£2 million sale will be conducted by Morton & Eden in London on December 9

A collection of important Renaissance medals formed by leading New York dealer-collector Lawrence R. Stack will be sold by specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden in London on December 9 2009. The medals will be sold without reserve and are expected to raise a total of around £2 million.

The sale represents the most important offering of 15th and 16th century medals from Italy, France, Germany and the Low Countries to come onto the market since before the Second World War, when the Rosenheim and Oppenheimer collections were sold by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in 1923 and 1936 respectively.

The collection was assembled by Mr. Stack, who saw an opportunity to buy into a market which had been somewhat overlooked by collectors. As with other significant collections assembled by Mr. Stack, including, for instance, an important collection of early English coins sold by Sotheby’s in 1999, the medals were owned as a partnership. With Mr. Stack’s recent departure from the firm which bears his family name, the partnership profile changed and it was decided that the only equitable manner of dividing the collection was to offer it for sale at public auction. Mr. Stack himself continues to be a devotee of Renaissance art and art history and intends to remain an active collector in this field.

The decision to sell was not taken lightly and the medals are being offered for sale without reserve to encourage new buyers into the field. The entire collection of 350 pieces is estimated to fetch in the region of £2 million.
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Metal detectorist finds 1200 year old coin in ploughed field

After six years of looking, the penny finally dropped for metal detectorist Clive Nobbs.

It was like finding a needle in a haystack, but uncovering the coin in the middle of a 20-acre ploughed field was considerably more rewarding for the 47-year-old amateur archaeologist and historian.

This is no ordinary penny. More than 1200 years old, it is an exceptionally rare silver penny of Queen Cynethryth, valued at around £2,000. Cynethryth was the wife of King Offa of Mercia (AD 757-796).

“This is easily the most important thing I’ve ever found,” said Clive, an Assistant Quality Assurance Manager for an aircraft parts supplier. “It didn’t look like much when I found it. It was about four or five inches down and black with age but it turns out to be incredibly rare.”

The coin will be sold by specialist London auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9. Specialist Tom Eden said: “This is an exciting discovery. All Cynethryth pennies are rare, but this example is very rare because it bears her portrait. Very little is known of Cynethryth herself, but she must have been held in high esteem for coins to have been issued in her name. Much more is known about her husband, King Offa, one of the great Anglo-Saxon rulers, famous for the dyke he built between Mercia and Wales.

“Cynethryth’s coins are the only examples struck in the name of a queen throughout the Dark Ages, both in England and Europe. In fact, no other women appear on English coins until the 12th century, when very rare pennies depicting Matilda were struck during the civil war in the reign of King Stephen. So Cynethryth’s coins are the first to depict an English woman and as such are of significant importance from an iconographic point of view.” (more…)