38 17th April 2010

coins & medals

The web and new players are making things better

Richard Falkiner

reports

INNOVATION seems to be a significant characterstic of the London coin and medals market so far this year.

The cost of printing and posting printed sale catalogues has risen steeply over the years with the result that lots under, say, about £500 are hard to handle profitably. This has an impact on collecting and, it follows, on scholarship. For these reasons, these new ways of handling significant items, even if of an obscure nature, can only be a good thing. We have already noted Dix Noonan

Webb’s adoption of online auctions for lesser priced coins (ATG No 1931). Now I see TimeLine (17.25% buyer’s

premium), the well-established dealers in antiquities and coins, have held their first coins auction – at the Swedenborg Hall, 20-21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1 on March 19. A well-designed website clearly helped in this. Taking the arbitrary £500 as a yard-

Above: this rare Anglo-Saxon silver penny took £3400 in the first Timeline auction on March 19.

Above: this rare Roman gold aureus obtained £2700 at the Timeline sale.

stick, it is notable that of the 349 lots offered by TimeLine, 26 lots realised over this ‘magic’ figure, while six lots realised over an again arbitrary £1000. This represents a fine service for the more academic side of the market. The highest price in the coin section was £3400, paid for an early Anglo-Saxon penny struck under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury c.810-815.

Pennies of this early date are very rare indeed and although perhaps not matching the taste of most ATG readers, this was an excellent price for a rare item. The estimate was a reasonable £1500-2000. Another highlight of this sale and an example of the diversity of interesting material was the gold aureus of Trajan Decius struck in AD250. This emperor had a career fighting the Barbarians which even as early as this were encroaching on the Roman Empire. He also rigorously persecuted Christians to the extent that Pope Fabian was martyred during this period. Again this was a particularly desirable coin and was reasonably estimated at £2500-3500; it was a good guess as it was bid to £2700. The total for this sale was a healthy

£65,105.

In their antiquities section, which netted £150,550 for 194 lots, Timeline took £30,000 (estimate £30,000-50,000) for a Roman gold mask-pendant found at Alton in Hampshire. TimeLine’s next coin sale is scheduled for September at the same venue.

There’s more for the Western eye now

BALDWIN’S (15% buyer’s premium),in

partnership with Ma Tak Wo, held their 48th Far East sale in Hong Kong on February 25. As usual the sale (868 lots) comprised predominantly coins of Eastern interest. However, recently some lots with more Western appeal have crept into these sales. This represents the widening tastes of collectors in the Far East. These sales are bid for in US dollars. The highest price of the day was the $26,000 (£17,330) paid for a Western-

P.G. & R.J. PYLE

The West Country Fine Art Auctioneers

THE BRIDGE AUCTION ROOMS, HATHERLEIGH, WEST DEVON

Saturday 17th April at 11am

600 LOTS OF CATALOGUED ANTIQUES

Being the contents of three Devon farmhouses for sale without reserve

250 oil paintings and watercolours by or after H.S. Stannard, F.J. Widgery, L.E. Forse, Ludovici, John Steeple, E. Baboulene, H.Y. King, T.W. Morley, H.C. Fox, Lawson Wood, J. Brett, W.L. Hankey,

W.J. Widgery, etc. Collection of 19thC Japanese prints. Also family collection of silver, six pine kitchen

dressers, Shapland & Petter sideboard, Persian rugs, collectors’ items, porcelain, bygones, bronzes, etc.

Catalogues £1.50 or view at www.ukauctioneers.com On view Friday 2pm-6pm Tel/Fax: 01837 810756

COLLECTORS’ AUCTION

at the Mackworth Hotel, Ashbourne Road, Derby DE22 4LY

Wednesday 21 April at 10am

To comprise in excess of 700 lots

including silver and jewellery, collectors’ items, ceramics and glass, pictures, books, works of art, clocks, furniture

Viewing:Tuesday 20 April 11am-7pm

A large and extensive collection of Doulton character jugs and commemorative china will be included in this auction - the property of a Sutton Coldfield lady.The auction will also include the complete antique contents removed for convenience of sale from a Staffordshire cottage.

For more information please contact Hansons on 01283 733988 (tel/fax)

service@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk On view and sale days please call the saleroom on 07725 514855 View this sale at: www.the-saleroom/hansons and www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk Catalogues: £3 each (£4 by post)

ANTIQUES AND

AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS

ANTIQUES AUCTION

on Wednesday 21st April at 12 noon

(and every third Wednesday monthly)

at The Auction Rooms, Levens Road, Hazel Grove, Cheshire SK7 5DL

To include:

ceramics, silver, jewellery, collectables and furniture

with general estate clearance sale at 10am

Viewing: Tuesday 12 noon-6.30pm and morning of sale from 9am Free valuations every Thursday 12 noon-4pm

info@maxwells-auctioneers.co.uk www.maxwells-auctioneers.co.uk Administration office: 133AWoodford Road, Woodford, Cheshire SK7 1QD

style silver ‘dollar’ of Chu Yu-Pu dated 1927 estimated at $8000-10,000. There are many varieties of these

modern Chinese coins and their varieties are still, it seems, opaque to the Western observer, so it is best to get advice on this recondite subject.

As evidence that it is difficult to predict this market, it is worth noting that about a quarter (27 per cent) of the lots failed to sell. This is about normal for this series of sales.

As a footnote, Baldwin’s, among others, have been doing a lot to combat the alarming rise in the number of forgeries in this field.

Left: highest price in the Hong Kong sale on February 25 was the US$26,000 (£17,330) paid for a 1927 Chinese

‘dollar’.

THANKS to his abdication, the coins of Edward VIII are exceedingly rare. The 12-sided threepenny piece turns up on very rare occasions and is listed in Spink’s annual standard catalogue at £32,000.

Now I can reveal that a complete set, from the five pounds down to the farthing, has been sold to the United States dealer Ira Goldberg for US$2.1m (£1.35m, at the time of the sale) by private treaty through the agency of Mark Rassmussen. This is the only original (1937) complete proof set in private hands.

Mr Rassmussen is well known for dealing in much of the best British material on the market and issues a well-illustrated list.

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