Coins

The record for a British coin sold at auction has been broken twice at a sale in Monte Carlo.

Edward Bawden (1903-89) was one of a number of artists invited to submit designs ahead of Britain’s changeover to decimal coinage. Designs were invited for six coins: the 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p pieces.

A celebrated Una and the Lion proof set minted in the first year of Queen Victoria’s reign returns to auction next month.

Choice specimens of the rarest English coins are reaching new financial territory.

Coinex, the traditional autumn focus for the numismatic world, is cancelled this year.

The original names of the gold coins used by the indigenous tribes of Celtic Britain are unknown but collectors have dubbed them staters after the Greek coins that inspired them.

A silver penny of the boy king Edward the Martyr – the teenager who ruled Saxon Britain in the 10th century and was later venerated as a saint – has sold to a UK collector for £9000 at Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium).

MADAM – Re: your report on the sycee sold at auction in Germany (International, ATG No 2438).

As the Standard Catalogue of British Coins points out, this tiny denomination, the George VI silver threepence dated 1945 , essentially marks the end of the silver coinage and the beginning of modern coins made of copper-nickel and brass.

A silver medal on offer at Gorny & Mosch in Munich on March 9-10 commemorates the last pitched battle fought on the British mainland.

Just under 600 lots in the extensive March 16-20 auction at Künker in Osnabrück come from the Samel collection. This highly important collection was put together by Josef Samel and his sister Angela Arluk, who were born in Poland, but settled in Munich after the war.

A record take of £48m and a one-third increase in the number of lots available to bidders – ATG reviews a healthy 2019 for London numismatic saleroom

This gold solidus struck in Constantinople features the double portrait of Irene of Athens (c.752-803) who from 797-802 became the first empress regnant of the Byzantine empire.

A UK auction record for a copper coin was set on September 24 when a rare Edward VIII 1937 pattern penny sold at Spink for £111,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium). The coin was made as a trial, ahead of the king’s abdication in December 1936, and was never released for circulation.

This silver half crown proof from 1839 sold for £6000 at London Coin Auctions (20% buyer’s premium).

Sovereign Rarities (20% buyer’s premium) conducted its second joint auction with The Royal Mint in the second half of last year.

This silver denarius from 43BC is struck to one side with a youthful male of Quintus Arrius, who was praetor in 72BC and propraetor in 71BC.