 John Law. The World Delights in Being Deceived, 1720. B.123, B.IV. Unsigned. Silver. 32.3 mm. 168.7 gns. Obverse: Law's half-length figure. Reverse: Inscription in 13 lines of doggerel Latin and Dutch verse. About Uncirculated. From the same obverse die as B.VI (see next lot). This, Betts 122 and Betts 124, share the same obverse. The obverse type is a well designed bust of Law and names him Comte de Tanckerville and recites his other civil accomplishments. It is a laudatory die. The reverses of each, however, are condemnatory, making for curious hybrids. C. Wyllys Betts attributed the dies of his No.123 to Christian Wermuth (following MI's lead) but unsatisfactorily explained the apparent misspellings on the reverse as evidence of deliberate ridicule. It seems to the cataloguer that Wermuth was more capable than that implies. Benjamin Betts did not attribute the dies to any engraver and pointed out that the apparent doggerel might simply be a Dutch transcription of some unfamiliar Latin words. Their choice was deliberate, however, as the inscription scans after a fashion and the endings rhyme as AABBB.
Ex ''Million Dollar Sale'' (Harmer, Rooke, November 17, 1969, lot 326), Ted Craige Estate on October 4, 1982. Believed to have been ex Brand.
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