ummer used to be a time when numismatics took a breather and outdoor life filled more of people's time. Perhaps this is a reflection of our life in Minnesota (a cold place for a significant part of the year) but time out, particularly in August, is a long standing European tradition as well.
This summer has been different. Spink sold the Edward III double leopard for over $850,000. This was a coin that failed at the time of its issue. It is only a question of time until an English coin breaks the million dollar mark. I have some candidates to suggest and will be submitting an article to a couple of major coin publications. Stack's has published a beautiful fixed price list of British coins built around coins in Shakespeare. I suggest you request a copy. The prices are high and the coins are beautiful. Many of the coins I purchased from the LaRiviere sales of Irish and Scottish are long since gone. Those that remain have not been offered formally except to a few people who have requested that I send them the PDF file where I have them catalogued.
In the meantime, I have purchased some collections and have spent the last few weeks updating our inventory. We ordinarily have two auctions a year but this year I decided to wait until late fall. Our next auction will be number 25 and I have some special material to make it outstanding. I also have a large inventory of worthwhile material that does not meet the value levels we prefer for our published sale catalogs. So a Fall Fixed Price list is in the works.
My son Lief (known to everyone as Charlie) just turned 17 and has been working on our web site. You see the results here. He is also learning about photography and Photoshop and--of course--coins. Whether he becomes more heavily involved in numismatics remains to be seen. For now, he has high school (one more year) and then college to handle.
Offering rare, high grade Scottish gold coins is exciting. Handling crude and fascinating Irish Great Rebellion crowns was a thrill when I had them. In the meantime, our inventory of pleasing and affordable coins has been growing as well. For this first web site venture, I have selected just six items per category. The English hammered and milled site could have run to hundreds of coins. The Roman site could probably run to thousands and our Greek and Celtic inventory is substantial as well. The coins offered are the first that came to hand that I thought were interesting and attractive values. I read catalogs and follow the market closely and have priced most of what you see at levels that should make them very appealing. To some extent, the web site listing is a bargain list.
There are a few outstanding coins here too. The Northumberland shilling was a beautiful piece with just a bit of honest wear. It has now sold and, based on what I have seen offered other places, the collector got an excellent value. The Macedonian tetradrachm is a choice and finely styled piece and so are the Roman Republican denarii. But rather than comment further, I will let the coins speak for themselves.
In response to a couple of comments, I have provided a few grading remarks. My initial plan was to let the photographs speak for themselves (shades of Richard Picker and a few other old time dealers whom a few of you may recall). I am in the process of producing a paper-and-ink fixed price catalog to be mailed this fall. Unless this web site inspires more enthusiasm than it has thus far, I expect the printed page to be our main mode of business. But if you are reading this, you have had to search hard to find us. So, our fall advertising will also be promoting this web site.
Allan Davisson
August 22, 2006
