Coin

Cyrene, founded by Greeks c.631BC in the uplands near present-day Shahhat in Libya, reached the height of its prosperity in the 5th century BC.

A tin of coins and medals consigned to Morton & Eden’s autumn sale included a number of early pieces from the American colonial period.

Starting his collection with a 1568 sixpence purchased in Swanage in 1957, marine insurance broker Christopher Comber (1944-2019) formed a remarkable collection of Elizabeth I coins.

The sale at Sovereign Rarities on September 21 includes this Charles I (1625-49), silver pattern unite (20 shillings) dated 1630.

Away from London, some exceptional coin sales coming up in Europe include a number of outstanding British issues.

Dealer Silbury Coins will bring to Coinex a group of Iron Age coins.

Mithradates VI was ruler of the Hellenistic kingdom of Pontus in northern Anatolia from 120-63BC and one of the Roman republic’s most formidable and determined opponents.

Although an auction house since 1918, stamps specialist Harmers is a relative newcomer to the London numismatic sales.

Among the coins being offered for sale by the specialist numismatic auction firm MDC Monaco on June 12 is this exceptionally rare Australian gold five pounds coin.

The record for a British coin has been broken again with the sale at Heritage Auctions in Dallas of an Edward VIII proof pattern £5 for $1.9m (£1.39m).

Gold coin rejected at first but now identified as once owned by renowned Russian collector

This coin, from the period known as ‘The Anarchy’, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Yorkshire field in March.

Showing that not all the best UK numismatic action takes place in London, the first known gold coin of Caratacus – unearthed by a metal detectorist a year earlier in a Berkshire field – sold at auction for a record £71,000 an auction in Norwich.

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.

The numismatic department of TimeLine is a small but important part of the auction house’s activities in the related disciplines of antiquities and medieval works of art.

The 1826 £5 piece was the highest denomination in the coinage of the George IV and was not issued for general circulation. The epitome of Regency design, the reverse features the royal shield while the obverse designed by William Wyon features the bare head portrait.

This William and Mary Five Guineas piece from 1693 features conjoined busts of joint monarchs.

After striking a few coins in both gold and silver which were still closely related to Byzantine and Sasanian prototypes, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 685-705AD (65-86H), made a clean break with the pre-Islamic past and introduced a completely new gold coinage in 77H.

This silver penny struck for Ludeca, a short-lived king of Mercia who ruled from 826-7, was found at Combe Bissett, Wiltshire, in 2016.