Avarae Global Coins plc, the UK’s only publicly traded specialist Investment Company dedicated to investing in rare and high quality coins has bought 385 gold Japanese coins issued between 1870 and 1917, for an undisclosed sum to be added to their portfolio.

Isle of Man-based Avarae, which was floated on the Alternative Investments Market (AIM) in 2006, counts Allianz, Jupiter Asset Management and Blackrock as its investors.

The Japanese government has put a total of 32,683 individual coins up for sale through auctions, which started in 2005, and are due to end in March of this year.

Sir John Wheeler, chairman of the advisory panel to Avarae Global Coins plc, said: ‘The Japanese coin market has been very subdued in recent years, particularly so since the Japanese ministry of finance announced the sale of so many gold coins in a series of auctions.’

‘We feel, with the auctions drawing to an end, that Japanese coins could start to catch up with their peers,’ Wheeler said.

Avarae’s current intention is to hold the vast majority of its current portfolio for the foreseeable future and only make disposals of coins or collections when it and its Advisory Panel believe it to be in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders.

The Company has made a number of significant purchases of individual coins or coin collections, investing more than £5.0 million in aggregate in more than 1,000 coins. These include:

• An important collection of English hammered and milled gold, silver and bronze including 17 English gold five guinea pieces struck during the reigns of Charles II, James II, William & Mary, William III, Anne, George I, II and III;
• A 1933 English Pattern Penny, thought to be one of only four in the world;
• A 1344 Edward III Gold Double Florin (or “Double Leopard”), one of only three in the world and the only one in private hands;
• A complete collection of 236 German gold, silver and bronze coins, minted under German rulers over a period of 2,000 years;
• A collection of excessively rare multiple Talers issued in Transylvania, Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and The Holy Roman Empire between the 16th and 18th century;
• A collection of rare Islamic and Indian gold and silver coins covering approximately 500 years;
• A collection of high quality Chinese gold and silver coinage from 19th and 20th century; and
• A collection of South American gold and silver coinage from the 18th to 20th century.