BALDWIN’S ARIELLE COLLECTION PART TWO

The concluding part of the celebrated Arielle Collection saw bidders from across the globe pushing prices to new heights in A. H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd’s sale on Tuesday 6th May. Achieving a sale total of £984,996 it brought the final total for the whole collection to an impressive £1,490,088.

Randy Weir, Baldwin’s Canada Representative and The Arielle Collection cataloguer said; “The Arielle Collection was one of the most impressive British Colonial collections ever created and has shown that a concentrated auction of top quality items will achieve top prices. Today we have seen a whole new type of collector in the market for whom catalogue estimates or even past auction results are of little significance when it comes to attaining the most prized coins.”

The sale saw coins achieve ten times their pre-sale estimate, with a very strong internet market as well as dealers from Canada, US, Singapore and Cyprus, attending who were buying for their clients or just bidding for themselves to take home coins that they so rarely see in these grades.

A room of eager bidders battled with the competitive internet market to take home an Essequibo and Demerara 1816 George III 3-Guilders, of British Guiana. This mint coin, which has remained in exceptional condition for the last 198 years, topped the coins in the West Indies section and the sale as a whole. It sold for an impressive £22,800 to a collector in the room. [Lot 691]

Bidding on coins from the Asian Territories was also competitive with an Edward VII/Victoria unique Ceylon copper four piece mule proof set selling for £12,980. [Lot 364] The term ‘Mule’ describes a coin with obverse and reverse designs that are not usually seen together, often intentionally produced or produced by error. This set comprised ¼ cent, ½ cent, cent and 5 cent and as no large copper 5 cents were struck as proofs or circulation strikes for Edward in Ceylon, and due to the work involved, this set is must have been produced for someone with serious influence.

For more Information about Baldwin’s, see: www.baldwin.co.uk

Wayne Homren, Editor

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