Welcome to E-Auction 22!

I am never certain when we begin assembling a catalog how it will all end up. We look for some thematic elements—Roman Britain, high grade milled British, a strong run of collectible and attractive United States type coins—these are areas that immediately came to mind as we started planning this sale last June.

Roman British coins fill a substantial portion of Coins of England and the United Kingdom, S numbers 451 to 750, and they also represent a major historical segment of British coinage. For this auction, along with a few other pieces, we have a run of coins of Carausius representing different types and different styles. One seldom offered type, a London coin of Diocletian struck by Carausius appears here as well as a better style denarius of Clodius Albinus. None of these coins are particularly expensive but they are fascinating representing England in an era when Roman dominance of the world was beginning to slip.

Frank Robinson’s exceptional collection moves from copper and bronze to silver in this sale. This catalog features the small silver pieces that came after the dramatic change in English coinage that began late in the reign of George III (1816). Silver groats of William IIII and Victoria, threepence from William IIII to George VI plus a VIP proof 3d of Elizabeth II, the unusual three-halfpence piece—these are all far scarcer in choice condition than the catalog values suggest. They are very conservatively estimated given their condition. I have tried to help people with type sets and have been amazed at how hard it is to find choice examples of some of these small silver pieces. I think people tended to save larger denominations more readily. Some of these issues were struck for colonial use and did not circulate in England. You will also find some choice Maundy sets in this section from another collection we recently received.

An aside: The Robinson collection reflects his mostly successful effort to collect all the dates in the best possible condition. As a result, there are many choice coins that are worth relatively small amounts and could be offered in one of our catalogs only if we grouped them. These coins deserve better than that. So, if you are working on filling out sets, particularly 20th century material, get in touch and we will work out a price.

Finally, United States type material from different collections fills out the catalog. Starting with an attractive $3 gold piece, the larger section begins with a choice Virginia halfpenny, several half cents, and an appealing run of US half dollars (the Bust half is a thing of particular beauty). Rounding out the catalog are Lincoln and Washington medals, a smattering of foreign coins, and our usual mix of interesting ancient coins (look for many scarce but affordable and pleasing Roman sestertii), British hammered coins (including a pedigreed Scottish Alexander III penny), and some nice tokens from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Putting together interesting catalogs means that we are always on the lookout for material. As you can see, we pay attention to what we offer and how we offer it. Please consider consigning or selling to us—we will treat your collection with care and appreciation.


Allan, Marnie, & Lief Davisson

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

 

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.

Close
Connected Disconnected