Spink

Spink have unveiled their new Hong Kong operation, dubbed Spink China, with the first sale, focused on wines and spirits, set for August 20.

The ‘piece of paper’ waved by Neville Chamberlain on his return from meeting Hitler in 1938 must count as one of the most infamous documents in history.

Spink have set a new record for any English silver coin at £330,000, paid for the finest known example of the Reddite, an extremely rare Crown of Charles II dating to 1663.

Spink have decided to give up their retail coins operation in order to focus all efforts on auctions and private treaty sales.

In what they are describing as a first for a global auction house, Spink are taking the significant step of locating their boss in Hong Kong.

A medal given to a remarkable sailor who was given the honour of conveying Napoleon to exile in Elba in 1813 as a reward for his daring exploits in the Royal Navy has made a record price.

Spink have announced a series of developments aimed at reinforcing the company’s global standing with a particular emphasis on New York.

Spink are to offer the Indian Mutiny Victoria Cross awarded to Sergeant Major (later Lieutenant) Peter Gill of the Loodiana Regiment for saving the life of an officer and his family at Benares and seeing off 27 mutinous Sepoys with only his sergeant’s sword, on June 4, 1857.

Spink have announced that they are to offer for sale a very rare Richard III Angel found near the site of the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire.

SPINK have acquired Hong Kong-based Phila China, a philatelic auction house founded by Anna Lee.

Spink have acquired Swiss-based stamp auctioneers Investphila.

THE Professional Footballers Association were active at Spink's latest sale, successfully bidding £210,000 to acquire a Great War Victoria Cross group awarded to Second Lieutenant D.S. Bell, Yorkshire Regiment.

A RARE East Anglian Iron Age gold torc dating from c.150-50BC, thought to have been discovered in the Diss area of Norfolk around 1942, sold for £44,000 (plus premium) in Spink's latest sale of coins and medals.

THE first Victoria Cross awarded to a soldier in the British Army sold for £210,000 (plus 20 per cent buyer's premium) at Spink in London on April 22. The Conservative Party donor and VC collector Lord Ashcroft was beaten to the prize by an anonymous buyer.

THE Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft has reportedly paid nearly £1.5m for the only double Victoria Cross awarded during the First World War.

FROM May 1913, the first distinctive Commonwealth of Australia banknotes were issued. They were controversial in that no portrait of the reigning monarch, George V, was included in the design.

A Bank of England £1m Treasury note sold at Spink on October 1 for £68,000.

Spink are to offer a £1m Treasury Note. Dated London 30 August 1948, and printed with the red serial number 000008, it is one of only two surviving examples from the nine thought to have been printed in connection with the Marshall Plan.

This $1000 Straits Settlement bill was described by Spink specialist Barnaby Faull as “the holy grail of Asian Pacific banknotes” after it had sold for Sin$420,000 (£180,000) plus buyer’s premium in Singapore on July 5.

SPINK have taken another step in their bid to become global brand leaders in their field with another major acquisition in the United States. Last week they announced the purchase of New York’s oldest established coins dealers and auctioneers, R.M. Smythe & Company.