A LARGE collection of UK commemorative gold coins, most of which were in mint condition and cased, sold for more than £19,000 at a leading Shropshire fine art auction house yesterday (March 20).
The collection was consigned by the owner, who lives on the Mid Wales coast, to Halls Fine Art’s successful books, coins and stamps auction in Shrewsbury.
Derek Ainsworth, Halls Fine Art’s coins specialist, said the coins, many of which were contained in capsules, were originally collected by the owner’s late father. They ranged from £5 and £2 denominations to sovereigns and half sovereigns.
Top price for a single lot was £3,400 for a Royal Mint gold proof sovereign Pistrucci centenary collection 1893-1993. Other leading prices were £2,600 for a cased Royal Mint gold proof 2004 collection and £2,400 for a Royal Mint Britannia 1993 gold proof set of four coins – £100, £50, £25 and £10.
A collection of around 100 Greek, Roman and hammered UK coins dating to the reign of Henry VIII sold in 20 lots for £5,000. This collection included a skilfully plugged James I gold laurel from 1621-’23, which sold for £600.
“The vendor, who has a home in Shropshire, worked abroad for a number of years and bought the coin collection from a colleague, who was short of money, whilst working in Canada in the 1990s,” explained Mr Ainsworth.
“He had the collection for around 30 years but had no idea how valuable it was until he brought it in to our Shrewsbury office to sell.”
The Greek coinage included an Attica, Athens tetradrachm, circa 430BC, which made £ . Continuing the world theme, a Bolivian Philip V 8 reales, dated 1704, sold for £900.
For dog lovers, a silver heart-shaped medal with certificate, awarded by Our Dumb Friends League, the original name of Blue Cross, to Griffith V. Jones for “conspicuous courage in rescuing dogs from a precipice in 1927″, sold for £270.
Maryanne Lineker-Mobberley, Halls Fine Art’s associate director, was delighted with the £100,000 auction result with strong prices across the coins, books and stamps section.
She was also pleased to see the auction build on the success of the company’s coins sale last November when a fine private collection of Roman coins sold for more than £17,500.
“With gold prices at a record high, it’s a strong, buoyant market which was reflected in the results we achieved in the coins section,” she said. “The collection of UK commemorative gold coins sold very well to a packed saleroom.”