WORKING in the Bullion Office of the Bank of England placed James Dodsley Cuff in a position from which he was able to acquire some of the rarest coins of the milled period to add to a collection which contained some of the choicest English coins.

James Dodsley Cuff was born in Corsley, nearWarminster in Wiltshire, in 1780, the only sonof Caleb, a yeoman farmer, and his wife Kitty,a niece of James and Robert Dodsley, who werewell-known publishers based in Pall Mall. Cuffbecame interested in numismatics in about 1810and spent the next 40 years or so studying Englishcoinage from the earliest times. He worked at theBank of England for about 48 years and for thelast 28 of those he worked in the Bullion Office.

In his capacity as a principal in that departmenthe was in a position to examine coins which cameto the Bank for conversion into bullion. WithoutCuff's interest it is probable that many rare coinswould have ended up in the melting pot and thusbe lost to later collectors. Only three sets of the1786 shilling and sixpence are known, one set inthe British Museum and the remaining two setsin Cuff's collection. Similarly, Cuff owned notjust one specimen butfive examples of the 1798Dorrien and Magens shilling.

Cuff was an early member of the RoyalNumismatic Society, founded in 1836,and it was recorded that when hishealth permitted, he was noted for hispunctual attendance at Council andordinary meetings of the Society. Hewas ever ready to share his expertisewith others and was described as beingcourteous and communicative.

His final residence was at Prescott Lodge,Clapham New Park, and it was here thathe died on September 28, 1853 from what onhis death certificate was described as softeningof the lumbar spine, which he had sufferedfrom for about 18 months. In his will, he lefthis estate to "his dear wife Sarah", a daughterof Bartholomew Barry, a Bristol bookseller.Cuff directed that his collection should be soldby public auction and named S. Leigh Sothebyand John Wilkinson of Wellington Street off theStrand to be the auctioneers.

The collection was catalogued by H. O.Cureton, a prominent dealer, and lasted a totalof 18 days starting on June 8, 1854. There were2,506 lots and the list of buyers reads like a Who'sWho of mid-19th century numismatists: Wigan,Bergne, Shepherd and the dealers Lincoln,Webster and Dantziger. Cureton managed toacquire something like a third of the wholecollection and William Chaffers was successfulin getting approximately a fifth.

Cuff's library, including an extensivecollection of priced auction catalogues (completewith the purchasers' names) occupied lots 2320to 2502 and fetched a total of £167 13s 6d. Thecatalogue of the collection of Edward, Earl ofOxford, in 1741 was the earliest and later notablesales were the Bank of England duplicates in1811, John Trotter Brockett in 1823, ThomasDimsdale in 1824, Marmaduke Trattle in 1832,the dealer Matthew Young in 1839 and ThomasThomas in 1844.

Lot 2398 was the star item beinga collection of 19 volumes of "a very extensive andperhaps unique collection of the sales catalogues of allthe most celebrated collections that have been disposedof by auction, both in London and the provincesbetween the years 1756 and 1830". Curetonacquired this highly desirable lot for just £5!The sale realised a total of £7,054 8s,a fortune in 1854 and indicative of thebreadth and quality of Cuff's collection.

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