One thing you can rely on every summer is the outraged stories in the press about the sums being spent by Premier League football clubs on the great, the good and the Jozy Altidores.

The eye-watering sums that footballer Neymar is set to earn as part of his £200m record transfer from Barcelona to Paris St Germain are put into perspective by another contract from a different era (in so many senses).

When 22-carat golden eggs made by the Queen’s jeweller became available to the public for free back in 1983 it inevitably caused a stir. There was a snag, however. A big snag.

Poor old Newark. A bit like Belgium and Poland over the centuries, in the English Civil War the English Midlands town ended up in the wrong place in wartime – stuck in the middle - as armies trampled back and forth across it or lay siege. The town’s misfortune is a coin collector’s gain, however, as the lozenge-shaped coins minted in Newark during the conflict have become familiar and fairly common visitors to the salerooms.

When London’s Tottenham Court Road Underground station started its £400m refurb, one of the trickiest tasks was not the tracks, the signals, ticket office or any of the usual suspects. Instead, it was tackling 950 square metres of mosaics designed by one of the most celebrated of 20th century British artists.

Demand for Beatles memorabilia is always high, so for rarities in this collecting field the prices will naturally be hefty.

In an August 2016 ATG wrote that the scrimshaw market had been in the doldrums but was showing signs of a return to buoyancy. Judging by the latest results from Massachusetts auction house Eldred’s, bidders are certainly prepared to push the boat out for the best examples.

With Christopher Nolan’s epic new film Dunkirk released today in the UK, it is a perfect time to focus on still rather than moving images which reveal the original picture of the 1940 evacuation.

A very early police ‘truncheon’ up at auction on July 25 was more about the short arm of the law than long.

The musket and pistol ball test dents in the surface of a superb set of armour sold at Sotheby’s tell the story of how warfare was changing in the 17th century.

“By god, sir, I’ve lost my leg.” “By god, sir, so you have.” One of the most famous verbal exchanges in military history was recalled when lot 342 was sold by London auctioneer Thomas Del Mar on June 28.

It’s that time of year again, although Murray and Konta (at the time of writing) are spoiling the now traditional game of ‘how early are the Brits going to crash out of Wimbledon’ and a double win is actually a possibility.

Militaria archive material such as documents, letters and log books has been delivering strong results at auction recently, aided by cross-over appeal to photography enthusiasts.