Siege money (Newark)

To meet need for money, the besieged Royalists set up a mint that manufactured lozenge-shaped coins — half-crowns, shillings, ninepences, and sixpences.

[1][a] The First English Civil War (1642–1646), commenced when the King Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642, 20 miles (32 km) south west of Newark.

The first piece to appear would be the shilling, which bears upon the obverse a most curiously shaped crown, the jewelled band of which is straight across the front, whilst the reverse reads OBS: NEWARKE 1645.

[4] The second coin to appear was probably the shilling with the same reverse reading, NEWARKE, but with a new obverse, the crown on which has a high arch and richly jewelled band.

[5] The last denomination to be struck in 1645 was the half-crown, the obverse of which shows us a crown with a chequered arrangement of jewels on the band; whilst the reverse is from the same die as the NEWARK ninepence "f" of the same date.

[5] The issues of 1646 are as follow:[5] A lot of examples of the shilling, ninepence, and sixpence of 1646 are found to be gilt, and were doubtless struck upon flans cut from a service of gilt-plate.

[5] Some specimens of the shilling and ninepence of 1646 exist having the Royal arms upon the reverse, and the coins so marked may have formed part of some Regal service of plate, which was sacrificed in order to pay the expenses of the siege.

The first is a ninepence, in the collection of coins the property of the Corporation of Liverpool (in 1904), and is of importance since upon the reverse we find beneath the A of NEWARK a leopard's head, the hall-mark of the period.

That coin bears upon the reverse a capital M within a dotted indent, which appears to be a silversmith's private stamp, and indicates the source from whence the piece of plate originally came.