| Stack's Bowers Galleries (& Ponterio) > February 2024 World CCO Auction | Auction date: 26 February 2024 |
| Lot number: 73827 Price realized: 600 USD (Approx. 553 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: HONDURAS. Copper-Nickel Real Pattern, 1870. Paris Mint. NGC Unc Details--Cleaned. KM-Pn10. Evidently cleaned at some point in its history, but nonetheless desirable as an example of this VERY SCARCE pattern issue in copper-nickel. Estimate: $200 - $400 |  |
Match 1:
| Stack's Bowers Galleries (& Ponterio) > April 2024 Hong Kong Auction | Auction date: 15 April 2024 |
| Lot number: 40102 Price realized: 3,200 USD (Approx. 3,011 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: CHINA. Taiwan. Copper-Nickel Yuan Pattern, Year 70 (1981). Taoyuan Mint. PCGS SPECIMEN-65. cf. KM-551 (for regular issue). With just a small handful of others of this EXTREMELY RARE pattern issue known, it is easy to see how this example is highly important for the collectors of modern RARITIES. Differing from the regular issue in terms of composition as well as the size of Chiang Kai-shek's head, which is slightly larger on the patterns, this glistening Gem should generate great appeal, with its blazing nature leading the way. Estimate: $5000 - $10000 |  |
Match 2:
| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 1157 Price realized: 30,000 USD (Approx. 27,477 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: INDIA, Colonial. British India. Bombay Presidency. 1662-1835. AR Anglina (24mm, 11.79 g, 9h). Bombay mint. Undated, but struck 1676 to 1692. Company coat-of arms; shield surrounded by floral design / MONETΛ · BOMBΛIENSIS, PΛX/DEO in two lines; · below Λ. CEEIC 1.8; Pridmore 17; KM 140. In NGC encapsulation 6381640-002, graded AU 53. Conservatively graded by NGC in our opinion. Reverse slightly off center. Richly toned. A handsome and well struck example of this very rare and and desirable type. Ex Robert P. Puddester Collection; F. Pridmore Collection (Part II, Glendining, 18 October 1982), lot 449, purchased from Spink, February 1983; H. A. Parsons Collection (Part II, Glendining, 11 May 1954), lot 886. When Charles II married Catherine of Braganza in 1662, part of her large dowry was the island of Bombay, which had previously been a Portuguese possession. It was not until 1665, however, that Bombay became a possession of the East India Company. It is recorded that the first inquiries were made about obtaining minting equipment from London late in 1668, but it was only in 1672 that the Company wrote back to the President and Council in Surat, agreeing that '...Wee doe thinck it convenient for us to have a coyne of our owne there. Wee would have you therefore consider of such a coyne, soe as it bee not our Kings Majesties or any stampe resembling the same, and of such sorts as will best suite with the traffique and exchange of the country, both in bigger and lesser speties. And if you shall find it necessary to have for change a small sort of copper coyne, let it apeare to be what it is , but what you shall coyne of gold or silver, let it have an intrinsique value as to what it is stampt for, that it may be to our honnor and the begetting and preserving the esteeme thereof.'. A subsequent letter, dated December 21 1672, sheds interesting light on the Company's motives for striking its own coinage, noting that 'We had often serious debate, and tooke the best advise we could of the banians, sherofifs, and others that could direct us; and have concluded that the gold and silver coyne shall be exactly in weight and finenesse equall with the rupee of Surratt. The reason is because they will vend the more currantly in the neighbouring countrys of the Portuguese, Sevagee and Decan, and in time probably passe as currantly in payments, which will be a notable accommodation to the trade of the island, if we can bring it soe about. The specimen offered here is an extremely rare example of the third type of silver anglina issued, introduced in 1676. Unlike the two previous types, it omits the Company's title from the marginal legend around the coat of arms, and replaces the longer A DEO PAX ET INCREMENTUM ('From God come Peace and Profit') used on the earlier silver coins with the much shorter PAX DEO ('Peace from God'). In accordance with the letters quoted above, its weight was intended to be equivalent to that of contemporary Surat rupees (although it seems that these were felt to be of slightly better fineness and weight than early anglinas), and these new coins were intended to play their part in the Company's continued expansion and growth into India. Estimate: 15000 USD |  |
Match 3:
| Stack's Bowers Galleries (& Ponterio) > April 2024 Hong Kong Auction | Auction date: 15 April 2024 |
| Lot number: 43403 Price realized: Unsold | |
| Lot description: (t) RUSSIA. Ruble, 1704 (date in old Cyrillic). Moscow (Red) Mint. Peter I "the Great". NGC EF-45. Dav-1645; KM-122.2; Bit-796; Diakov-82. Variety with an "A" engraved over a mistaken "Д" in "ДОБРАѦ. The first year of issuance of the Ruble denomination, this date is RARE as a whole, but especially so in the present problem-free condition. Typically, examples feature repair work, cleaning, scratches, or other forms of surface manipulation, as evidenced by the PCGS and NGC census data for the issue: in total, a mere 12 examples of all varieties have been certified in problem-free grades over the two services, and none above AU-50. The present example offers nothing less than perfectly wholesome surfaces. The strike is relatively strong, with much portrait detail present, and each side is graced with a blanket of rich patina, with traces of original luster even remaining in the fields. A solitary, as-made adjustment mark traces across the elaborate coat and hair of Peter I. All in all, this is an admirable survivor and a piece that has clearly been well-cared for over the last three centuries of its existence, and which will undoubtedly end in a collection where originality and surface preservation are similarly prized. We note that an example of this variety certified by NGC as EF Details--Cleaned, sold for $24,000 including buyer's premium in our January 2023 auction (lot 22155). Estimate: $15000 - $25000 |  |
Match 4:
| Spink > Auction 24004 | Auction date: 4 April 2024 |
| Lot number: 346 Price realized: 13,000 GBP (Approx. 16,338 USD / 15,176 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Australia, (Southern Australia), Government Assay Office (1837-1901), Adelaide Pound, 1852, "Type I", by James Payne, GOVERNMENT ASSAY OFFICE | 1852 | ADELAIDE, crown above date inside beaded circle, rev. WEIGHT, 5 DWT: 15 GRS: | VALUE | ONE | POUND | 22 CARATS., written value within beaded circle, weight and fineness around, edge milled, 9.96g, 12h (Capt. J J Cullimore Allen, Sovereigns of the British Empire', p. 57 = Spink Auction 90, March 1992, lot 383 same dies; KM 1; Friedberg 1; McDonnell 1), with integral late-Victorian rose-gold loop soldered at 12 o'clock, otherwise lightly sweated in largely original and residually lustrous fields, an icon of Australian numismatics with a putative 50 coins struck before the die broke, struck details better than very fine, extremely rare in any condition. The Type 1 variety of this famous coin, of which it is believed that no more than 50 were struck before thefamous die-crack on the reverse developed in size until the die was unusable, is both a great rarity and the very first gold coin type struck in Australia. Most known specimens are not without marks because, at the time of their minting, coins were not being saved by collectors; all of the locally made gold coins were much needed for commerce, and both varieties of 1852 Adelaide pounds were soon mixed together and distributed to banks for use. Almost all of them ultimately perished. The continent of Australia remained the domain of scattered indigenous people for centuries until 'transported' British convicts, followed by other settlers, began to make a new civilization in the early nineteenth century. The towns, mostly distant from each other, existed because of farming and cattle ranching. Hard monies seen in early Australia were cast-offs, like most of the inhabitants. All this changed in the early 1850s with the discovery of gold near the town of Adelaide; other gold fields were soon discovered, and these over the course of only a few decades would change Australia from being a sleepy outback into a new country of great prosperity. Soon, too, worn-out old foreign coins ceased to be the main currency. Prospectors quickly brought specie to towns near the gold fields but, as was equally true in early California during its gold rush of 1849, nuggets and gold dust were not easily used for money. Commerce was consequently stymied despite the influx of this new source of real wealth. There were two problems to be sorted out. Turning raw gold into usable coinage was no simple affair, nor was it legal for an British colony to produce its own money without first obtaining approval from the British Crown. In 1852 all distant communication was by mail, via sea passage, and it simply was not practical to await legal sanction to coin money in the name of Queen Victoria. The need for gold coins for local use was pressing. Ideally such coins would have the same value as the familiar English sovereigns. So, in November of 1852, the South Australia Legislative Council passed an emergency measure, entitled the Bullion Act. At first the assay office thereby created smelted ore into ingots, but these were no more easily used in commerce than gold dust or nuggets. What to do until approval from London arrived? The Council decided to hire a local die-sinker by the name of Joshua Payne. He produced a pair of dies that created the now-famous Adelaide pound featuring the distinctive legends as well as a declared fineness and weight in gold. The resulting 'emergency tokens' looked exactly like coins; they were not elegant but they were of good weight. The issuing authority never intended its golden money to be more than token issues of solid value and must have assumed that their local coins would be recalled and turned into new sovereigns, once approval of the Crown was obtained. But history intervened, and a legendary coin for collectors was born. The local die-sinker had done his job but evidently failed to make the dies of sufficient hardness: after producing just a tiny number of coins, the reverse die failed, cracking at the 12-o'clock position from the rim inward (to the left of 'DWT' in the legend). The first die split apart and another die was quickly made, varying slightly from the first - the simple beaded circle with two linear outlines changed to resemble the form used for the obverse - and this time it was correctly hardened and ultimately produced an estimated 25,000 gold pounds. These were all rapidly thrown into commerce, as were the handful minted showing the die-break, of which only 25 to 50 are thought to have been made. Almost all of these coins experienced plenty of use because they were needed for commerce. Nobody at the time noticed that some of the coins were different from the others. No collectors saved coins in 1850s South Australia! The Crown in Britain meanwhile passed warrants to establish an officially sanctioned mint for the colony. In August of 1853, Parliament authorized an official branch of the Royal Mint, and on 14 May 1855 the Sydney Mint opened in a portion of the old Rum Hospital. The first gold sovereigns were struck in Australia on 23 June of the same year, bearing a variant of the Young Head portrait seen on London Mint coins but with a distinctive reverse. Over time the new sovereigns replaced the Adelaide pounds as the money of choice. One of the ironies of the situation then caused the Adelaide pounds to disappear: the mint's assayers as well as others discovered that the Adelaide 'tokens' were actually finer than advertised, more valuable intrinsically than the sovereigns that replaced them. Anyone in possession of an Adelaide pound did not in fact have 20 shillings (one sovereign) of value but rather 21 shillings and 11 pence, the actual value at the time of the gold content of the coins. The result? Almost all Adelaide pounds ended up being melted for the profit in gold this produced. They quickly disappeared. They perished. Every survivor is a miracle of chance. The coin offered here is far from perfect, but clearly it was never abused, and somehow it escaped the fate of almost all of the rest of the mintage. What was born of necessity as an experiment, was then rejected as inferior, then gathered up as being more valuable than it was thought to be, and was ultimately greedily destroyed, ended up becoming more desirable than anyone contemporary with its creation could ever have imagined. As the image at the centre of its obverse suggests, it has become a crown jewel of the coinage of early Australia. Estimate: £6000 - £10000 |  |
Match 5:
| Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles > Auction 137 | Auction date: 29 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 1141 Price realized: 33,000 USD (Approx. 30,565 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | |
| Lot description: Great Britain. Pattern Farthing Struck in Gold, 1797. Peck-1191 (EXR). 9.2g. Restrike. George III, 1760-1820. The elderly king is depicted facing to the right, his body draped, his hair laureate. In classic Soho Mint style, the portrait is centered within a recessed circle. On the reverse, Britannia is shown seated facing left, SOHO mint name on a rock behind her, all within a recessed center. Edge is plain. A brilliant example of this great rarity. Pop 1; The only one graded at PCGS. PCGS graded Proof 63 Deep Cameo. Estimated Value $15,000 - UP Beginning in the 1780s, Matthew Boulton and James Watt revolutionized Great Britain's coinage, indeed altered the very nature of its hard money. Boulton owned a button manufactory in Birmingham but he was more than an industrialist; he was a man of vision and an entrepreneur in every fiber of his body. Acutely aware of the depressed state of the coinage that was circulating in the 1780s, he decided to team up with Watt, inventor of the steam engine who held important patents, and the pair commenced upon their greatest of many achievements: establishment of the Soho Mint. Watt modified his invention so as to work in a new way, moving its functional parts up and down, rapidly, as powered by steam. It could pound out buttons (and coins!) faster and better than had ever been possible, with perfect accuracy. Boulton put his entire manufactory at the disposal of their new enterprise. They began with a tentative pattern halfpenny coinage in the late 1780s. It and subsequent, boldly struck coins made on contract so impressed the officers of the king's Royal Mint that Boulton and Watt won important contracts to make a series of entirely new-looking, modernistic copper coins-including the first-ever copper penny, dated 1797. The enthusiastic acceptance of their copper farthings, halfpennies and pennies led to a contract to create temporary money in the late 1790s by over-striking foreign silver coins, and eventually to the creation of the uniquely styled 1804 Bank Dollars. These coins saved an economy that was faltering because of extreme lack of both silver and copper money. Aside from millions of such coins made to enter commerce, the Soho Mint also created some of the finest proof coins for collectors. Dozens of patterns and proofs came from the proofing presses of the Soho Mint, in a variety of metals. After Soho closed its doors in the 1820s, an enterprising dealer in antiques purchased some of Soho's old dies and re-struck pieces for collectors. Mostly these were minted very carefully in the first few decades of the 19th century. Copper, sometimes bronzed, sometimes gilt, was the most used metal for these now-celebrated re-issues. Silver strikes were made only occasionally, thus quite rare. Gold pieces were the rarest, originally intended for the collections of wealthy men, often friends of Boulton who requested specially made coins. The glorious gold farthing seen here is one of those. Ex Spink, London, private treaty, May 2005. |  |
