Obverse:

HENRIC (over RICARD) DI GRA REX ANGL Z FRANC. Early form of St Michael (with feathers) slaying dragon.

Reverse:

PER CRVCEM TVAM SALVA NOS XPE REDET. Ship sailing r. quartered shield of arms at deck, h and rose at mast. No stops.

Very fine, obverse struck from rusty die and a little off centre otherwise a very good example of this extremely rare first angel of Henry VII. Same obv die as Schneider 501 and 502, reverse as BM 1909,0610.12. 

At the time of writing their paper on Henry VII’s gold coinage in 1963, Potter and Winstanley examined all the known early angels of Henry VII. Of these, there were only 4 coins from the altered Richard III dies. 3 of these examples were known with this same obverse die no.1 (the 2 examples represented in Schneider and just 1 other example in the British Museum).

The sun and rose mark is a well-known Yorkist emblem, which is seen on the coins of Edward IV/V and Richard III. Overstriking this with the Lancastrian symbol Lis is perceived to indicate Henry’s triumph over the Yorkists, which adds a little historical significance to the coin.