In Baldwin’s auction of coins and medals on the 30th March, there is a spectacular gold broad of Oliver Cromwell, dated 1656, (lot 113).
Oliver Cromwell (1656‑58), Gold Broad, Laureate head left, legend with toothed border surrounding. rev, crowned quartered shield of arms of the Protectorate, date either side of crown, legend and toothed border surrounding, (S.3225; N.2744; Schneider 367; WR 39 R2; EGC.75; Lessen A.2). Bold good very fine. Conservatively graded and encapsulated by PCGS as AU50. £12,000‑14,000
These twenty Shilling broads represent one of two gold coins available for the period of the office, when Cromwell was ‘Lord Protector’. There was also a fifty Shilling piece, also by the French diesinker Thomas Simon, which is excessively rare - with possibly up to twelve examples known.
The really interesting aspect of these coins is their iconography – for there is the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England wearing a laurel wreath. On the other side of the coin are the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland, the St. George’s cross, saltire and the harp – and there in pretence, right in the centre, is the personal arms of Cromwell, a lion rampant - and the whole device is crowned. What does this mean? Was Cromwell thinking of becoming a king ??? He had, after all, refused the offer of the crown from Parliament in 1553 when he became Lord Protector.
The earlier coins of the Commonwealth had their legends in English, but Cromwell’s coins resumed the royal Latin and more and more, they developed to include royal iconography - especially when he became ‘Lord Protector’. It must have been difficult for Cromwell to show and weald the authority of a monarch without being a king, although his coins suggest that this delicate balance might to have been breached! As Lord Protector, he was even addressed as ‘Your Highness’. It may be he was following the Roman route, for the Romans had discarded their kings in the 5th. century BC and formed a republic which later evolved into an empire – Cromwell died in 1658, a few months after the issue of these coins and it certainly looks from these, as if he were about to assume the purple !!!
Although they are very rare, there are by chance two of these Cromwell broads in the auction, lot 113 which is graded ‘Almost Uncirculated’ and lot 112 which looks almost the same but has been skilfully, almost undetectably, plugged. The lesser piece should achieve around £9,000 as opposed the better piece which is estimated at around £14,000. plus.
