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The agony of victory, or how to lose by winning

For anyone following the Erik Miller sales in Spink yesterday and today (still ongoing), you'll see that the prices are strong. Lots of fresh material off the market for decades. Bidder activity was at full retail and then some for everything but the most common material.

I did my usual pre-sale planning; picked out lots of interest, conferred with trusted folks for additional opinions, had in-hand assessment, etc. Come game day I am ready, but the bidding was very strong and I was nervous -- nervous at winning either nothing or getting something at beyond reasonable.

Well, I accomplished both: nothing from the Crowns portion, and beyond reasonable from the Hammered portion. My absolute max bid (already beyond comfort) was two increments below the final hammer price. Ouch! And, with BP and exchange rate, more Ouch!

So here is what I won (lot 52):

Edward the Martyr (975-978), Penny, Lincoln, Leofing, 1.32g, eadvvard rex vnr, diademed and draped bust left, rev. levig h-o lndeol, small cross pattée (BNJ {1967}, pp. 57, no. 6, and pl. II, 7 this coin; SCBI XXVII {Lincolnshire}, 12, same dies; N.763; BMC I; S.1142), struck with aging dies, hence portrait softness, otherwise, of good metal, good fine.

provenance:
Purchased Baldwin, 5 June 1969 - £175.0.0 (with ticket in hand of Mitchell)
Mossop, collection part-purchased by Baldwin, 1966
E J Willes, Sotheby, 23 May 1966, lot 126 - £160.0.0 (Mossop)

This coin, along with the parcel of twelve others, all consigned by Mr Willes to the Sotheby sale were the subject of subsequent discussion by Blunt and Dolley in the British Numismatic Journal of the following year ("A parcel of Reform-type Pence of Eadgar and his Successors", pp. 55-58 and pl. II). They hypothesised, owing to the absence of a recorded provenance from the Willes family, that the inheritance coins had passed originated from the same source as those that form the basis of the Hermitage collection, as well as the unparalleled assemblage formed by William Hunter - namely an unrecorded major hoard from the Stamford area, c.1750. Mossop's study of the Lincolnshire mint recorded five obverse and nine reverse dies from fifteen documented examples.

Well, the good news is that I now need one final coin to complete my Wessex-to-H2 monarch run. And, my dealer contact who viewed this lot for me felt that this was a wholesome coin and a VF.

This coin has deposits embedded in the legends, so I will soak it in warm water when I get the coin.

Thanks again to @Nap for keeping me company (from afar).

EVP

How does one get a hater to stop hating?

I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com

Comments

  • TwoKopeikiTwoKopeiki Posts: 9,528 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Gotta love the rush of the auction - glad you ended-up with a great coin and one step closer to completing your monarch run!

  • StorkStork Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 27, 2019 8:00AM

    This is fun to watch vicariously. As for the deposits...do you often do a water soak? I mean, that could be Original Dirt circa 975. Water shouldn't remove much more than dirt right? I'm truly curious as this era coin is entirely out of my experience. Not quite as old, but I do have an old Japanese bean money that has some plant-ish fiber imbedded in a crack and I have no intention of removing it.


  • EVillageProwlerEVillageProwler Posts: 5,859 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @TwoKopeiki said:
    Gotta love the rush of the auction - glad you ended-up with a great coin and one step closer to completing your monarch run!

    Thanks. That 'rush' is very stressful when one is currently not flush with cash. But, opportunities happen whenever and one must make tough decisions. This monarch's coinage is very rare; the monarch was assassinated by his half-brother's faction in the third year of his reign.

    @Stork said:
    This is fun to watch vicariously. As for the deposits...do you often do a water soak? I mean, that could be Original Dirt circa 975. Water shouldn't remove much more than dirt right? I'm truly curious as this era coin is entirely out of my experience. Not quite as old, but I do have an old Japanese bean money that has some plant-ish fiber imbedded in a crack and I have no intention of removing it.

    You have an Anglo-Saxon penny; not quite as old, but same collecting genre. As for the dirt, it may be old but not worth keeping. The only "old dirt" that is commonly worth keeping are gem stones and rare earth metals. And, this will be first water soak. I have soaked coins in acetone before, to get rid of unsavory elements like PVC.

    How does one get a hater to stop hating?

    I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,892 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Fabulous collection! I bid on five of the crowns and got one.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 22,721 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 31, 2019 8:57AM

    I did not see the catalog so I have no idea what crowns you lost but I can say is the one crown that you won matters... Congrats.

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,892 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 29, 2019 11:43PM

    @EVillageProwler said:

    @Stork said:
    This is fun to watch vicariously. As for the deposits...do you often do a water soak? I mean, that could be Original Dirt circa 975. Water shouldn't remove much more than dirt right? I'm truly curious as this era coin is entirely out of my experience. Not quite as old, but I do have an old Japanese bean money that has some plant-ish fiber imbedded in a crack and I have no intention of removing it.

    You have an Anglo-Saxon penny; not quite as old, but same collecting genre. As for the dirt, it may be old but not worth keeping. The only "old dirt" that is commonly worth keeping are gem stones and rare earth metals. And, this will be first water soak. I have soaked coins in acetone before, to get rid of unsavory elements like PVC.

    I've never soaked a coin in water so I'm hardly an expert on the matter. However, two risks seem obvious to me. First, removing the major deposits may leave an unnatural contrast between the formerly crusted areas and the rest of the coin. And second, the soak may remove a film that now gives the coin a more even appearance than it might otherwise have. I hope it works out for you, and I'd be curious to see the "after" pics!

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • EVillageProwlerEVillageProwler Posts: 5,859 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka said:

    @EVillageProwler said:

    @Stork said:
    This is fun to watch vicariously. As for the deposits...do you often do a water soak? I mean, that could be Original Dirt circa 975. Water shouldn't remove much more than dirt right? I'm truly curious as this era coin is entirely out of my experience. Not quite as old, but I do have an old Japanese bean money that has some plant-ish fiber imbedded in a crack and I have no intention of removing it.

    You have an Anglo-Saxon penny; not quite as old, but same collecting genre. As for the dirt, it may be old but not worth keeping. The only "old dirt" that is commonly worth keeping are gem stones and rare earth metals. And, this will be first water soak. I have soaked coins in acetone before, to get rid of unsavory elements like PVC.

    I've never soaked a coin in water so I'm hardly an expert on the matter. However, two risks seem obvious to me. First, removing the major deposits may leave an unnatural contrast between the formerly crusted areas and the rest of the coin. And second, the soak may remove a film that now gives the coin a more even appearance than it might otherwise have. I hope it works out for you, and I'd be curious to see the "after" pics!

    I haven’t received the coin yet, but when I do I will likely decide against soaking it for the exact reasons that Andy mentioned — that it may disturb the “look” of the coin too much in a negative way.

    How does one get a hater to stop hating?

    I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com

  • EVillageProwlerEVillageProwler Posts: 5,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 9, 2019 11:43AM

    Arrived! Shame the Spink ticket is so huge!

    How does one get a hater to stop hating?

    I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com

  • santeliasantelia Posts: 138 ✭✭

    Beautiful coins! I've never gone down the British wormhole of coin collecting, much less the German coins. Although I think the British coins are much better documented.

    Chinese cash enthusiast
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