Coins

Total sales across London coin and medals auctions were £61.6m in 2023, just a fraction down on 2022’s record aggregate

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.

A new auction record for an English silver coin was set during the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC).

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.

Spink will conduct the Official Coinex Auction on September 28.

In the 1790s a dire shortage of small copper change caused great difficulties in the small transactions of everyday life.

A collection of Greek coins formed over 20 years ago by a European connoisseur will be sold by Morton & Eden in London on September 26-27.

The latest edition of the Coin Yearbook is published this month.

The Coinex extravaganza brings out the big guns of the UK numismatics trade alongside continental European dealers.

On October 3 Noonans will sell two single-owner collections.

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 round-up of art and antiques news from the previous seven days, including an Edward VIII halfcrown that was never issued being offered at Noonans.

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 final proof coin set bearing Queen Victoria’s portrait was issued by the Royal Mint in two sets in 1893.