Coin

The extraordinary coin collection of Danish butter magnate Lars Emil Bruun (1852-1923) is coming to auction at long last.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, the coin illustrated on the Back Page (ATG No 2651) regarding Tim Millett’s book on engraved coins is a coin of William III (not George III), so some hundred years earlier than stated.

Estimated at £14,000-18,000, this Pavillon d'Or issued by Edward, Prince of Aquitaine (1362-72), took £36,000 plus 18% buyer’s premium at Harmers on November 1.

The 1705 silver crown is one of the key rarities in the Queen Anne (1702-14) series.

One of the great masterpieces of ancient Greek numismatic art, this silver tetradrachm was struck in c.460BC in commemoration of the refounding of the city of Naxos. Its citizens had been exiled to Leontinoi by the tyrant Hieron of Syracuse.

A remarkable Canadian single-owner collection of coins of the East India Company was offered by Noonans on February 8-9, 2023.

Mithradates IV was ruler of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 169-150BC. He ushered in a period of relative friendship with the Roman republic that would continue until his grandson Mithradates VI (the Great) became its most formidable and determined opponent. Mithradates IV’s coinage draws attention to his Persian and Greek origins.

Spink posted a house record for a classical coin when it sold this Julius Caesar and Octavian gold aureus on April 3 for £220,000 plus 20% buyer’s premium against an estimate of £60,000-100,000.

A Swiss gold coin that only appears at auction once every few years is the 1740 Basel triple ducat. To one face is a grand winged basilisk and to the other a view of the city from the east above eight coats of arms.

Estimated at $5000-10,000, a 14th century candlestick made during the classical period of Mamluk artistic production hammered for $100,000 (£79,500) at Leland Little (20% buyer’s premium) in Hillsborough, North Carolina, on December 1.

The name of a new Iron Age ruler or king has been discovered on a coin dug up in a field in the Test Valley, Hampshire.

Richard Beale, director of the London auction house Roma Numismatics, has pleaded guilty to a series of charges in connection with unlawful sales of ancient coins.

A Brutus Eid Mar-type silver denarius, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, has become the most expensive numismatic object ever sold at auction in Scandinavia.

A Panticapaeum gold stater, struck in present day Crimea c.350-300BC, has regained the rank of the world’s most expensive classical coin.

The record business enjoyed by London’s coin auction houses during Covid lockdowns largely continued last year.

Produced six years after the much more common 1847 dated Gothic Crown of which 8000 were made, the 1853 Gothic Crown was struck only in a very limited number.