Coins

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.

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.

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.

This Queen Anne (1702-14) five guineas piece from 1705 sold for £220,000 (estimate £100,000-120,000) to top the Stratos collection of English gold coins offered by Spink on September 15.

A 1787 New York-style Brasher doubloon, perhaps the most celebrated issue in US numismatics, has set a new auction record for a gold coin.

The fourth and final part of the North Yorkshire Moors collection of coins and medals included some exceptional examples from the Interregnum.

One of only a handful of known examples of Henry III’s gold penny – one of the most fabled coins in all of British numismatics – sold for $720,000 (£554,000) at auction in Dallas last week.

Some of the best US coin discoveries are today made in the UK.

A notable source of ancient coins and historical jewellery appearing on the market in 2020 has been the soil. It is the success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme that finders of ‘treasure’ are now encouraged to declare discoveries and share the proceeds of sales with the landowner.

David Sear, author of Roman Coins and their Values, called it “among the most exciting numismatic discoveries of the 21st century, if not of all time”.

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).