Coins can take us to many different places—some unusual, some historic, some long-gone. This summer catalog has several numismatic vistas we have not offered any, or at least much of, before.
The California Pioneer Fractional Gold coinage came about for the same reason the ancient Greeks began to coin electrum—money was needed for exchange and it was easier to reckon with if someone had assayed and weighed it into a consistent reliable denomination. These early issues were privately made and were apparently honestly-enough made that they became part of the frontier currency.
American currency in a paper form began with notes issued by the various colonies. During the May 10, 1775 session of the Continental Congress the first federally issued paper money was authorized. This authorization was given in eleven different Continental Congress sessions ending with the issue of January 14, 1779. There were many counterfeits but every piece offered here has been certified.
Another part of American history is our country’s role in the Philippines. The only United States branch mint established outside of the continental United States was a mint in Manila that produced coins from 1920 to 1922 and 1925 to 1941. A choice group of Philippine coins anchors the world section of this sale.
Ancient material: Coinage of ancient Spain, the Iberian Peninsula, differs from the more refined issues of the Greeks and Romans. It is a crude coinage in many respects but it has charm. There is a blockiness about it that distinguishes it just as the arcs and curves in Celtic coinage typify their interpretation. Our offering is particularly nice for the series.
Tiny coins represent a collecting challenge. They were “small change” that could be readily lost. Historically, collectors serious enough that their collections have become cornerstones of numismatic achievement do not seem to have spent much of their effort on tiny pieces. Yet, the die makers took them seriously. The complexity and style on many of these tiny pieces is phenomenal even if it may take a very close look to appreciate it. And they tend to be affordable. We have a nice run of high-quality pieces in this catalog.
There’s more—a bit of gold, a few exceptional Greek and Roman pieces–some with lovely patinas (we don’t save everything superb for our big annual sale), a bit of choice hammered and milled English, more high quality tokens from the Sussman collection, fascinating world coins including three remarkable pieces from the Central American Republic/Union (two related 19th century alignments), and a few interesting U.S. half dollars.
This summer arrived tumultuously in many places but as I write this it seems June may be settling down, edging toward Robert Lowell’s vision– “What is so rare as a day in June. Then, if ever, come perfect days.” Whatever the weather has brought you thus far, I hope you enjoy “perfect days” ahead.
Allan
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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