Noonans

A large collection of tokens and badges relating to Sheffield comes to market at the Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals auction on July 6-7 at London saleroom Dix Noonan Webb.

A group of 56 medals awarded to pioneering photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (1853-1941) is heading back to the area he covered in his evocative images.

Two impressive Battle of Britain medal groups offered a day apart at separate auctions both took six-figure sums.

A Victoria Cross group awarded to a British soldier who volunteered to carry a vital message to a stranded platoon at Mericourt in October 1918, in the knowledge that five of his comrades had already been in killed in turn making earlier attempts, sold for £200,000.

A recent Fine Jewellery sale at Fellows (23% buyer’s premium) in Birmingham included an unusual Victorian necklace.

“I joined up as a youngster for a bit of fun, but it didn’t turn out like that. We were young men made old before our time.”

A long search for an 1914-15 Star had a happy ending after the Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium) auction in London on February 17.

The world record for a George Cross has been broken by a medal awarded to a courageous British soldier who died in captivity during the Korean War.

Despite the near absence of face-to-face trading, 2020 was a record year for London’s coins and medals auction houses with combined total sales just shy of £53m.

In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

A record for a British token was set at Dix Noonan Webb on May 26 when this copper coin – the only specimen known in commerce – took £7000 (estimate £400-500).

Dix Noonan Webb’s highest-priced lot of 2020 was this Crimean War Naval Brigade Victoria Cross group of four sold for £240,000 on October 15. The estimate was £120,000-160,000.

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 small oval gold medal was struck at the end of 1650 to mark the victory of the New Model Army at the Battle of Dunbar.

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

A ‘Hunger Strike’ Women’s Social and Political Union Medal awarded to a Suffragette who threw at lump of iron at Winston Churchill’s car made £10,000.