September 2004 Coin Newsletter

by Steve Hill

Welcome, Cyberfriends, to the September edition of the Numismatic report as I celebrate my 14th anniversary working at Spink. Spink has changed a great deal in the last 14 years, not only with changes of ownership and our relocation from King Street to Southampton Row, but more so because of the internet revolution and advances in computer technology. I continue to watch with enthusiasm as other changes take place in the coin market place, and hope to update you more each month with new trends and changes.

August is usually a quieter month, but this is no longer the case at Spink, with the new Circular issued at the beginning of the month. You may remember last month's column was issued as the new list came out, and the first few rapid sales from the Circular were a good indicator of the continuing strong sales over the next few weeks.

As soon as the orders died down from the list we were packing and preparing for our trip to the annual American Numismatic Association event, this year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Jeremy Cheek, Max Tursi and I all travelled to this show and I can report that not only did we sell coins even in the climate of the current exchange rate, but were also very successful in buying too. Personally I found a number of good English coins to buy and I can report that all my new purchases will be appearing on Circular lists in the near future.

I have returned from this trip to a very hectic schedule of cataloguing for October’s Numismatic Circular, the deadline has been met and we will be listing a nice selection of milled silver, good milled gold, 17th and 18th Century tokens and medallions as well as the usual lists of ancient and English hammered as well as a Scottish hammered list.

Lot 18 – A highlight of the ancient section
the Thraco-Macedonian Ocktodrachm of the Basaltai – estimate £6000-8000

Lots 474 & 491– The Pimprez hoard contains many coins of King Stephen such as this Watford type penny in superb condition at £400-500 estimate (left). Lot 491 (right)– The ingots in the Pimprez hoard are very interesting indeed – this cut piece is estimated at only £40-50

Now to preview what is coming up for auction at Coinex time this year. We have a catalogue that runs to over 1000 lots with a value of well over half a million pounds. There is a good selection of ancient coins consisting of about three hub collections which will all be sold on the morning of October 6th. Then the afternoon will start with Anglo Saxon and other hammered properties including the Pimprez Hoard of coins of King Stephen and before. What makes this hoard really interesting is not only the amazing variety of Mints present but also the presence of some ingots of silver bullion which were buried with the hoard. They were obviously some means of trade as they are not all raw from the melting pot, but some have been cut into pieces to represent their various bullion values. The hoard is an amazing find probably buried some time around the start of the Anarchy period in Stephen’s reign and obviously the person who deposited it could never return to claim it. Now some 900 years later we have the hoard here for all to see and try to purchase a small piece of history. A fuller preview of the contents of this hoard and other highlights will appear shortly as a feature story on this website soon.

Lot 546 pictured below– The property of a Lady consisting of hammered and milled coins has some superb pieces like this Phillip and Mary Shilling at £1,250-1,500 estimate

The hammered silver continues with a good collection formed in the Seventies, the property of a lady, and all purchased from Spink. The quality of the coins is very good and though some are common you would be very hard pressed to find better examples of many of these coins. The collection runs right through to our current Queen and so the milled section commences with this collection with some nice high grade pieces running through George III to Victoria. It is a type collection of silver and copper so there are no date runs, but of each type of coin you can be assured there is a very nice specimen indeed. When this collection finishes the other milled properties continue with some excellent quality coins again of the George III to Victoria period and some earlier pieces. There is a nice Five Guinea piece of George II dated 1741 and I am sure it will be interesting to see how the market continues at Coinex time and looking at which disciplines of coin are in vogue or not. The foreign section of the Coinex catalogue will be on the auction block on the morning of Thursday 7th October and we will hold our trade cocktail party the night before the Coinex show.

Lot 596 – One of the highlights in the milled is a superb first bust crown
of James II, one of the best seen for many years at £2,000-2,500 estimate

Lot 735 – A superb Five Guineas in the Coinex sale is this 1741
of George II – estimate £7,000 – 9,000

The show itself (run by the BNTA) of course will be held as usual at the Marriott Hotel, in Duke Street Grosvenor Square, London W1. It will take place on Friday and Saturday, the 8-9th October 2004. We hope to see many of our clients there where we will launch the 2005 edition of the Standard Catalogue of British Coins. With many price revisions over the last year I think everyone is looking forward to the 2005 edition with bated breath!

Before Coinex though we hope to take a table at the combined stamp and coin fair taking place in Dublin, Ireland on the first weekend of October. Paul Mathews from Stamps and myself hope to be in attendance at this time and it will be in the usual venue of the Royal Dublin Society. This of course clashes with the IBNS Banknote Fair in London where you will find Barnaby Faull and Caroline Weiner of our Banknote department at the Trade Union Congress Building in Great Russell Street London.

As you can see there is much to look forward to as the busy season really starts in coins. Until the next column, I hope you continue to enjoy your coins.

Stephen Hill
Associate Director