Skipton Castle Auction

wybrit · March 29, 2015 12:28PM

There were some nice pieces on Heritage's monthly auction featuring some 200+ British pieces. I was surprised how little money many of these fetched. There were bargains to be had all over the place for some very high grade material that probably fetches 50% more had it been in the CICF auctions. I can only imagine that the former owner is none too happy. If I hadn't run out of powder, I might have come away with a few more.

Is this a sign of a weakening market, or just a badly timed auction?

7Jaguars · March 29, 2015 12:51PM

Wow, missed this. How much did the ms67 1858 shilling go for? Err, just saw that at 3k! That is a steep price IMO for a much more common date regardless the number on the slab. The '59 florin at 7k - not bad...

IMO, some of the pre-estimates were fairly optimistic; you will note there really were not a lot of rarities there in the later milled. I think the market for this type of coin may be softening and leaving the "blockbusters" to do just that.

wybrit · March 29, 2015 1:25PM

I watched that 1858 shilling, but took it off my list when I saw the bids going into the live session. It was one of the few that really did well of the pieces I saw. There were some ex-Kairos pieces that did not fare so well. For example, the 1901 MS67 sixpence hammered for much less than when the Kairos auction took place.

In another thread, someone mentioned that coins under MS65 are taking a bath. The same happened here.

JCMhouston · March 29, 2015 10:51PM

For me anyway the lack of rarities meant I pretty much stayed out of it. I did buy the 1758/7 sixpence in 63 because I wanted a Geo. II for my type set and figured I might as well get a overdate. But it went pretty cheap since it was "just" a 63. I think for some British collectors the CICF has some actual rarities, and that's what I'm saving my money for. If you wanted some nice coins for a British collection this auction seemed very reasonably priced for the most part, and there were plenty of attractive coins in the 64-66 range for not much money.

7Jaguars · March 29, 2015 11:53PM

Yes, quite right and I forgot to bid on a couple of dates that I needed an upgrade on; I suspect others were "guilty" of the same oversight. Really, Sunday night auctions? This is not Teletrade (even though I sometimes miss the earlier Teletrade!). This grade thing is really quite crazy - when is a 65 or 6 not generally acceptable as a very nice mint state coin? I think I brought up how in the Kairos sale which was also rather short on actual date rarities, that I got an 1889 sm head shilling in 66 for far less then that 1858. As far as rarity, there is absolutely no comparison as the former coin is excessively rare and by far the best I'd seen in 25 years - but "only" a 66!

mnemtsas2 · March 30, 2015 7:21AM

That 1901 6d in MS67 was a bargain. The images didn't really do it justice though.

coinkat · March 30, 2015 7:43AM

Always good to hear from you Wybrit...

I did not follow it as close as I should have. I can say that the W&M 1692 inverted 2 Crown- even in 35- was a bargain. I am not up on all the Victorian shilling values, but I do think that quality sells and there were some rarely seen GEMS.

As to your question, this was an opportunity. In 3-5 years, several Victorian collectors will look back and think... what was I doing that was so important that I missed out on this?

MacCrimmon · March 30, 2015 11:22AM

<< <i>Always good to hear from you Wybrit...

I did not follow it as close as I should have. I can say that the W&M 1692 inverted 2 Crown- even in 35- was a bargain. I am not up on all the Victorian shilling values, but I do think that quality sells and there were some rarely seen GEMS.

As to your question, this was an opportunity. In 3-5 years, several Victorian collectors will look back and think... what was I doing that was so important that I missed out on this? >>

Skipton farthing - 1773/3

Guilford Courthouse 1773/3 farthing

Someone got a deal on that one ...... too bad

MacCrimmon · March 30, 2015 11:26AM

Skip did better on this one!!!!

Hey!! Where's my dosh??

JCMhouston · March 30, 2015 12:23PM

That was quite a price for an 1826, here's the 1758/7 6d in 63 I picked up in the sale.

wybrit · March 30, 2015 1:23PM

In the sample I took of 23 coins that were in Kairos auctions (Victorian silver pieces all), the total price at Kairos with juice was 35,198.53 and the same coins auctioned Sunday night went for just 31,088.17. And that's only because the MS67 1859 Florin went for a profit of over 2,056.25 and the 1858 MS67 shilling went for 470 more.

lordmarcovan · March 30, 2015 2:23PM

There was an MS66 Charles II penny that caught my eye. Dinky coin, but I believe that is the one and only MS66 graded English hammered coin. Not just for the type, but across the board in ALL hammered coins.

I seem to recall an attractive AU55 Elizabeth I sixpence, too.

Edit to add: I was on the sidelines. Too broke to bid.

messydesk · April 2, 2015 8:09AM

Here are the two I got. LordM, is this the AU55 Liz I sixpence you're talking about?

JCMhouston · April 2, 2015 10:04AM

Very nice messydesk!

lordmarcovan · April 2, 2015 11:15AM

Yes! That's the Lizzie 6d I liked! Awesome!

messydesk · April 2, 2015 12:14PM

<< <i>Very nice messydesk! >>

Thanks. I almost bid on the 1758/7 6d you bought, too, but figured I'd done enough damage for the night after getting the previous lot on a cut bid. You got a nice one.

JCMhouston · April 2, 2015 12:36PM

Well I'm glad you didn't run me up on it, now I just need to liberate some money from my wife for the CICF sale, some really nice British pieces in that.

Skipton Castle Auction

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