Rare coin from the reign of Queen Anne fetches a hammer price of £80,000 AT Noonans

A rare coin from the reign of Queen Anne fetched a hammer price of £80,000 in the sale of British, World, and Ancient Coins & Historical Medals from Various Properties on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at Noonans Mayfair (16 Bolton Street). The Five Guinea coin, which featured on the front of the catalogue, dated from 1711, and was expected to fetch £50,000-60,000 [lot 1199]. It saw competition from two phone bidders and several bidders in Japan, Europe, and the UK, and was eventually sold to a Swiss collector.

The sale comprised 450 lots and fetched a hammer total of £814,175. Elsewhere in the sale, a Half-unite from the reign of Charles I (1625-1649) from the Oxford mint, fetched a hammer price of £17,000 - more than double its pre-sale lower estimate - against an estimate of £7,000-9,000.

Dating from 1643, it bore a superb portrait of the king as a draped and crowned bust. It had been in the H. Selig collection until 1989 and was part of a subsequent private collection for 35 years. It was bought by a UK-based dealer [lot 1174].

Also of note was a penny from the reign of John (1199-1216) that had been minted in Lincoln and sold for a hammer price of £1,800, which was 12 times its pre-sale top estimate of £150 [lot 1142].

As Bradley Hopper, Head of Coins at Noonans explains: “This very rare coin had good pedigree and was published in several important books. The price reflects the growing demand for coins of strong academic interest.”

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