Minutes of the Meeting of the British Numismatic Society, held at the Royal Philatelic Society London and over Zoom on Tuesday, 28 June 2022, Dr Screen, President, being in the chair and 43 other people present [16 in person, 27 on Zoom].

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 May 2022 were approved.

NOMINATIONS: None.

ELECTIONS: Hugh Peter Sainsbury (Dorset), Nigel Sayers (Lancashire) and David Richard Willis (London) were elected to Ordinary Membership.

Chris Barker then read a paper over Zoom entitled In defence of the sovereign: mass production and counterfeiting in the 1950s and 1960s.

The President then announced the date of the next meeting and closed the meeting.

We resume after the summer recess at the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL), next Tuesday, 27 September. Our speaker, Dr Philippa Walton, who is a lecturer in classical archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London, will be sharing with us aspects of her research into the deposition of coins in rivers in Roman times in an address entitled Ritual or rubbish? The coins from the river Tees at Piercebridge in context.

Dr Walton is a lecturer in classical archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research focuses on the material culture of Roman Britain, with a particular emphasis on data generated by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Her most recent project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, explored the deposition of objects in rivers throughout the Roman Empire and asked what they revealed about the identities of those who deposited them. In 2021, a monograph on the subject co-authored with Prof. Hella Eckardt, Bridge over troubled water: the Roman finds from the River Tees at Piercebridge in context, was published by the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. In addition to working on riverine depositional practices, Dr Walton has also published extensively on the function and use of coinage in Roman Britain, particularly in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. In 2014 she was the first lady to be awarded our Society's Blunt Prize for Numismatics.

The RPSL is located at 15 Abchurch Lane, EC4N 7BW, three minutes' walk from the Underground stations at Bank, Cannon Street and Monument. The 120-seat capacity of the Society's meeting room, located on the second floor (accessed by lift and stairs), allows for ample social distancing and features a huge ceiling-mounted screen, lectern and full AV facilities. 

Upon arrival at the RPS in-person attendees will be asked to sign the registration book (and sign yourself out when leaving the building). Adjacent to the building's foyer is the members’ lounge on the ground floor, which members and guests are encouraged to use if arriving before the start of meetings and where refreshments can be obtained for a fee.

To join the meeting online, members may use the registration link emiled to them with the September E-News email.

Those who register will be sent log-in details via email. If you are using the desktop version of Zoom, please ensure that you are using the most up-to-date version before joining us. The meeting itself will commence with formal business at 6pm London BST and Dr Walton's lecture will begin immediately after that.

The finds at Piercebridge – some 1,500 coins and over 3,500 artefacts recovered by divers Rolfe Mitchinson and Bob Middlemass – were declared treasure trove at a coroner's inquest in August 2018. If you are in London on Tuesday we look forward to your company; if not, please join us online to learn more about the circumstances that are believed to have led to their deposits.

The Royal Mint Museum's website now features the minutes of, and papers relevant to, the first 200 meetings of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on the Design of Coins, Medals, Seals and Decorations, an enormously valuable resource for all those studying and researching the products of the modern Royal Mint.

The Royal Mint Advisory Committee (RMAC) was established in 1922 with the personal approval of George V. Its first meeting, under the chairmanship of the redoubtable Col. Robert Johnson, took place on 29 June 1922, and among the items discussed was the need for designs for the new South African coinage and a General Service medal for the Middle East. The 200th meeting was held on 11 February 1992 when designs for the proposed crown to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the coronation of the late Queen Elizabeth II were on the agenda.

With the present RMAC's attention inevitably turning to the new coinage necessitated by the accession of King Charles III, here is the chance to see how the members of the 1952 committee tackled the question of new money for the late Queen, and indeed for her Father before that. To access the papers, visit https://library.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/

Back in February the Society announced that it would be creating digital surrogates of the the personal 58-volume manuscript catalogue of the late Richard Cyril Lockett's collection. The project was expected to take two years to bring to conclusion, but thanks to the sterling efforts of Gary Oddie and Rob Page, the entire project has been digitised in a matter of months.

These volumes provide a unique insight into Lockett as a discerning numismatic connoisseur, while documenting provenances of his purchases and his hand-written observations about the coins in his collection. Each volume covers a specific period or category of his collection. Within each volume there is an individual paper tag inserted for each coin. 

Richard Cyril Lockett (1873-1950), Chairman of William & John Lockett Ltd, shipowners in Liverpool, formed arguably the most important private collection of British hammered coins in modern times.

During some 42 years of collecting, beginning c.1906, he focussed on the English series, purchasing heavily in the sales of the Rashleigh (1909), Carlyon-Britton (1913-18), Walters (1913), Roth (1917-18), Bruun (1925), Huth (1927), Morrieson (1933), Lord Grantley (1943-45) and other collections.

From the 1920s his interests expanded to Greek coins and then continental, Roman and Byzantine coins. His collection of English milled coins (Cromwell to Victoria) was sold at Sotheby’s on 28 April 1927, and after his death the remainder of his vast collection was sold by Glendining’s in 14 auctions over a seven-year period (1955-61), masterminded by Albert Baldwin to avoid flooding the market.

So if you've got a Lockett coin or coins, as many of us have, you can look up the original collector's notes on it at britnumsoc.org, navigate to Contributors, then L, then Lockett's Collection Notes.

While many of us in the UK have taken the first opportunity for three years to get away from it all during the summer, some of our dedicated researchers have been busy bringing projects to conclusion.

Gary Oddie has presented no less than four die studies of James I third coinage shillings, differentiated by mint-marks, while also exploring the nefarious background of the Great Yarmouth token issuer Joseph Hunton, the last man in England hanged for forgery. Hugh Pagan contributes a valuable listing of mints and moneyers for Edward the Confessor's Pointed Helmet type, and looks into the backgrounds of the 17th century token issuer turned tavern-keeper David Ramage Jr, and the 19th century London coin dealer Francis Whelan. Non-members, too, have written on such subjects as Henry VI halfgroats and Victorian threehalfpence, so thanks to Luke Mundy and Yaaseen Baksh for their contributions.

Why not take the opportunity to subscribe to the Blog via email, and join over 120 people who already enjoy being the first to read about every new post? Just visit britnumsoc.org and access the Blog from the header menu.

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September 23-24.  Coinex (London).  bnta.net

September 23-24.  Orders & Medals Research Society Convention (London). www.omrs.org

September 27.  Bartlett Collection (London).  www.noonans.co.uk

September 27.  Society meeting (London)

September 30 and October 1.  World Paper Money Fair (London). www.wpmf.info

September 30 to October 2.  40th Annual Token Congress (Northampton). This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

October 5.  Deane Collection, Part I (London).  www.baldwin.co.uk

October 7.  Ellerby Area Hoard (London).  www.spink.com

October 22.  8th International Symposium in Early Medieval Coinage (Cambridge).  t.abramson@ntlworld.com

October 24.  Heberden Coin Room Centenary: Past, Present and Future (Oxford).  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

October 25. Society meeting (London)