Coins

WITH the coin world descending on the Big Apple for the New York International Numismatic Convention, once again the new year started with a bang in this sector.

ANTIQUITIES and other cultural property claimed by Italy as part of its heritage may soon be barred from entering the United States unless accompanied by Italian export permits. This could have a significant effect on the trade and transport of classical coins, for which the US is one of the largest markets.

INTERNATIONAL Coin Exchange, a new firm of Dublin-based auctioneers, will hold their first sale on February 19.

THE two museums hoping to provide a home for the Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold will be asking arts charities and other funding bodies to pay for it.

A metal detector enthusiast who pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud has been jailed for six months for selling modern fakes.

A HOARD of James I gold unites, found in the wall of an Oxfordshire cellar 30 years ago, is expected to sell for £50,000 at London specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9-10.

The unique Russian Catherine the Great 1755 gold 20 rouble coin sold for a record price of £1.55m hammer at St James's Auctions on November 6.

A gold pattern Chinese coin picturing Chang Tso Lin (1875-1928) was dubbed 'one of the rarest coins in the world' by A.H. Baldwin & Sons and Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co Ltd who offered it for sale in Hong Kong on August 28.

POLICE are on the lookout for a gang of thieves who stole a chest of antique coins worth over £150,000 from London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb. They are believed to be the same people who targeted dealers in Hatton Garden late last year.

SPINK have set a new record for an English silver coin with the £180,000 they took for a 1663 Charles II silver Crown on September 27.

On September 26 Baldwin’s Auctions obtained £210,000 (plus 15% buyer’s premium) for this unique gold medallic triple unite of Charles I – proof that the rarities in the English coin market are now attaining trophy status.

ATG's pioneering live bidding service went East on August 31 - participating in the sale of Oriental and Asian Coins, Medals, and Banknotes conducted in Hong Kong by Baldwin's in association with MA Tak Wo Numismatic Co. Ltd of Hong Kong and Monetarium Pte Ltd of Singapore.

There was nothing dull or predictable about the coin sale at Spink on June 29 when an expectant crowd gathered to witness the sale of one of the rarest of English Medieval coins: the gold Double Leopard florin of Edward III which was minted for only a few months in 1344.

Following its recent discovery by a metal detectorist in the south of England, one of Britain’s rarest medieval coins is to be sold by London numismatists Spink.

Hidden away in a bank vault for over 80 years, the fabled Damon Collection of rare coins, medals and bank notes will fall under the hammer in March.

DREWEATT Neate’s sale on 23rd March at Donnington Priory offered a 100-lot section of coins, banknotes and medals which produced a 100 per cent take-up.

The London Coin Fair (Frances & Howard Simmons) took place on February 5. Of the three of these fairs each year this one is not expected to be the most active. This time the reverse applied.

JUST before the onslaught of numismatic sales in London, there have been a number of interesting dispersals abroad.

RIGHT: London auctioneers Spink’s pre-sale billing of this Anglo Saxon gold penny as ”the most important discovery in British numismatics for many years” gained tangible endorsement last week when they sold it for £200,000 – a new record for an English coin.

IT’S been billed as the most important discovery in British numismatics for many years. Now the London auction house Spink are to offer the first newly-discovered Anglo-Saxon gold penny to come to light for almost a century.