Opening Thoughts for Auction 35

A British collection formed over several decades anchors this auction. Building a definitive collection such as this takes time, study and patience, and the willingness to buy when opportunities arise. Almost all the coins came from the American marketplace, an indication of the level of American interest in British numismatics and British history.

This sale includes some exceptional high quality rarities, coins that were exciting to discover as I worked on cataloging them. You will notice some choice Anglo-Saxon and Viking, the pedigreed Edward IV/V, an impressive run of Scottish… Listing outstanding pieces could become pages of comments, but I suggest instead that you enjoy paging through the catalog. All the post-Conquest reigns are represented and many with multiple coins reflecting interesting coinage complexities.

While 188 lots in the sale are from one carefully built collection, another consignment from a West Coast collector has been melded in to enhance the variety. Future sales will draw from the anchor collection.

The Roman section is built primarily from one collection of exceptional coins. Most are a serious click better than the “EF” Roman coins that are most often seen. We found ourselves looking for synonyms for “sharp” and “crisp” and “bold” because so many of them merited premium notice. The selection is relatively small (47 lots) but it includes some rarities as well as many relatively common coins in unusually choice condition.

Outstanding tokens, a few neat medals, and a few “foreign” lots including a particularly rare copper from the Bengal Presidency, follow. The section featuring United States material is a fascinating mix of a few currency and commemorative pieces amidst an array of early presidential medals, celebrations, mining history and other unusual bits of historic Americana.

Estimates? We have tried to be conservative but realistic. Estimating a $500 coin for $100 or $1000 provides extremes that are of little use. For the most part, I can find examples or parallels that support the rubric that we estimate in the low range of a value band.

Finally, some of the consignments in the sale came from estates. The main block came from someone who simply decided that most of the collecting challenge he set for himself had been met. For him, I hope that this catalog (and the subsequent listings) provide a satisfying record of what he has done (as well as a satisfying financial return on his efforts). It has been a pleasure to spend time over the past three months exploring and cataloging what he achieved. We would be happy to work with you and your collection as well. Our terms are conservative and our enthusiasm and production qualities are such that we believe we can serve you well.

Allan Davisson
Sunday, December 6, 2015

 

How Bidding Works

 

Davissons Ltd uses a soft close for its auctions, which means no lot closes until everyone is done bidding. Every time a bid is placed within the final 40 seconds of a lot closing, the timer is reset to 40 seconds. This continues until no bids are placed for 40 seconds, at which point the lot closes. There will never be more than one lot closing at once, as the next lot is not allowed to begin closing until the current lot closes.

To bid: enter your maximum bid into the text box, and click submit. Only round dollar amounts are accepted. You are then required to confirm your bid. Once confirmed, all bids are final. If you have placed a bid in error you must call during office hours and speak to one of us. If you are the current high bidder then it will display “Current High Bidder: YOU” If you are not the high bidder, or if you are not logged in, then the current high bidder will be identified by their 5 digit client ID. You may find your client ID under the Account tab.

Bids are reduced automatically, so feel free to bid your maximum and it will be reduced to one increment over the current high bid. If a user places a bid that is higher than necessary to be the current high bidder on the lot, the displayed bid will reflect one advance over the next lower bid. For example, if a user "A" places a bid of $120 on a lot which opens at $100, "A" will be winning that lot at $100. If another user "B" bids $110, the winning bidder will be "A" at $120, one advance over the supporting bid of $110. If user "B" in this example instead placed a bid at $120, then user "A" will still be winning at $120 because they placed that maximum bid value first.

Increments can be viewed here. The next bid will always be on the next increment, so if a user is winning a lot at $100, or $105, or $109, the next bid will still always be $110.

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