A particularly nice coin, this aureus of Septimius Severus has a noted pedigree dating back to the 2nd Platt Hall sale held by Glendining auction house on the 16th-21st of November, 1950. So who was this “Platt Hall”? Mr. Henry Platt Hall was born in 1863 in Oldham England and led a highly successful life. He helped run various parts of his family business making textile machinery until his retirement in 1924.

Having bought his first coin in grade school, and was hopelessly in love with numismatics from then on. As Forrer stated in the introduction to Glendining’s first sale of Platt Hall’s collection, collecting took a “great deal of his time and provided a never-failing source of enjoyment” until his death in 1949. After two large auctions of ancient coins, during which over 2300 lots hammered, there remained a sizable collection of British coins that were purchased privately by Spink from the family. It is fitting that this coin came from the Platt Hall collection, as his “principal interest” was on Roman coinage. Of which he had approximately 400 gold pieces.

Platt Hall not only was a member of the British Numismatic Society, but also served on the Council of the Royal Numismatic society, the High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire, and a Justice of the Peace for Montgomery county.