January 2004 Coin Newsletter

By Steve Hill

As this report reaches you in early January I will be on my travels with Jeremy Cheek in the USA. We are attending the annual FUN show in Orlando, Florida from the 8th-11th January. This is the first time we have tried a table at this show. Last year I popped over to see what this show was like and I was very impressed not only by the size of it - as it is immense! - but also by the wide variety of items on offer from the literally thousands of dealers here. The Orange County Convention Centre should have been extended by now and it will prove to be a very interesting convention.

The week after this is the New York International Show where I will go to try and find some new material to offer you our clients in this New Year. With the dollar rate currently working in my favour to purchase in the USA rather than sell, this is good news for British collectors. There are some interesting auctions taking place and it will really be a good start to the collecting scene for 2004.

Meanwhile during New York time, Paul Hill and Emily Reid will attend what has become the traditional British start to the New Year season, the York Stamp and Coin Show at the Knavesmire Stand in York Racecourse. This one and a half day show proves to be ever popular and this year more than any we are finding ourselves with fewer coins to show and need to buy more than sell.

The Numismatic Circular will I hope go from strength to strength in 2004 and the February list will contain some very interesting items indeed. It is of course time for our now annual listing of all our Irish, Scottish and Channel Islands Coinage, and we have some very exciting coins in the modern Irish section this year. We have no fewer than eight different patterns by Pablo Morbiducci whose series were one of the prototype design submissions for 1927 when there was a competition amongst sculptors to design a new Free State Coinage for Ireland. There is a very interesting contemporary report of this competition which was whittled down from five designers until the competition was between Pablo Morbiducci the Italian and Percy Metcalfe the Englishman. Therefore it was only the designs of these two finalists that made it into pattern production. Percy Metcalfe was of course the eventual winner, the result decided by a currency board formed of contemporary leading figures in economics and art as the board also included the Irish poet W B Yeats amongst its members. The designs of Pablo Morbiducci were well liked and the decision was very hard, but the more simplified designs of Percy Metcalfe won the day leaving these extremely rare patterns as the epitaph as to what was submitted. We have on offer for February four of these patterns in silver and four in copper and it is interesting to note that the silver all have an inverted die axis whereas the copper are all struck like medals with an en medaille (upright) die axis.

However, the rarest coin on offer for February at £40,000 is the only example a collector can purchase of the extremely rare 1938 Irish Penny. This coin is the only 1938 Penny in private hands and there is only one other in existence in the Dublin museum. The coin is struck to proof quality and carries the new Eire design with the revised harp obverse. The next penny minted was not until the rare issue of 1940, making this the only penny dated in the 1930's that carries this new obverse design. The coin is as it was struck and is rarer than all the other classic Irish and British rarities. If we compare it to the British pennies it is much rarer than the classic 1933 English Penny, as there are three examples of that in private hands. It is even rarer than the Penny of the King who abdicated Edward VIII, there being two pennies of 1937 in private hands - one being in a proof set. Of course there are other examples of these two rarities that are institutionalised. These more common pennies are worth in the region of £30-35,000 these days. The 1938 Irish Penny is on par for rarity therefore with the unique British pennies of 1952 and 1954 which have both sold for prices not dissimilar to that being asked for this. It is an opportunity to crown a collection of modern Irish coins with a coin even more elusive than the rare 1943 Florin, alas we do not have one of those to offer this year!

There will also be the usual lists of nice Ancient coins for February and medallions. This time there is also another special list of interesting tickets and passes for theatres. This is the first time I can remember us listing a group of these in the Circular, we certainly have had the odd piece or two intermingled with the medallion or token lists in the past but never a collection as comprehensive as this. There are a number of very interesting pieces with many having once belonged to major figures of British Society in the 18th-19th Centuries, a superb listing.

The other exciting news is the auction we are going to conduct on the 31st March 2004 - the Marshall Collection. This contains many great rarities and will I am sure be compared with the great Slaney collection sold by us last year. Most of the Marshall collection coins were collected contemporary with Slaney in the time of the Second World War with an earlier spurt of collecting in the Twenties. There are some wonderful old collector's tickets with the coins with some intriguing information on cost and where purchased, most having come from the Numismatic Circulars of the Twenties and Forties. The collection was obviously formed by two consecutive members of the family, and though a little mixed in parts it really has a fantastic spread of coinage. The strength lays more in the British hammered coins of which there are some superb examples of Anglo Saxon Pennies and a very good run of type coins of the various monarchs. It would seem that the milled was concentrated on later as it is not as strong as the hammered but there are still some superb coins present.

There is a fascinating run of coins of Oliver Cromwell of all denominations with some of the Dutch and Tanners copies. The most interesting coin to me though is the extremely rare Charles II Halfcrown of 1681 with the elephant and castle provenance mark below the bust. Now this is a coin that I or probably anybody else has ever seen in private hands in any better grade than good fine. Well, the Marshall Collection beats that by considerable margin as it contains the ex Murdoch Montagu specimen which I am pleased to report is preserved in almost EF condition. I am sure this will be the star lot in the milled.

There are a number of other interesting pieces including a Three Graces Pattern Crown of 1817 and a Wyon Pattern Crown of 1910. There is also a Proof Sovereign of 1825 with the first laureate head and plain edge which I have never seen before and nor did Wilson or Rasmussen in their book on the gold patterns and proofs, the only lead they had was the old Numismatic Circular reference they found which of course is one and the same coin as that offered here. It is a fascinating collection and I have not even informed you about the foreign coins yet which consist of a very impressive group of World siege pieces, a very unusual collection. Siege Pieces of course being emergency coinages that were issued under circumstances of great duress in times of battle and war to often pay troops or war expenses. Many of these pieces are extremely rare and again many were bought from our Circular. It just goes to prove how important a journal the Numismatic Circular has been, we believe the oldest continuously published mail order list in the World.

As you can see there is much to look forward to in 2004, and what with having a real bumper 2003 with great sales like Slaney; we thought it would be tough to top this, 2004 is so far proving to be very exciting.

Enjoy your coins!

Stephen Hill
Associate Director
Coins