The Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire

03/10/2026

Thanks to Simon Wilson for his latest post:

One Man, Two Rescues

This is the story behind a group of miniature medals I bought in a recent Spink auction, a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) group to Flight Lieutenant Thomas O'Gorman, who was decorated twice for his services as a navigator in the Air Sea Rescue (ASR) Hudsons of 279 Squadron. It is an unusual group because it has two DFCs, a British one at the beginning of the group, and an American one at the end.

His British DFC was announced in the London Gazette 3 October 1944. The original recommendation says:

'Flight Lieutenant O'Gorman joined No. 279 Squadron on 10 December 1942, since when he has proved himself an excellent Navigator. Together with bis captain, Flight Lieutenant Clarke, he has taken part in numerous rescues and several of the sorites he has flown on have been hazardous in the extreme, but by his skilful navigation he has brought the aircraft safely back to base, after fulfilling the special instructions.

This officer was the Navigator of Flight Lieutenant Clark's aircraft which effected the rescue, in most difficult conditions, of an American crew on 22 February 1944. It was due to his excellent navigation that the dingy was "spotted" and he calculated the most efficient delays to be employed with the marine markers which were successfully used to guide the H.S.L. [High Speed Launch] to the dinghy.

This officer's work as Navigator has been invaluable to his Captain and I recommend him for the immediate award of a D.F.C. for outstanding devotion to duty.'

Additional remarks by his Station Commander give more information:

'Strongly recommended. Since this citation was written up, Flying Officer O'Gorman was responsible for navigating the aircraft which successfully dropped the lifeboat which saved a complete Fortress crew on 20 May 1944.'

Thomas O'Gorman enlisted in the RAF in August 1940 and was sent to Canada for aircrew training in 1941, which must have provided a nervous few days in the U-Boat infested Atlantic. He returned to the UK, being posted to Coastal Command's 279 Squadron in December 1942. This was an Air Sea Rescue (ASR) unit based at Bircham Newton in North Norfolk (now the National Construction College and RAF Bircham Newton Heritage Centre).

His was not the sort of war that attracted much notice – no fighter-to-fighter combats or thousand bomber raids, but it still had its moments, including the seagull incident on 13 November 1943.

To quote Tom Docherty in Dinghy Drop - 279 Squadron RAF 1941-46:

'F./O. Clark, piloting the No. 2 Hudson in the formation, hit a seagull on take off, which knocked a large hole in the nose of the Perspex and scattered entrails, feathers and worms all over the cabin. Clark elected to continue and his observer, F./O. O'Gorman, decided to navigate the Hudson from the aft cabin area. The crew blocked up the hole in the nose as best they could with a cushion, but 'Nobby' Clark reported afterwards that it was '------- cold!'

Two of O'Gorman's missions ended in the rescue of downed Flying Fortress crews and the Americans recognised this by awarding him the American DFC, one of only 209 such awards to the RAF in WW2.

His American DFC appeared in the London Gazette 15 May 1945, the original recommendation states:

'For extraordinary achievement in affecting many air-sea rescues under the most hazardous conditions. On 22 February 1944, Flight Lieutenant O'Gorman, through expert navigation and outstanding airmanship, located a dinghy bearing an American bomber crew and participated in their rescue. His courage and skill reflect highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.'

O'Gorman would go on to send his war in the Far East, dropping supplies to resistance groups and POW camps. On his return to civilian life, he became an accountant. Clarke, his pilot, was posted home to Canada and served in the RCAF until 1957.

The rescue on 22 February saved the crew of the Flying Fortress Sugar Blues. The picture shows them in borrowed RAF uniforms after their rescue. After being found and re-supplied by O'Gorman's aircraft they were picked up by motor launches during their first night at sea.

The other involved the crew of Roger's Raiders, which was forced to ditch on 19 May on its return from Berlin. They were located on 20 May, a lifeboat was dropped and they set course for England. They were picked up by Danish fishermen on 21 May and the boat turned to occupied Denmark, where the men would have been made POWs. They still had an aircraft from 279 circling overhead and it fired across the bows of the Danish vessel, which stopped and waited for British rescue launches to take the crew off.

The work of the ASR Squadrons isn't discussed much; however, they rescued an estimated 13,000 people during the war, which is clearly something that was worth doing.

27/09/2026

If you were part of a foreign embassy visiting ancient Rome during the Republican era, you would likely have first been directed to an administrative building called the Villa Publica where you would receive gifts and entertainment.

It sat at the southern end of the Via Flaminia near the cliffs of the Capitoline Hill, though we do not know the exact location. It was a large building used for organising censuses, levying troops and was the place where the participants would form up into their units for triumphal processions through the city.

It also had a bloody history, famously used by Sulla in November 82 BC to incarcerate thousands of prisoners of war. As he gave a speech to the Senate in the nearby Temple of Bellona, the prisoners were massacred so that their cries were clearly heard by those present.

The Roman historian Valerius Maximus, writing around a century after the event, during the reign of Tiberius, tells us; "Their lamentable cries pierced the ears of the trembling city: and the Tiber was compelled to carry away their dismembered bodies in its bloodied waters, impatient of so heavy a burden."

The Villa Publica was built around 435 BC, and lasted throughout the Roman Republic. Valerius Maximus refers to the building in the past tense and explains where the building was, meaning that it must have been razed and built over by the early first century. Thanks to coins such as this one, we have an indication how part of the Villa Publica looked - presumably this was the frontage with a porticoed entrance below (on some coins the dies even show the gates) and an second storey, perhaps used for addressing those assembled outside.

It's not clear why the moneyer Publius Fonteius Capito showed this building on his coins, or why he names Titus Didius, who was the consul in 98 BC - presumably there was some family connection. This coin type has caused many people to infer that Titus Didius restored the Villa Publica during his consulship, but we have no clear evidence for that.
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The goddess Concordia appears on the front of the coin. She rarely featured on Roman Republican designs (appearing just seven times out of around five hundred types). All instances seem to correlate with times of civic strife. In this case there was growing friction between Caesar, Pompey and Cassius, so this choice of design was probably a call for internal harmony in the Roman Republic.

26/09/2026

Thanks to Simon Wilson for his latest post about, of all things, Oliver Cromwell's Head...

In death, Oliver Cromwell found himself in strange company when the Sentimental Magazine selected him as a subject for its medallion issue. Here, he could be found, amongst others, with John Wilkes, who was famously the ugliest man in England, Garrick the actor and Beckford the slave owner (the last two have both been the subject of previous entries).

However, that isn't the strangest part of his posthumous tale. These days we think of body parts as something to be treated with reverence, and even (in modern museum services) something to be returned to the cultures to which they belong. In Cromwell's day body parts were still used to make political points. In 1660, the returning King Charles was generally restrained in his actions, but one thing he did do was order the posthumous ex*****on of Cromwell. It took eight blows of an axe to sever Cromwell's head. The body was thrown in a rubbish pit and the head was displayed on a spike on the roof of Westminster Hall, where King Charles had been executed in 1649.

The head, bound in iron, remained there until a great storm in 1684. A guard found it on the floor and took it home. A reward was offered for its return as it was considered a significant national relic. It remained hidden until 1710, when it was displayed in a private museum in London. The owner, Claudius du Puy, claimed it was worth 60 Guineas at that time, about £12,000 today. It passed to Samuel Russell, said to be a descendent of Cromwell, and “a failed comic actor and drunkard”. He sold it to James Cox (1723-1800), a jeweller, and maker of automata, in 1787. Cox paid £100 for the head and sold it in 1797 to the Hughes brothers, who were putting together a collection of Cromwell memorabilia for display in Bond Street. It cost them £230 (about £25,000 when adjusted). Their exhibition was not a success, partly due to rumours that the head was a fake – there were, at the time, two “Cromwell Heads” in existence. And so we find two themes that are still relevant to today's collectors – rising prices and the importance of provenance.

As any student of relics can tell you, duplication of body parts is not unusual. St Oswald's head, for instance, was displayed by four different churches at the same time. The church was able to explain this away with various religious arguments, but Cromwell's head had no religious backers. It was said that Cromwell's was "the only instance of a head cut off and spiked that had before been embalmed” but this wasn't true, as the head of his son in law, Henry Ireton, had also been embalmed, exhumed and exhibited on a spike. Ireton was, of course, a Nottinghamshire man and came from Attenborough.

The head passed to the Wilkinson family in 1815. It was examined several times over the years, notably 1911 and the 1930s, as was the other head, in the Ashmolean Museum. The Ashmolean head had not been embalmed and the spike had been driven in from the top, so it was clearly a fake. The other head was authentic, in that it had been embalmed after death but before beheading and the spike had been driven up from below. The spike (seen in the picture of the Wilkinson head) is from a contemporary pike with the langets (steel reinforcing strips) and remains of the pike shaft being clearly shown. When the head blew down in 1684 it could be identified as Cromwell's because the positions of the heads were known. That was why the reward was offered. Cranial measurements suggested it was Cromwell, though some doubt remained due to the possibility that it was Ireton's head. In the end, the experts, after compiling a 109-page report, concluded that the head did belong to Oliver Cromwell. In 1960, the family contacted Sidney Sussex College, which Cromwell had attended, and it was agreed that the college would become the new custodian of the head, which would be buried, rather than displayed to the public. It was buried, in the oak box which had contained it since 1815. The interment took place at a small private ceremony in 1960 and was announced two years later.

Thanks to Mark Ray (Collectors World) for the photos of the Cromwell shilling.

17/09/2026

05/09/2026

It's very rare when dealing with ancient coins that we can say with confidence where or by whom they were used. Countermarks, where a stamp has been applied to the coin after it has entered circulation, can provide a reliable indication at a certain point in time, and if we know the meaning of the countermark, we can better understand the life of the coin.

This coin was made by the Roman authorities in Antioch in 74 AD. The front has the bust of the emperor Vespasian facing right, and the reverse has a large SC in a wreath. The coin itself is very worn, suggesting that it was used extensively, but the really fascinating feature here is the prominent countermark - "XF" which indicates it was used by the Roman Legio X 'Fratensis'.

The 10th legion was stationed in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War and we know from fragments of bricks and tiles that carry the legion's symbols (some examples are pictured) that it was heavily involved in the post-war reconstruction in the area.

The countermark itself isn't precisely dated, but was almost certainly done either in Judaea or when Legio X was on campaign with the emperor Trajan (whose father had been the commander of the 10th Legion in the First Jewish-Roman War) against the Parthians (114-117 AD).

The countermarking of coins by the legions was quite specific - only certain issues were used, which shows that there was not a general 'tokenisation' of random coins for the soldiers. This suggests that worn coins were being validated to ensure legionaries could spend them without fear of them being rejected, or indeed that they would accept them as pay. It could also have supported the use of the coins in different regions when the army was on the move to show imperial sanction for their value. The evidence does not imply that these coins were only used as an internal currency in the legion, so they could have been used in the local economy too.

In conclusion, we can say with confidence that this coin was used by members of Legio X 'Fratensis' in Judaea or Syria in the late first or early second century AD. After being countermarked, it was likely taken as pay by a legionary and would have been used as small change for daily essentials - for example it could have bought a loaf of bread or about a pint of cheap w**e. After that it probably circulated for some time as currency in or around the legion before either finding its way into the local economy or being lost. Happily, almost two millennia later, we are able to hold and study this coin, and to better understand the world of those who came before us.

31/08/2026

"A curse on the King of the wealthy, whom often
Our misery vainly attempted to soften;
Who takes away e'en the last penny we've got,
And lets us like dogs in the highway be shot, -
We're weaving, we're weaving!"

So goes the third verse of "The Silesian Weavers" (as translated by E. Bowring), a famous work of the German poet Christian Johann Heinrich Heine.

Heine was born into a Jewish family in Dusseldorf in 1797 but converted to Christianity when he was about 28, His anti-establishment views led to many of his works being banned by the German authorities, and he spent most of his adult life in exile in Paris. It was there during the 1840s that he became close friends with his distant cousin Karl Marx, and both men shared a strong dislike of the autocratic, nationalistic leadership in the German states, although their politics differed.

During the Third Reich, Heine was portrayed as an example of Jewish intelligentsia and many of his works were publicly burned and his legacy was frequently attacked by prominent commentators.

After the war, his political views found favour in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and in 1956 The Heinrich Heine Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the GDR was founded as an annual prize for achievements in lyrical works and literary journalism.

The winners of the prize in 1966 were Helmut Preissler and Bruno Frei, and it is from the latter's personal estate that this porcelain medallion comes. It was made in 1972 as part of the celebrations of 175th anniversary of Heine's birth which included an international congress as well as commemorative coins and stamps. It's a very rare type - only 125 of these were made by the Meissen State Porcelain factory.

The former owner of this medallion, Bruno Frei, was a Jewish Marxist journalist and author who emigrated to Paris in 1936 to avoid persecution. He was arrested by the French authorities in June 1940 as part of a crackdown on people who had fled Hitler's regime. At the same time, his wife was killed in the only N**i air raid that the city experienced at the time.

Frei was interned in a camp in southern France and managed to secure his release and fled to safety in Mexico. He lived in Vienna after the war remained a prominent Communist author and journalist. He died in 1988 aged 90.
This medallion must have had a special relevance to Bruno Frei since his life had in some ways mirrored that of Heine. His work had earned him the eponymous prize as described above, and he could even trace his ancestry back to a distant relationship with Heine on his mother's side, a fact that Frei was apparently very proud of.

Considering the sad story of persecution in the twentieth century, it's fitting to end this piece with a prescient quote from Heine, from his play Almanso, written in 1821:

"Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also"

30/08/2026

Thanks to Mark T. Ray, our society secretary and author of 'Nottinghamshire History and Numismatics' for this post:

Henry Clark (1833 - 1908):

Perhaps the most important coin collection ever formed in the county belonged to this now forgotten 19th Century gentleman. Henry Clark was born to Mary and Edward Clark of Arnold, a framework knitter by trade. Henry was apprenticed to the lace business of James, Mann & Foster, and set up in business on his own in 1847. He married soon after, with his business becoming established as Henry Clark and Company in 1866. Despite a major fire at his factory in 1886, the business was successful, employing several dozen including his son Alfred, in the heart of the Lace District*. He was also a local secretary for the London Missionary Society, and deacon of Castle Gate Congregational Church. On his death at his home in The Park Nottingham, his estate totalled £11,499 a significant figure, while his grave is in the General Cemetery. He also bequeathed a painting ‘Love’s Oracle’ by Albert Ritzberger of Vienna to the Nottingham Corporation, specifying it should be exhibited in the Castle Art Gallery, and hung in ‘a prominent position’. The gallery had opened in 1878 (see relevant medallions), and the painting (77.5x110cm) is still in the Nottingham City Museums and Galleries collection.

His serious interest in coins would have remained hidden had it not been for the collection being sold by Sotheby’s in auction (catalogues available to view online through the Newman Numismatic Portal). The Nottingham Weekly Express for April 1908 mentions his catalogued collection of coins to be sold by Sotheby’s, although this appears to be mostly unsold items from earlier sales in his name, from 1896 & 1898. The main sale, held over 4 days, totalled an incredible £2,400 with several highlights as detailed below.

The collection was comprehensive, focussing on British Coins from all periods. Strong in Anglo-Saxon and Norman pennies (over 150 pieces), the hammered and milled sections are staggering for the quality and rarity of the pieces, often acquired from earlier major sales. A large number of pattern and proof milled coins are worthy of note, specifically a ‘Petition Crown’ of Charles II by Simon, a pattern five Guineas of George III, two Pattern Five Pounds of George III, and an 1831 crown of William IV in gold. A set of Elizabethan Portcullis coinage, civil war siege coins, and medieval gold (e.g. Henry VII sovereign and Henry VIII Noble), make the catalogue a mouth watering treat for the connoisseur. Several of the individual pieces fetched in excess of £50 each, while a mint state proof Gothic Crown could be bought for under £3. Some specific examples can be traced through later named collections, recent sales include the Edward VI gold crown (£7 in 1898) sold by Spink in 2021 for £26,000 and a Charles I silver halfcrown in proof (£5.10.0 in 1898) sold as part of the Slaney collection by Spink in 2015 for £10,000

All this came too late for inclusion in my book of Nottinghamshire History and Numismatics, but is recorded here as an addendum, after I fortuitously came across a reference to him while searching some early auction records. Thanks to Simon Wilson for unearthing relevant newspaper articles. If anyone can locate a picture of Henry Clark I would be delighted!

* One impressive company building still standing at 30 Stoney Street was designed by T.C.Hine, himself a noted antiquarian and numismatist (see p.176). Perhaps the two of them were known to each other, maybe they shared stories of their collecting interests?

23/08/2026

Thanks to Simon Wilson for his latest post:

Northampton Christmas Dinner Fund 1914

In the late 19th century, and persisting into the early 20th, Northampton had a tradition of putting on Christmas dinners for the poor and infirm at Christmas. The weather on Christmas Day 1914 in Northampton was “delightful” according to the papers – crisp, frosty and fine. On that day 879 hampers were distributed to families, containing gifts for 2,449 poor children. A further 248 parcels were distributed to those known as “bedridden folk”.

This was 500 hampers fewer than in the previous year, as there was more employment due to the upturn in the market for military boots, though there were 36 more parcels given to the invalids.

The appeal had, this year, also included a Santa Claus Fund, providing gifts for children with parents or siblings in the forces. It was said that 2,914 children in Northampton were dependents of men serving in the forces, and 80 were the children of men posted killed or missing since the beginning of the war.

There were also 3,000 gifts (mainly clothing) provided by collectors in the USA and the town also provided gifts of chocolate and ci******es to wounded men being treated in Northampton and the surrounding area. The American gifts included provision for Northampton's children and for 34 Belgian children living in town.

Apart from the normal volunteers who supervised the parcels, Boy Scouts were used to help with the American gifts and the Santa Claus Fund and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association compiled the necessary list of children with serving parents.

It was also announced that instead of toys, the children of Northampton would be given a commemorative war medal. This would be given to all children between the ages of 3 and 14 years who resided in a house where at least one member was serving in in the forces. This was said to be “commemorative of the great struggle in which Britain is engaged”, though there was also a shortage of women to produce toys and dolls as they were performing other volunteer work in relation to the war.

The intention was for the medals to be distributed before the children broke up for the Christmas holiday, but the parcel of medallions was held up due to chaos on the railways. So many men were going on leave for Christmas, and so many parcels were being sent to servicemen that the system couldn't cope. The medallions were caught in the backlog and were eventually distributed on Tuesday 12 January 1915, after the return to school.

3,100 were supplied. One hundred were retained by the committee for distribution to children too young to go to school and the rest given out at school. Compared to the issue of 22,000 Coronation medals issued by Northampton in 1911, this is a very limited distribution.

The obverse bears the arms of Northampton with “CHRISTMAS DINNER FUND” above and “MAYOR/E. C. PARKER on a tablet below the castle and “CASTELLO FORTIOR CONCORDIA” on a scroll below.

The reverse has crossed flags (Union Flag and Royal Standard) with a soldier and sailor standing by a shield with the inscription “A/RECOGNITION/OF MY/FATHER'S/PATRIOTISM”. The reverse is bordered by a wreath of oak leaves and has the makers name Vaughton, Birm outside the wreath at the bottom of the medal.

The medal is made of brass and is 32mm in diameter and a loop at the top for a pin suspender. It is very similar to the 1911 Northampton coronation medal from the same company.

23/05/2026

Thanks to Simon Wilson for his latest post:

Chesterfield Peace Medallion 1919

Base metal Peace medals, given out by the thousand to school children in 1919, are reasonably common, but in general we know very little about them. Many of them hardly merited a mention in the local papers at the time. However, the Chesterfield medallion appears in the press several times.

It is a modest white metal medallion with a diameter of 39mm. The obverse is a standard design from Arthur Fenwick of Birmingham, bearing a chain circle around the outer edge with the names of allied countries, and three shields inside the chain, two bearing the emblems of the allies and the Empire, and one having the union flag on it. On the left side are the floral emblems of the home nations (rose, shamrock, thistle and daffodil) and on the right a spray of laurel and some indeterminate leaves which could be a palm. At the base of the shields are clasped hands and a scroll saying “UNITED IN THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY”. The words REG NO and the number 665632 appear under the scroll.

The reverse design consists of a pomegranate plant and, in a ring around it “SIGILLVM COMMUNE BURGI CESTREFELD” - the seal of the town of Chesterfield. Outside that ring is further lettering “TO COMMEMORATE THE TERMINATION OF THE GREAT WORLD WAR: COMMENCED 4 AUG·ARMISTICE 11 NOV 1918·PEACE 28 JUNE 1919”. The medal has been pierced for a suspension ring and the word “TO” has been obliterated.

I would have thought the town seal was the obverse and the shield design the reverse, but this I how they are described in the newspaper reports.

The first mention of the medal is in the Courier on 12 July discussing plans for the Peace celebration and mentioning that the response from the ex-servicemen of the town had “not been up to expectations”. I suppose that after serving in the war the last thing many of them wanted to do to celebrate peace was to form up, be shouted at and march round town, even if a free lunch was on offer. The same report said that a commemorative medal is being designed with the Borough arms and would be issued at a later date.

The next mention of the medals is in the Derbyshire Times 13 September 1919 when the costs for the celebration were itemised – the cost for 8,100 children, ”including medals” was £739 3s 0d (1s 10d per child). They were given a good meal, with real butter rather than margarine on the bread.

The third mention comes from the Derbyshire Times 4 October 1919. G A Eastwood, the Chairman of the Chesterfield Education Committee made a speech and gave out medals, with red, white and blue ribbons, at the Central Secondary School. Medals were given to class monitors, who were to distribute them to classmates. Pupils who left between January and June of that year were also to receive them, as were the Belgian refugees who had attended the school during the war. Mr Eastwood was presented with one of the medals by a pupil, who pinned it on his jacket.

He reminded them all of the importance of what the medals represented, and the sacrifices made by the thousands of soldiers, buried in France and Flanders, who had died fighting for their country.

The final mention of the medals come in a court case in the Belper News 10 October 1919. An argument between two children in Chesterfield had escalated to involve the mothers as a 13-year-old-girl had tried to take a medal off a younger boy. The girl's mother assaulted the boy's mother and was taken to court, where the following exchange took place:
- The Chairman (Dr Booth): What kind of a medal was it you were quarrelling over?
- Witness: It was a Peace Medal (Laughter.)
The defendant was fined 10s and costs.

22/05/2026

The State of Israel was established in 1948 as the result of the Zionist political movement which was founded at the end of the 19th century by Theodore Herzl. In 1958 the state created the Israel Coins and Medals Corporation in order to be "an ambassador for the distribution of the legal tender commemorative coins issued by the Bank of Israel and the Israel State Medals, as well as for the promotion of Israeli artistry and Judaica." Attractive souvenir medals were made most years, and are popular with members of the Jewish diaspora and collectors in general.

This medal is from the estate of Bruno Frei, a prominent Marxist author who lived from 1897-1988 and who we will look at in more detail in a later post. It was made in 1963 and has on the front a map of the Holy Land showing the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea as well as key locations such as Jerusalem and Joppa.

The reverse is very simple, with a quote from Leviticus 19:18 in French, English and Hebrew which reads "Love thy neighbour as thyself". I offer no further comment on these important words beside inviting you to take a moment to reflect on them and their significance.