February 2004 Coin Newsletter

By Steve Hill

Welcome, Cyberfriends, to the February edition of the Numismatic report. As you will see below we have some very good things to look forward to this month. In brief we have the February Numismatic Circular, and then the auctions scheduled for March 31st and April 15th. The former is the intriguing Marshall Collection, and the latter our first general sale of the year.

During January I was on my travels trying to track down more elusive material Stateside to keep the Circular supplied with nice interesting coins. Jeremy Cheek and I were in Orlando at the FUN Convention and we both bought and sold well at this show. I was pleasantly surprised to sell more than I thought considering the US dollar against the pound was certainly not in our favour for selling, and was at the highest rate it has been since I started working for Spink in 1990.

I travelled on to the New York Convention the weekend after and secured some good things in the auctions there. The two conventions were quite contrasting, the Orlando one held in the most massive convention centre I have ever been in with one very large room containing hundreds of tables which did not even fill the room! New York on the other hand was squeezed into the 18th Floor of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and was spread over about six rooms with narrow corridors between (one main room with smaller satellite enclaves), which I must say was far from user friendly. Despite this, it was an interesting show as it was totally ancient and foreign coin orientated. USA coins are not allowed to be displayed, and the ancient coin dealers were the majority of attendees. It did not help that the show precisely coincided with the coldest overnight temperatures ever recorded in New York City of one degree Fahrenheit (or seventeen Celsius to us Brits). However business was brisk and I felt quite satisfied with the whole trip.

Meanwhile, Paul Hill and Emily Reid attended the ever popular York Coin Fair at the Racecourse, which proved to be a very good show. They took an impressive array of coins and we sold quite well, as it was the quality coins that were selling and fetching the bigger premiums. A number of dealers commented that York was not such a good show for them, but it was really a case of quality that counts as middle grade VF and lower coins were not moving at all. A very good show for Spink and we look forward to the July Summer show.

The new Numismatic Circular will be issued now, which contains full listings of our stocks of Irish and Scottish coins as well as the usual Roman, Greek and Byzantine lists, and a rare listing of a group of interesting theatre passes. There are some very special coins listed this month in the Milled Irish list. As discussed in the last column, we have a group of the extremely rare unadopted patterns for the first Irish Free State coinage by Pablo Morbiducci. I believe that a set of these in silver has only ever been offered on the Numismatic Circular back in the Seventies. Though we don’t have all of them in silver, we have a number of copper pieces too, so this really is the biggest offering we have ever had of these exclusive patterns. I think it was a good eight years after starting at Spink before I even saw my first Morbiducci pattern, never mind a quantity like this. The rarity really is extreme. Of course these are all on a par with the other great Irish rarity we have this month - the only specimen money can buy of the 1938 Irish Penny, the first proposal of the new Eire coinage of 1939 onwards of which the first currency penny was not issued until 1940. This coin was the only one known for many years until the discovery of the second specimen now in the Dublin Museum just a few short years ago along with an unknown 1938 Halfcrown. However this is still the only 1938 penny that a collector can own and is a very important piece of Irish history.

IM0626: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern halfcrown £7,500	IM0647:The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern florin £6,000

IM0648: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern florin struck in copper £4,500	IM0662: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern Shilling £5,000

IM0667: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern Sixpence £4,000	IM0668: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern Sixpence struck in copper £3,500

IM0681:The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern Threepence struck in copper £3,000	IM0689: The extremely rare Morbiducci pattern Penny £5,000

IM0690: The rarest modern Irish coin money can buy – the 1938 Penny £40,000

The theatre passes are also an intriguing group and many people are not even aware such things exist. Many people have commented to me that you would think that actors would be very interested in collecting such items, however the truth is many of them are not even aware these passes exist. Issued only until the early 20th Century, metal and ivory passes were issued to regular clientele of theatres for admission to their regular boxes or seats in the pit. The survival of these remarkable objects is a very important part of our social history in this country. Members of the upper echelons of British Society are often personally named on such items and there are a number of very important personages on this list. We have some very important passes to the Pantheon Theatre from the late 18th Century, a theatre that used to be on Oxford Street but is now a well-known department store. We have Thomas Coutts the banker’s own pass as well as some others for the use of his guests for his regular box on the King’s side of the theatre. These are in superb condition. However, another item in quite well used condition - but so much more important - is a pass we have for the use of the Prince of Wales himself in the King’s box number 100. This was obviously issued to the Prince Regent of the time, the future King George IV, and it looks as though he kept this pass in his pocket regularly and must have attended this theatre often as the pass is only in good fine condition. The Circular for February will become a good reference list in its own right if only for the list of these passes, an unusual group.

TT2862: An extremely rare theatre pass to Thomas Coutts the banker – his own pass for the Pantheon theatre £1,000

TT2867: A unique item – the Prince of Wales own pass (later George IV) to the Pantheon theatre – in used condition £1,500

We always list the Irish coins in February as this coincides with our next major show, the Dublin Fair in the Royal Dublin Society in Ballsbridge on the weekend of February 21st -22nd where I will be in attendance personally to meet collectors old and new.

As of the end of January the cataloguing for the upcoming Marshall Collection is just being completed and the general sale of April 15th is not far behind. There are many interesting highlights in this sale with some very rare and super quality coins and a full review of these is available here.

Otherwise, it only remains for me to say enjoy your coins, and that we hope the availability of good quality coins remains steady throughout 2004 in this now buoyant and exciting marketplace.

Stephen Hill
Associate Director
Coins