1344 Double Leopard Gold Coin Graded NGC MS 62, on a Goldberg "Private Sale" Page

This article is based on a page published on the website of Goldberg Coins & Collectibles. The page's headline begins "Private Sale," and its opening lines include the statement "Goldberg's Also Sell by Private Treaty." The page does not give a publication date. According to its main text, the coin was found and sold at auction in 2006, and about a decade later Ira Goldberg bought it for a client. The sales history in the page's opening lines does not agree with the main text on some points, which are set out in the last section.

The only example in private hands

The coin is a Double Leopard, a gold coin struck in England in 1344. It has been graded MS 62 by the third-party grading service NGC. The page describes it as the only example of this important gold coin in private hands.

Goldberg purchased the coin for a client who is building a collection of important coins from England and other countries. The purchase price was not disclosed. Goldberg said that "it easily establishes this coin as the most valuable English coin of all time." That is Goldberg's assessment. At the time the page's text was written, it described the coin as part of the Tyrants Collection of English and other world rarities.

Goldberg said that before handing the coin to the client, Goldberg wanted it certified by a third-party grading service for better long-term protection. Goldberg showed it to Mark Salzberg, chairman of NGC, and chose NGC to grade it.

England's first large gold coin

The Double Leopard is named for the two leopards on its reverse. It was struck in 1344 as England's first large-sized gold coin. Until then, English coinage was entirely silver, except for a small number of tiny gold pennies struck in 1257. Gold coins for domestic and international trade came from other countries such as France and Italy.

The page's headline names Edward II, but its text says it was Edward III who decided England needed its own gold coins. In 1344 England issued the double florin (double leopard), the florin (leopard) and the half florin (half leopard). The double leopard weighed 108 grains, just under one-quarter of an ounce, to match the French florin then in common use. It was valued at six shillings.

Withdrawn in 1344

The leopard coinage was short-lived. Struck between January and July 1344, it was replaced by the gold noble, which was slightly larger at 138.46 grains and valued at 6 shillings, 8 pence. The noble gained popularity, and on August 20, 1344, the gold leopards were officially demonetized.

Few gold leopards were struck, and the page says many were likely melted. The Double Leopard was thought lost until schoolchildren found two examples in the Tyne River in 1857. Both later entered the British Museum, where, according to the page, they reside.

Found in 2006

The third example, which the page says was graded by NGC, was found by a metal detectorist in southern England in 2006. It was sold at auction that year for the equivalent of $850,000, which the page says was the highest price paid for a British coin at the time. Ira Goldberg was the underbidder at that auction.

Differences within the page

The opening lines of the page say the coin was sold by UBS at auction in 2001 for $5,431 and realized $317,250, a world record price, in a Goldberg sale in 2016. The 2001 sale is earlier than 2006, the year the main text gives for the coin's discovery. The $317,250 called a world record is also lower than the 2006 auction price equivalent to $850,000 given in the main text.

Source: Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, "Private Sale the 1344 Edward II 'Double Leopard' only example of this important gold coin in private hands."