Roll up for a hoard of historic tanners

• London Times article 16 August 2015
  
  Collectors whose schooldays were enjoyed, or suffered, before February 15, 1971 (the date UK currency became decimal), may well have experienced the first stirrings of the disease when they hoarded the Victorian pennies, halfpennies and occasional silver sixpences still to be found in everyday change.
  
  The more sophisticated might have gone for condition, but most tried to build up runs of dates. However, while no longer a soldier’s or field labourer’s daily wage, sixpence was a significant proportion of one’s pocket money — far more than the (2½ p) that some thoughtless subs insist on appending to it — and the temptation to spend it could be great.
  
  Paul Cattermole began in this way at school, but when his interest in coins rekindled in his twenties, he decided to specialise in halfpence and sixpences, as less fashionable and more affordable than some other denominations. Hammered halfpence go back to the 10th century, but the first sixpences were minted in 1551, during the reign of Edward VI. The value of coins was determined by the metal they contained. Henry VIII’s government had debased the silver coinage by lessening its purity, meaning that the previous testoon, or shilling piece, had fallen to half its value and needed to be replaced. Sixpences were minted thereafter until decimalisation, including during the Interregnum, with many variations and alterations over the years.
  
  It is suggested that the term “tanner” for a sixpenny bit came from John Sigismund Tanner, chief engraver to the Royal Mint at the time of George II.
  
  Mr Cattermole has decided to sell his hoard of sixpences through the medal and coin specialists Dix Noonan Webb as part of a three-day auction from September 15-17. Particular rarities include a 1554 coin from the reign of Mary and Philip, estimated to £1,500, and a 1561 Elizabeth I example, with a particularly good portrait (to £700). Mr Cattermole can still remember the thrill of opening an envelope containing his first Elizabeth I milled sixpence. He will continue to collect halfpence, which were, after all, his schoolboy crush.
  
  The sales include two other notable collections: Scottish silver coins from 1600 to 1800 belonging to the American diplomat and expert on British numismatics, Harrington Melville, who died in February, and the Theo Bullimore collection of Irish coins from the period of Charles I and the Great Rebellion. Mr Bullimore was an accountant and managing partner of KPMG, and his star lot is an Ormonde Money gold “pistole” dating from 1646-47 and estimated to £100,000. One of the rarest Irish coins, it is one of just two available to the market.