BALDWIN'S TO OFFER THE DAVID FORE COLLECTION OF BRITISH INDIA

The David Fore Collection is the most impressive collection of Coins of British India ever to be sold at public auction. Comprising coins of British India, The Presidencies and Indian Native States, this collection will be sold in London in three parts, commencing 7th May 2013. The collection of over four thousand coins was formed over twenty five years by Dr. David Fore and Baldwin’s Canadian representative, Randy Weir. A plan to build a monumental collection took them on an amazing odyssey as the pair created a collection to rival the world famous collection of Fred Pridmore.

David began collecting coins as a child when he watched his father, who owned a small store in a rural town of two thousand people, search his change looking for the elusive US 1909 SVDB Penny. At age nine, David’s first job was delivering newspapers. Instead of buying comic books, he would take his weekly earnings of a few dollars to the bank and get rolls of pennies to search through, also looking for that 1909 Penny. His very first foreign coin purchase was an Indian Proof Restrike ¼-Anna. This coin was the beginning of a love affair with Indian coins that was to last for forty years. Randy was privileged to introduce David to the fascinating world of colonial coins some fifteen years later and David found the minor differences and array of patterns in the series so fascinating that Randy describes each purchase as being like prospecting for gold.

A symbiotic relationship between client and trusted specialist and a mutual fascination for Indian coinage inspired these two to create the collection that is being sold today. The focus for the collection was always to find the best quality coins and over four hundred of the coins contained in the collection originated from the Pridmore collection which was catalogued by A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd and sold by auction by Glendinings between September 1981 and October 1983, the Indian part being sold in October 1982 and October 1983, around the time the pair met. Other coins have similarly fine provenance, having been part of such celebrated collections as the Sir John Wheeler Collection, the Ken Wiggins Collection and The Diana Collection, all sold by Baldwin’s.

Randy Weir comments: “The last few years have seen many changes to the coin collecting hobby and, in particular, to the Indian coin market. Auctions have become more international and better communications have allowed more collectors direct access to auction houses, where the internet has revolutionised bidding. This has led to much more interest in the Indian series amongst others.”

“What good auction houses can offer collectors today is our knowledge of the coins being sold. We have an opportunity here with the Fore Collection to add to the knowledge from a few hundred years of experience here at Baldwin’s. We want to make our catalogues a source of information and a reference work that can be used, and will be useful, for years to come.”

All catalogues are available to view online at www.baldwin.co.uk

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: BOOK REVIEW: THE UNIFORM COINAGE OF INDIA 1835 – 1947 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n07a07.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web