The ‘Ellerby Area’ Hoard of English Gold Coins recently went under the hammer at Spink. Discovered beneath the floorboards of a historic home in the small Yorkshire village of Ellerby, the hoard was thought to be the possession of a Sarah Fernley, and mostly consisted of coins that would have been used as currency between the reigns of King James I and King George I.
One the scarcest coins offered in the sale was an ‘excessively rare’ mint error from the reign of George I (1714-1727). The reverse brockage guinea, of 1720, featured the obverse design but incuse – so presenting a mirror image of the intended artwork. The auction house explained: ‘Only three brockages of the Guinea series have appeared at worldwide public auction since the millennium. A reverse brockage of a 1694 Guinea (Heritage, 15 April 2011, lot 24085, $12,000); and curiously two examples from the reign of King George I, both obverse brockages. The fourth bust (1716-1723) Guinea (Heritage, 6
