Coin trader and auctioneer NOBLE INVESTMENTS (UK) PLC is eyeing further expansion after lifting annual profits 80 per cent to £1.8 million.

The company comprises a group of Professional Numismatists of long standing with some 100 years of combined experience. They are the only Numismatic trading and investment company listed in the stock market in the UK.

The Manchester-based company, which became a leading coin dealer by buying the 135 year-old Baldwin group nearly two years ago, increased turnover 42 per cent to £10.6 million in the year to August.

Steered by managing director and ex-stockbroker Ian Goldbart, the AIM-quoted company, which is debt-free and has more than £5 million in the bank, says it is contemplating moving into new areas, such as banknotes. The decision comes after Noble won backing in August from property tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz for a £2.8 million placing at 185p to expand into stamp trading.

Goldbart says Baldwin’s business has boomed with backing from its new parent. Yet, he argues, even with investors swelling the ranks of traditional long-term collectors, values for, say, 600 year-old Islamic coins, are still a fraction of what less old US coins would fetch across the Atlantic.

Noble’s August auction in Hong Kong made £4 million, up from £750,000 in 2006, and Goldbart says the company has high hopes for its auction in New York in January and in Hong Kong again in April. Recommended by Growth Company Investor two years ago at 73p, Noble’s shares now trade at 195p, valuing the company at £33.5 million.

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