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December 2004 Coin Newsletterby Steve Hill Welcome to the Christmas and New Year edition of the Monthly Numismatic Report. In the run-up to Christmas we expect business to be brisk and busy. After the high of Coinex, November was, as expected, a quieter month as we prepared for the new December Circular to arrive. However, in this season we find a new breed of customer starts to approach us – the Christmas present buyer. I am pleased to report we have many gift ideas for the collector and historian alike.
Sales of the Spink 2005 Standard Catalogue of British Coins have continued at a never before seen pace, and this book makes the perfect Christmas gift at a round £20. The book has been expanded once again with many new varieties listed, and an impressive front cover featuring the record breaking Coenwulf gold penny. I can see many collectors will enjoy a quiet moment on Christmas day flicking through the pages of this book. Buy it now from our Book Dept, which also has many other excellent publications in this price range. Look elsewhere on this website for our "New Collector's List" (click on the preceding link or go to Online Sales > Stock Lists on our top navigation bar) - a selection of 100 ancient coins that are priced under £100. They are all within range of those seeking a more unusual Christmas gift. We have such delights on offer as Ancient Greek coins dating from the 5th Century BC and coins from the early Roman Empire. All are genuine and most are over fifteen hundred years old. Roman Emperors like Augustus, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian all feature on this list. Of course, buying a gift for anybody is difficult and if you are looking for that more unusual gift it is probably worthwhile coming into Spink to look through the full range of coins with one of our advisers. The shop is open from 9.30am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday.
Jeremy Cheek, Hadrien Rambach and Max Tursi have kept themselves busy throughout November with attendance at shows in Berlin, Verona, Geneva and Vienna and our visits to the continent will continue into the New Year for 2005. Looking forward to 2005 I must mention the second weekend of January as there is an unprecedented clash of coin activity on this weekend. In England, the York coin and stamp fair will take place at the racecourse with Emily Reid and David Guest in attendance, together with Paul Mathews from our Stamp department. There is also a coin fair in London at Jury's Hotel in Great Russell Street at the same time. Meanwhile in North America the New York International Coin Convention will be in full swing in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel with Paul Hill, Hadrien Rambach and Max Tursi in attendance. At the same time Jeremy Cheek and I will be at the Florida United Numismatists show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This will be our busiest weekend ever for being out of the office and we hope a successful one as no doubt between all these events we will collectively be meeting thousands of collectors and dealers.
The December edition of the Numismatic Circular is now available, and contains a further offering from the Pimprez Hoard of Henry I and Stephen pennies. The first batch of these pennies sold very successfully in our Coinex auction. There will be the usual offering of Ancient Greek and Roman coinage, other general hammered and a list of milled halfpennies and farthings. 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 a nice George II Five Guineas of 1741. The front front cover features one of the only gold tradesmen's tokens available, the Young Wilson and Young Phoenix Ironworks gold Half Guinea of 1811 from Sheffield. This token has already sold but I am pleased to say we have been offered a second specimen to offer to collectors.
The Circular is selling well and we hope this will continue into the run up to Christmas. There is much to look forward to in 2005 - may I wish you all the compliments of the season and a Happy New Year. Until February, enjoy your coins.
Stephen Hill
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During
November we held our last Coin auction of 2004 which had a good mixture
of foreign and British coins. The sale opened with about 160 lots of British
which mainly sold around estimated price or above, with the hammered gold
as always being the most popular and the best performer. The milled was
good in parts though it was only the better quality pieces that performed
well. The foreign coins followed and were generally similar to the British
with some sections proving more popular than others. Top price in the
sale was the £7,800 hammer garnered for the Australia Adelaide Pound
of 1852 type II. 
The
afternoon session contained more Islamic and foreign, and then the collection
of railway medallions with other mixed commemorative medallions. Unfortunately
the large Charles II Naval reward gold medal and its silver counterpart
both failed to sell, proving a little too rich for the medallion market.
However the Mudie’s National series of medals set sold for an amazing
£2,500 hammer against a £600-800 estimate. This set was contained
in its original trays but was missing its slipcase though it still had
the accompanying explanatory leaflet which is rare. The copper Resolution
and Adventure medal in fine condition sold for £3,200 hammer against
a £500-600 estimate too, so perhaps the middle range for medallion
collecting has increased in popularity. The top end items seem to show
a lack of interest whereas the more affordable low to middle range medals
are affordable and therefore more contested. The sale totalled an overall
figure of £171,839 which was understandably below estimate with the
large gold medal being unsold. We now look forward to March 31st 2005
for our next coin auction, which is already starting to build up nicely.
We have already some rare varieties of half crowns consigned and consignments
are now welcome.
