View source for Sharp, Thomas - A Catalogue of British, Saxon, Scotch & English coins in the Cabinet of the Family of Sharp

{{Catalogue of Numismatic Collection
|Title=A Catalogue of British, Saxon, Scotch &#38; English coins in the Cabinet of the Family of Sharp
|Institution=Gloucestershire Archives
|Place=Gloucester
|Coordinates=51.86537, -2.24582
|Inventory=D3549/6/5/3
|Author=Thomas Sharp
|Collector=John Sharp I
|CatalogueLanguage=English
|Associated persons=John Sharp III; Granville Sharp
|Literature=Burnett 2020b, pp. 1503-4, 1330
|Numismatic keyword=british coins; saxon; scottish; irish; danish; swedish; german; french; flemish; italian; spanish; portuguese
|Grand document='The catalogue of the Sharp collection, made by Thomas Sharp, with some later additions by himself and his son John Sharp. Vol. III lists British coins (Tables I–X), and Vol. IV Foreign Coins (Tables XI–XVII). Vol. IV has been added to the original Vol. III, hence the spine labelling. There are also two sets of loose papers.
The identity of Vols. I–II is not obvious. One of them was presumably the catalogue of Roman coins, originally made by Archbishop Sharp and later updated by Thomas (see D3549/6/5/1, item 1), but what might the other have been? The only likely explanation is that some or many of the 97 Greek coins noted in 1963 were originally present, and therefore that Vol. I would have been for Greek coins, and II for Roman. If this is correct, then it would show that the Archbishop also had a reasonably large collection of Greek coins.<br>

Spine: Dr T. Sharp’s Catalogue of Coins 3<br>
Title page:<br>

'Vol. IIId<br>

A Catalogue of British, Saxon, Scotch & English coins in the Cabinet of the Family of Sharp, in X Tables, & 2 additional Tables of English Silver
Medals, placed in order of Time.<br>

This Volume is entirely in the hand Writing of the Revd Dr Thomas Sharp, Son of AB<sup>p</sup> Sharp – except a memorand<sup>m</sup> at the end of the book respecting the number of Coins, probably meaning, the number mentioned in this book. This s<sup>d</sup> last memorandum is in the hand Writing of the Rev<sup>d</sup> Dr John Sharp, Son of the said Thos & Grandson to the AB<sup>p</sup>.<br>

The last mentioned Dr John Sharp had a large Collection of Medals & Coins, purchased & collected by himself, in addition to the Collection transmitted to him by his Father & Grandfather, and therefore the Catalogue of Coins inserted in these 3 Volumes, which was wrote by Dr Tho<sup>s</sup> Sharp, cannot include all the additional Coins which the Cabinet at present contains.<br>

<nowiki>*</nowiki>There is still another Volume in 8tvo (but thinner & unbound) in the Hand Writing of Dr Thos Sharp, which I have marked Vol. IV, as the four Volumes seem to contain a Catalogue in the state of the Collection when in the possession of Dr Thomas Sharp
GS [= Granville Sharp]
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The IV Vol here mentioned is bound up in this Book – CS [= presumably Catherine Sharp]'<br>

The catalogue has very full descriptions of the coins and runs to 165 pages. It includes a few ancient British (14) and Anglo-Saxon coins (99), but the bulk is later.
At its end of Vol. III, a summary was added, in a later hand (John Sharp III’s):<br>

'114 British and Saxon<br>

68 English Pennies Silver<br>

5 Scotch Pennies<br>

5 English Halfpennies Silver<br>

1 Irish Halfpenny Silver<br>

2 English Farthings Silver<br>

1 Irish Farthing Silver<br>

48 English, Scotch, Irish Copper Tin & Lead Money<br>

50 English, Scotch & Irish half Groats & Twopences Silver<br>

26 English Scotch & Irish Threepences Silver 62 English Groats Silver<br>

7 Scotch Groats<br>

30 English Sixpences<br>

5 Irish Sixpences<br>

43 Smaller Scotch Coins Silver<br>

77 Shillings<br>

40 Half Crowns<br>

14 Scotch Coins, Silver, middle sized 1 Twenty shilling piece Silver<br>

1 Ten shilling piece Silver<br>

34 Crowns<br>

9 Scotch Coins, Silver, large Size 48 English & Scotch Coins Gold<br>

14 Smaller Medals. Silver. English. 44 Large Medals Silver. English<br>

8 English Medals Gold<br>

757'<br>

Volume IV follows, of 125 pages. The first page gives a list of its contents:<br>

'Vol IVth<br>

Foreign Money Modern Current & Memorial Silver<br>

Tab XI Danish and Swedish<br>

Tab XII Dutch & Flemish and some German Tab XIII All German<br>

Tab XIV French & Fr. Flemish and Italian Tab XV Spanish & Portuguese<br>

Tab XVI Small silver money<br>

pt 1t of several countrys<br>

pt 2d Small Copper money of several countries<br>

Tab XVII Larger pieces of several countries both Silver and Copper<br>

[Added, later:] Memm. This Volume is entirely in the Hand Writing of the Revd Dr Thomas Sharp, Son of ABp Sharp. G.S. [= Granville Sharp]'<br>

Two slips of paper have been added later, giving the totals, amounting to 821 coins and medals.
There are also two sets of later papers, added loose in the volume. The first is a list of ‘Coins of the Large Upper Drawer of the Great Sharp Cabinet. Left hand compartment’, ‘Middle Compartment’ and ‘Right hand Compartment’. The second labelled ‘Sharp Cabinet’ has a list of the ‘Contents of the Large Upper Drawer of the Great Cabinet, as I found it in 1842,’ together with a sketch of the cabinet, showing the arrangement of the coins, and other items (butterflies, minerals, monkey skeleton, Bottles of Drugs, and ‘Cath & Andrew Coins’).' (Burnett 2020b, pp. 1503-4)
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