News Archive

Coinex: The Pimprez Hoard

This remarkable hoard, deposited c.1140, was discovered by chance in the grounds of a house in the small town of Pimprez (Oise), near Beauvais, 50 kilometers north of Paris, in 2002. The hoard was properly declared to the French authorities and was fortunately available intact for study by Bruno Foucray, regional curator of Archaeology and by Christophe Vellet, curator in the Cabinet des Medailles (Bibliotheque Nationale de France) with a view to publication in a future issue of the Revue Belge de Numismatique.

The Pimprez hoard consists of 569 silver coins and 12 silver ingots, comprising 446 English pennies, 374 of Henry I (1100-1135) and 72 of Stephen (1135-1154) and 123 continental pennies and bracteates, mainly from the mints of Metz, Liege, Maastricht, Treves and Zurich. There were no royal French coins. The ingots are unusual in a hoard of this period. They vary in weight from 9.95 to 223.26 grams and amount, in total, to rather over half the bullion value of the hoard.

The English pennies are struck in excellent silver and show little sign of wear from circulation, though many, particularly the crude coins of Henry I’s last issue, type XV (1125-35), are of the typically poor workmanship of the 12th Century. The earliest coin is a London mint cut halfpenny of Henry I’s excessively rare type VIII, struck around 1113, but the glory of the hoard is the remarkable group of 24 pennies of Henry I’s very rare type XI, the famous and distinctive ‘double inscription’ issue, dating from around 1115. These are struck at a remarkable 16 different mints, and include seven unique pieces, from six mints - Cambridge, Exeter, Lewes, Northampton, Rye and Watchet - that were hitherto completely unknown for the issue.

The hoard continues with a fine group of type XIV pennies, including the rare mints of Hastings, Hereford, Oxford and Shrewsbury, and a large run of coins of type XV, many of London but including four important coins of the English/Scottish border town of Carlisle of which only six examples were previously known. The English element concludes with an attractive run of pennies of king Stephen in unusually fine condition, including examples from Chichester, Salisbury, Wareham and Warwick.

The continental element of the hoard is also of great importance, notably for the fine run of coins of the Liege mint, which include an entirely new type.

The Pimprez hoard has been officially exported from Paris to London by certificate from the Ministere de la Culture. Spink are very grateful to Arnaud Clairand and Michel Prieur of Comptoir General Financier (CGF) for the rare opportunity of acquiring this important group intact, and are pleased to offer in this auction a picked selection of one hundred of the finest English pennies (lots 387-486), many being of exceptional interest, 40 of the continental coins (lots 832-864), and a handsome and photogenic group of the silver bullion ingots (lots 487-492).

Ingots

The silver ingots, or silver ‘cakes’, in the Pimprez hoard have an interest beyond their metal content since, although they conform to no regular weight standard, they were clearly traded at monetary value and were subdivided into halves and quarters when required. They were made very simply by pouring molten silver into a depression, quite possibly in compacted earth or sand, the lower face being lightly convex with bubble holes and traces of sediment, the upper face flatter with traces of black slag. They were cut into sections by a deliberate sword or axe blow to three-quarters of their depth, the remaining metal flange then being snapped or broken. Metal analysis has shown that the ingots have a different composition to the coins in the hoard, containing a higher trace gold content, but their place of origin, if indeed they all originated at one source, is not certain.

Lot 390: Henry I, penny, 1.32, type XI, Exeter, Dunning, (BMC -; N.867; S.1272), official edge snick, lightly creased, otherwise good fine, with clear reverse legend, excessively rare, a new type for Exeter (one of two known) Est: £1,000 - £1,250		Lot 391: Henry I, penny, 1.39g., type XI, Hereford, Ravenswart, (BMC -; N.867; S.1272), tiny official edge nick, lightly double struck, a neat round coin, almost very fine, extremely rare Est: £1,250 - £1,500
Lot 392: Henry I, Penny, 1.37g., type XI, Lewes, Edmund, (BMC -; HHK -; N.867; S.1272), official edge snick, an excellent coin, neatly struck and fully legible, almost extremely fine, unique and unrecorded, a new type for Lewes Est: £2,000 - £2,500		Lot 393: Henry I, Penny, 1.40g., type XI, London, Dereman, (BMC 77 (same dies); N.867; S.1272), official edge snick, lightly double struck on reverse, otherwise very fine and clear, very rare Est: £1,000 - £1,250
Lot 395: Henry I, Penny, 1.40g., type XI, Northampton, Thort, (BMC -; N.867; S.1272), tiny official edge snick, portrait lightly double struck, otherwise very fine, unique and unrecorded, a new type for Northampton Est: £1,250 - £1,500		Lot 398: Henry I, Penny, 1.38g., type XI, Shaftesbury, Aldred, (BMC -; N.867; S.1272), tiny official edge nick, an excellent coin, struck just off-centre on a full round flan, with a clear portrait and legends, good very fine, extremely rare Est: £2,000 - £2,500
Lot 400: Henry I, Penny, 1.36g., type XI, Watchet, Siv.., (BMC -; N.867; S.1272), small official edge snick, lightly creased, otherwise in mint state, good very fine and legible, unique and unrecorded, a new type for this excessively rare mint under Henry I Est: £2,500 - £3,000		Lot 415: Henry I, Penny, Wareham, Derlig, (BMC -; P Carlyon-Britton, lot 1418 (same dies); N.870; S.1275), lightly double struck on portrait, very fine or better, extremely rare Est: £500 - £600
Lot 421: Henry I, Penny, 1.40g., type XV, Carlisle, Erebald, (BM 1950 6.6.11 ex L A Lawrence (same obv. die); FEJ 1086 (same rev. die); N.871; S.1276), off-centre on reverse, otherwise an attractive neat round coin, very fine with a clear portrait, possibly the finest known of this extremely rare and interesting mint Est: £1,000 - £1,250		Lot 475: Stephen, Penny, 1.42g., type I, Watford type, Shrewsbury, Rodberd, (BM 1921 5.19.175 (ex South Kyme Hoard) (same dies); N.873; S.1278), edge crimped below bust, otherwise a centrally struck coin, with a superb portrait, almost extremely fine, rare Est: £500 - £600
Lot 479: Stephen, Penny, 1.38g., type I, Watford type, Wareham, Rogier, (BMC -; FEJ 1671 (same dies); N.873; S.1278), a most pleasing coin, good very fine, the obverse better, very rare Est: £600 - £800		Lot 487: Large roughly circular, C12th, silver ingot, 65x58 mm, 134.68g., the bottom gently convex with pitted surface and traces of gray/green sediment, a large bubble hole revealing the shiny silver content, the top also convex and whorled, suggesting that the metal was poured slowly as it was cooling, traces of black slag in the interstices, a very handsome ingot Est: £150 -£200

PIMPREZ HOARD
CONTINENTAL

The following selection from the Continental coins in the hoard includes several of the great rarities. Notable among these are the coins from the Liège mint of the bishops Henry of Verdun, Otbert (including an entirely new type), and Alexander of Jülich. There is an apparently unpublished variety of Stavelot and Malmèdy. Equally rare are some of the imperial issues from Liège, Maastricht and Trier. There are also a group of highly unusual semi-bracteates from the north of Switzerland.

With a few exceptions many of the coins in this hoard are little worn and many of the later ones are virtually in the same state as when they left the mint. However, the manner in which coins of this period were made means that many are weakly and unevenly struck and it is quite the exception to get one coin on which all aspects of legend and design are at the same time visible. For this reason all coins are illustrated and the indications of condition, though essentially subjective, take account of both the degree of wear and the quality of the striking.

(The hoard has been studied by B. Fourcray and C. Vellet and a paper by them is expected to appear in the Révue Numismatique Belge. The numbers attributed to coins in that report are given against each lot.

Lot 845: Liège, bishopric, Otbert (1092 - 1119), Denier, 1.02g, of uncertain mint, (Chestret 59 (illustrated from a poor example); hoard report 517 [where attributed to Alexander of Jülich]), weak on one side, otherwise good very fine, the only example in the hoard and very rare
Est: £700 - £750

Lot 847: Stavelot and Malmèdy, abbey, Denier, (c.f. Thomsen 6379-80 and Engel and Serrure II, p.581 but this is different and apparently unpublished; hoard report 570 [described as 'unidentified']), unevenly struck, otherwise about extremely fine, of the highest rarity
Est: £800 - £900

Lot 863: Switzerland, Zürich, Abbey of Fraumünster, (between 1085 and 1140), or Basel, bishop Burkhard (1072 -1107), Semi-bracteat, of the twelve examples of this coin in the hoard this is the only specimen that shows traces of a legend; struck on a thin square flan with rounded corners, folded and broken at edges, very fine, rare
Est: £200 - £250