) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 16 June [1962?], stating that EJW's paper with Potter [on the coinage of Henry VII in the BNJ, vols. 30-32, 1960-1962] "is a constant source of interest" and that he is "looking forward to the next part". EJH refers to his list of varieties of the York sovereign pence in Seaby's – with an annotation in pencil in the hand of IS giving the date as April 1961 – and noting that he has since added to the list. In the final paragraph, he states that the half-pence are confusing and refers to three in particular: Lockett 1716, a similar coin with a different number of saltires in the reverse legend, one with a curious pheon initial mark, and one that he regards as a farthing on the basis of "Carlyon-Britton's test or measuring the diameter of the inner circle.
(d) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 13 November, writing on the subject of Henry VII as EJW invited to do back in June. He says that he has mounted his coins in index card and is enclosing two of them for inspection, his alleged farthing and the half-penny with pheon initial mark. He wonders whether the pheon marked coins might have been used into the time of Henry VIII. He notes EJW's comment on the irregularities in the York sovereign pence but asks whether there are not also many varieties of the Durham issues. EjH concludes by mentioning that he recently "had occasion to refer to his [i.e. EJW's] most useful Richard III paper" and recounting some of his recent collecting activities.
(e) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 15 November, thanking EJW for the prompt return of his coins, his comments upon them and his suggestion that EJH continue to investigate the small silver of Henry VII. He says that the Richard III penny is the one illustrated in Seaby's no. 5235, June 1959, which has belonged to the collections of Shirley-Fox, Carlyon-Britton and his own but now rests with Henry Mossop. The initial mark, he notes, "is quite clearly a rose".
(f) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 29 November, acknowledging that his farthing probably belongs to Henry VI on the grounds of weight. He says that EJW's explanation for the rose on the Richard III penny would work since only the lower half can be seen and asks for a reference to an illustration "of a groat with the mark placed with a horizontal division".
(g) typescript, single page, dated from Alicia Gardens, Kenton, Middlesex, on 26 December [1962?], thanking EJW for his letter and stating that he enjoyed the second instalment of the series on Henry VII. He says that EJW appears to arrived at a very satisfactory arrangement of the coins. He lists a several coins for comment, including a Richard III groat similar to p. 2.1 in the article, a Henry VII groat reading FRANCI with trefoils alongside the cross at the top, and a York sovereign penny type 1 with trefoil after ACT, among others.
There are two related pieces that were associated with the letters:
(h) notes, in manuscript, one folio (recto & verso), undated, having on one side a series of seven transcriptions of coin legends, and on the other, under the heading EJH, a list of coin variants with denominations and mints.
(i) print-out of brief e-mail exchange between Lady Stewartby and Peter Preston-Morley, dated 21 & 23 November 2015, with Lady Stewartby asking whether PPM had any information on whether EJH was still alive and PPM replying that EJH had "died some years ago" and that his wife Dora had predeceased, probably in 1998.