Coin Collecting News

France’s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the Côtes d’Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the département.

The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. ‘Stater’ is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth’s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved.

Inrap, the national institute for preventive archeological research, which has the right to investigate sites ahead of infrastructure work, reports similar finds in the 1930s at Guingamp and Perros-Guirec, but says the latest trove is the biggest yet. Searching ahead of construction work, an Inrapled team found a single coin about 30cm down, then began a systematic search.

They found another 50 coins the same day, then brought in metal detectors and found the rest. They believe the coins were all buried together but were disturbed over the centuries by ploughing. Read Full Story

A ¥2 gold coin issued in 1880 was sold Sunday for ¥32.1 million at an auction in Tokyo held by the Finance Ministry.

The winning bid for the coin — the only one of its kind in the government’s possession — sharply exceeded the previous high of ¥17 million in a series of ministry-sponsored auctions of gold coins.

About 1,400 coins went under the hammer Sunday. The starting bid for the ¥2 coin was ¥7 million, and participants applauded when it was sold at the record price. One participant said it fetched a price far higher than expected. An appraisal had put the coin’s value at ¥20 million.

A man who bought a ¥5 coin issued in 1896 for ¥4.55 million said with a wry smile, “It was fun seeing all those rare items, but it was more expensive than I thought it would be.”

The ministry has sold nearly 33,000 coins through auctions. The proceeds have been logged in revenues in the government’s budget. Total proceeds are expected to be around ¥6 billion, according to the ministry. Full Story

By Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

Rich Uhrich has been collecting coins since he was four years old. A large part of his collection will be auctioned by Stack’s in Baltimore on Feb. 26 & 27. He has owned some of the coins that will be sold since he was fifteen, especially including large cents. Many others have been obtained in recent years. Uhrich’s collection consists of about 4000 coins. He consigned nearly 1600 of them, which will be auctioned in around 540 lots.

He determined that more than 2000 of his coins are better suited for private sales than public auctions. Some of his 20th century coins are not valuable enough to warrant the costs of an auction process. Also, Uhrich is retaining a small number of coins, many of these are coins that he “fell in love with” and just cannot bring himself to sell.

For U.S. copper, nickel and silver coins minted from 1793 to the present, Uhrich’s collection is missing only about ten coins. His is missing only six business strikes; the other four were struck only in Proof format, though some of these Proofs later became worn. The unique 1870-S half dime is one of the six that he is missing, and it is the only date in all half dime series that he does not own. An 1802 half dime is among the coins that will be retained.

It is true that Uhrich has an exemplary, complete collection of Proofs dating from 1936 to the present. His mid-20th century Proofs usually have some degree of cameo contrast, and most of the later dates exhibit deep cameo effects. It is also true that Rich has a colorful collection of Proof Indian Cents, images of which can be viewed on the Stack’s website. Even so, Uhrich has generally tended towards circulated 19th century coins. He likes coins that have honest wear and medium, natural toning.

The Stack’s lot descriptions do not specifically identify the coins that are from Uhrich’s collection. Uhrich would like his coins to be so identified, and presents an outline, with many details, on his website. Continued

(Newport Beach, California) – One of the two known 1861 Philadelphia Mint Paquet Reverse $20 gold coins has been sold for a record $2.5 million by Monaco Rare Coins of Newport Beach, California.

“The buyer is an Orange County California business executive who has been collecting since childhood and now is assembling a marvelous collection of Type One (”Liberty Head” 1850 to 1866) Double Eagles. The record price for this spectacular rarity is indicative of the desirability of this historic coin as well as the continuing strength of the rare coin market,” said Adam Crum, Vice President of Monaco.

The sale was announced by Crum during the recent Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo where the coin was part of a multi-million exhibit of Type One Double Eagles. The coin is graded PCGS MS-61.

The anonymous new owner issued a brief statement saying, “I am extremely grateful to Adam Crum and Monaco for the acquisition of this coin. I am honored to be the custodian of such an important piece of history.” Continued