An English Bouquet…of Coins
From Celtic gold staters to royal rarities, British coin auctions delivered impressive results across several high-profile sales in May.
This past spring, April showers brought May flowers for auction houses selling coins from England, as they welcomed the month with some blooming sales results. Starting off the calendar was Celtic coin specialist Christ Rudd, who saw what the auction house describes as “marvelous” results at its May 17 sale. An extremely fine Duro Boat Gold fetched £1,000, and an extremely fine Boat Tree quarter stater of the Morini tribe sold for £700. A high-achieving issue was an Eisu Tree gold stater (pictured above) struck by the Dobunni of the West Midlands that ended with a bid over double the starting price at £2,600.
Next, an Edward III gold noble sold for £35,670 at Stanley Gibbons Baldwin’s Superb Collection of Gold & British Coins event on May 21. Graded PCGS MS63, the coin was struck in Calais during the Treaty Period (1361–1369) and was unearthed in an 1887 excavation. That year, it was presented to Queen Victoria as a jubilee gift for her 50th anniversary on the throne.
Lastly, was the sale of a different Edward, Edward VIII, with a 1937 halfcrown pattern made before the 1936 abdication. It was sold at Noonans Mayfair at the May 26 Coins and Historical Medals auction for £200,000. “(It) is not only a great rarity, but also of numismatic note. The effigy with the king makes a conspicuous break with almost 300 years of tradition…Monarchs arranged their portraits so that they faced in the opposite direction to their immediate predecessor…so Edward’s should have faced to the right on his coinage. However, when the king sat for the engraver Humphrey Paget, he presented the left side of his head, so that his fashionable side parting might be depicted,” explains Head of the Coin Department at Noonans Bradley Hopper.
Find more information about these auctions at celticcoins.com, sgbaldwins.com, and noonans.co.uk.
