Welcome to E-Auction 35

The value of numismatic gold is based on two separate markets—the bullion market and the numismatic market. Other than for common silver coinage—typically of very little numismatic interest—this is the one area where price is determined from two directions. Right now gold spot is right at $1700 per Troy ounce, a value for the past month. If you were to purchase a one-ounce American Eagle coin today you would pay a premium of $150 or so over the spot price.

Our approach to gold is numismatic but the bullion value becomes the base. We included a couple of slabbed tenth ounce gold coins, a denomination that carries a higher premium than the larger one ounce issues. Otherwise the group offered here has enough numismatic interest that the bullion value is a non-issue or, at most, a minor issue.

The rest of the gold coins that begin our sale are a quick reminder that gold as an exchange has been a basis for exchange for as long as there is a history of exchange. An early electrum piece, a well-used ducat, a bit of obscure and not-so-obscure U.S. coinage, and a couple of reminders of the Alaska gold rush—not a great quantity of gold but some interesting and affordable pieces of this history.

GREEK coins, even the small and the base metal pieces, come from an era of appreciation for beauty and the craftsmanship that reflected this value. Small silver pieces with intricate and well balanced designs, bronzes that were “small change” that show fine die making skill—such pieces are well within range for almost any coin budget.

And if the best of Greek coinage is beyond the reach of most of us, the 19th century British Museum copies allow us to own almost perfect replicas of some of the greatest pieces known.

ROMAN coins have their own beauty but they are more about history. Well struck coins on high quality flans are both available and satisfying to own. We have been able to offer a fair number of such pieces. But if you have been collecting Roman coinage for a while, you know that such pieces are in the minority of what is available to us. One particularly fascinating piece in this sale is the carefully countermarked sestertius of Claudius. See the story with Lot 50.

BRITISH coins—Some slabbed hammered, most with carefully selected flans. The milled coins include a run of some less expensive but still important coins from the Robinson collection and a few others including the rarely offered key to the Victoria shilling series.

TOKENS—More pieces from the high quality collection put together by Mike Sussman. Warwickshire, next to the Welsh border and the location of Birmingham where much of the history of modern coinage manufacture was made, has an extensive and fascinating range of tokens, many of outstanding style and production.

FINALLY—Select items of early U.S. type, a run of Hard Times and Civil War tokens at prices well below our usual $100+ price point, and some fascinating medals including a Napoleon box medal—these round out our June sale.

Allan Davisson

Friday, May 1, 2020

 

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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