November 2004 Coin Newsletter

by Steve Hill

Welcome, Cyberfriends, to the November edition of the monthly Numismatic Report. The past month of October has been one of the busiest I can recall in the 14 years I have been at Spink, as a consequence of the very buoyant coin market we are now experiencing. Everybody involved in the coin market is busier, with more choice of where and how to do business, a growing number of internet sites and many new dealers popping up to help the collector. A flick through a magazine like Coin News reveals a vast array of coins on offer from all corners of Britain and the World.

The Coinex event - which I briefly reviewed last month - was one of the best shows we have had in London. The enthusiasm was unprecedented as more “early birds” than I ever remember came to the show to have first look. With more auctions than ever before during Coinex, one week grew into two. Some people were worried there was perhaps more than enough coins to go around and there was some pessimism that not all would be successful. However, I am now with hindsight happy to report that all the auctions of the Coinex period seemed to perform admirably. With a new world record price for the magnificent Coenwulf gold mancus at £230,000, this is just another indication of how good the current British coin market really is.

The hammered market would seem to be the strongest section at this time and Anglo Saxon coins seem to be back in vogue after many years of remaining stable with a lower demand than later coinages. This is in part to do with the encouraging world record price but also the continued realisation by the general public that many of these historically valuable coins can be picked up for the same price as a new DVD player or sofa for instance. For the same price as say a smaller new car a quite magnificent Anglo Saxon coin over 1000 years old can be purchased. When people realise that practically all the coins of this period can be picked up for an individual price below that of a new Range Rover, then perhaps we will see a massive influx of new collectors, and I am sure this is already happening. The same could also be said of Ancient coins, so many ancient Greek and Roman, some thousands of years old, can be picked up for smaller prices in a similar fashion.

The Spink 2005 Standard Catalogue of British Coins enjoyed a very successful launch at the Coinex show and in the run up to publication I must say I sensed an unprecedented anticipation from dealer and collector alike to see how the new guide-book would look and at what prices the coins would be pegged. People out there are very keen on the publication and I have received some wonderful comments on how nice the book looks this year with the record breaker gracing the front cover. It is also encouraging when people take note of the new varieties we always try to insert to further the publication numismatically. After inserting some new varieties of sovereign this year, some of which I had only seen one example, within two weeks of the book's release I had reports of two more examples discovered. This is what makes this book gratifying to contribute to: it is of course simply a guide book, but seems to bear a lot more importance than that to many people - long may its publication continue.

As the market remains buoyant then so does the workload at Spink, and October continued to be busy with Jeremy Cheek and Hadrien Rambach off to the Paris fair the weekend after Coinex, which was also very well attended. The two week period of Coinex and auctions was over and it was time to try and catch up on the back log of work. Recently we have been seeing more properties coming in for evaluation, I think as a result of the general public becoming more aware of coins as items of value due to the good press in the public domain about the market. However, this has also increased the amateur's expectation of what they think their coins are worth. With wishful thinking this can become very unrealistic. We are here to bring such opinions down to earth and reality.

We are now working on the next edition of the Numismatic Circular which will contain a further offering from the Pimprez Hoard of Henry I and Stephen pennies of which the first batch sold very successfully in our Coinex auction indeed. There will be the usual offering of Ancient Greek and Roman coinage, other general hammered and a diverse group of milled coins. There is a very good list of gold which includes mainly more modern coinage from 1817 onward, with delights such as a Victoria Una and the Lion Five Pounds of 1839 and an extremely rare gold sixpence of Victoria’s golden Jubilee struck by Spink and Son. Gracing the front cover will be one of the only gold tradesmans tokens available, the Young Wilson and Young Phoenix Ironworks gold Half Guinea of 1811 from Sheffield. It is extremely rare and at £1,750 is good value for something so unusual. There will also be a list of Halfpennies and Farthings and some more 18th Century buildings tokens as well as medallions.

We also have our final auction of the year on the 25th November which should be an interesting one. Gracing the front cover is a general mix of all the areas covered in this catalogue, the key item being the extremely rare Charles II gold Naval Reward Medal from circa 1665. This large coin is estimated to sell for around £30,000 having sold previously to the current owner way back in 1989 for £23,100 hammer. There is also a large offering of Railway medallions for all those train enthusiasts, this is one of the biggest groups offered at auction for years.

There are no ancient coins in this sale but there is some good British, with some impressive pieces on offer. There is still much to look forward to and until December enjoy your coins.

Stephen Hill
Associate Director