October 2004 Coin Newsletter

by Steve Hill

Welcome, Cyberfriends, to the October edition of the Numismatic report at the beginning of our busiest and we hope record-breaking week of the year.

Last month I previewed the Coinex auction catalogue but at that time I could not tell you all about the most important lot in the sale which, as we hoped, set a new high for the price of a British coin. It is of course the unique Coenwulf King of Mercia gold penny, and I can tell you from personal experience it is more amazing to look at than any photograph can do justice. It received a lot of press attention before the sale (some of the press coverage is available elsewhere on this website) and then again afterwards when it reached a new pinnacle of value in British Numismatics - an accolade I believe it richly deserves. So let us now analyze the other six-figure value British coins we have sold in the past at Spink.

The previous record holder before this Coenwulf penny (for price) was the George III Three Graces pattern gold crown struck in 1817 and designed by engraved by William Wyon, which Spink sold in 1999 for £170,500 including the premium. This coin is one of three in existence and there have been only two ever sold. There is a third one is in the National Museum of Scotland and one of the two sold has since found its way into the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The next most valuable British coin ever sold again by Spink (and probably the most comparable to this Coenwulf coin) is the finest known example of the Henry III gold Penny of twenty pence face value. This dates from about 400 years later than Coenwulf, and was sold by Spink in July 1996 for £159,500. Of course more than one of these is available to the public, whereas the Coenwulf is unique.

The next most valuable coin sold by Spink is the Charles II Petition Crown of 1663, from the Slaney Collection which we sold last year for £138,000 and is currently the record holder for value of a silver British coin.

Back in July 1988, Spink Taisei Tokyo held an auction where we offered the only example available to collectors of the Victoria Gothic Crown of 1847 struck in gold which went for the equivalent of £120,000 and was the current record holder when I first started with Spink back in 1990.

In the November 1989 Numismatic Circular we offered the same Henry III gold Penny for £100,000 retail value; these are the only coins in the British series to have been sold publicly at six-figure sums. It is with great pleasure that Spink can now add the Coenwulf gold Penny to this grouping of high value British coins.

Coinex week is of course the busiest of the year and it all started last weekend when we attended the Stampa 2004 in Dublin, Ireland which incorporated some tables for coins too. A good weekend was had there with a very nice dinner for the Stampa delegates on Saturday evening. Coinex week started in full swing with auctions occurring for most of this week and some of next week. On Monday we beat the coin firm of A H Baldwin in a local pub quiz which was a good start to the week and this started a flow of good feeling for Wednesday, when we had our record breaking sale. The Pimprez hoard proved very popular too with some amazing prices achieved for the many Henry I and Stephen pennies many from unusual mints and some moneyers represented for the first time on these coins. The ingots also sold very well with most of the hammered sold above estimate. The milled was well estimated and was selling for within estimates on the whole and there were some very nice pieces to be had. The record price for the Coenwulf was the main celebration of the day as the £200,000 psychological barrier has now been surpassed for a British coin.

Thursday morning continued with the foreign section of the sale giving an overall total of just over £700,000 hammer for our Coinex sale. Thursday night continued with our annual trade reception with a presentation of the I A P N Book prize to Christian Dekesel for his impeccable work on the 17th Century Bibliography of Numismatic books published by Spink and Kolbe. Congratulations Christian!

The reception was in anticipation of the Coinex show the next day for 2004 where we launched our new 2005 book. A full report of the Coinex show and other activities in October will appear in my November column. Until then enjoy our busiest month of the year!

Stephen Hill
Associate Director