Another nice find of coins that most likely will end up in a museum who's frappe chino machine is worth more than the security system. Burglars will steal the coins and melt them down. In the Fall of 2022, 483 Celtic gold coins were stolen from a small museum in Bavaria, Germany. They were reduced to a lump of gold. Baseball legend Yogi Berra donated his 9 World Series rings plus 7 other rings to the "Yogi Berra" museum. Stolen and turned into a lump of gold. Pieces of history lost to greed. Take this current find, let the Bath museum acquire a few pieces and turn over the rest to Spinks where they can be identified and sold. A far better result than lumps of metal.
I wonder if any will be sold? 1236 silver pennies of Harold II and 1,310 of William the Conquer. The total in the article was 2,528 pcs rather than 2546 so apparently some were fragments. Apparently all in very high grades. The valuation given is $2,512 per silver penny. I didn't know William I coins were so expensive? I wonder if this will have any effect on the market? My guess & hope is that no melting will occur. Silver is not that expensive so that would be a huge decrease in value if the coins were melted. An English hammered pence can easily be sold and just a few or even one would pay for the melt value of the silver.
It is only going to affect the market if they are not taken by a museum. Clearly the number of Harolds would have a huge effect, these comprising the majority of known coins for the reign. It is significant enough to go to a museum, so the end result will be - as you were. The Lenborough hoard of over 5000 Cnuts went to a Swedish museum, so again, had no effect despite there being plenty of rare mints. Historically the 1833 Beaworth hoard of over 6500 William I PAXS pennies will have had the biggest effect on prices, as these comprise 95% of the total known, changing the issue from the rarest to the commonest overnight.
@Gallienus My guess & hope is that no melting will occur. Silver is not that expensive so that would be a huge decrease in value if the coins were melted. An English hammered pence can easily be sold and just a few or even one would pay for the melt value of the silver. Melting will occur when they are stolen by impatient thieves. They want their money ASAP.
I personally think that their evaluation is a bit LOW. Depending on the type, I have seen an uncirculated example sell for upwards of $8,000. If they are all in this condition the market will crash. An XF is currently around $3,000, so even if SOME the coins that are part of this hoard are released it would hurt the market. My hope is that the hoard will be kept together in private hands.
No it didn't. It was bought by Buckinghamshire County Museum. I believe there was interest from a Scandinavian museum when the possibility arose that it might not be purchased.
Sorry, I stand corrected. I lost interest once the Scandinavians said they were interested as it meant none of the rare mints would become available.
Although the idea of not acquiring the hoard was floated, there was never any realistic prospect of it becoming available. It would have (rightly) caused a national outcry. The general public fundraised £30,000 towards its purchase, and it now sits pride of place in Bucks County Museum where locals and sightseers alike can see it in perpetuity. The best result.
It pales in value to these finds, apparently. https://news.hillcountryweekly.com/...-80-million-3-more-worth-over-20-million-usd/
I would rather the museums have a few of the found coins and let the rest be sold to the collectors. The ANA is SLOWLY selling off its dupelicates. The Smithsonian has more "buried" in its vaults than it could ever display. How many 1909-S VDB do you really need? Pick a focus area and sell the rest. The collectors will take better care of the coins and treasure them more.
That's all well and good, but this hoard was found in the UK, and UK taxpayers/the general public overwhelmingly say otherwise in pretty much every poll when asked about whether important finds like these should be acquired for the nation's benefit. They vote in the polls, they vote with their feet in how much they visit museums to see their local heritage and they vote with their wallets when they rally to fundraise for acquisition of finds or make donations to support museums. So in this case, they're the people whose opinions matter. Democracy in action.
It's not like coins in private collections are immune to theft and melting. It happens all the time. I have a long section in my notes files just listing the well-known, published private collections of ancient coins that have been stolen in recent decades, including a fair number of straight up armed robberies. (In addition to collectors, more than one well-know dealer has been severely injured or killed that way.) The IAPN (Intl. Assoc. Prof. Numis.) keeps a running list of coins stolen from dealers and from the mail ("Lost Coin Archive," with numerous major dealers -- a lot that I know & have bought from -- having filed reports for themselves and/or their customers; many of the auctions I've bought from have reported at least one theft, sometimes quite substantial). Every year after the major coin shows (Munich, NYC, Chicago...) there are alerts to be on the lookout for the stolen inventory of dealers who had their life savings stolen from their hotel room, back seat of their car, or taken at gunpoint. In addition to professional law enforcement agencies with units devoted to numismatic crimes in Europe and N. America, the are private agencies dedicated to it, such as the Numismatic Crime Information Center. I'd be astonished to learn that museums are somehow more vulnerable to burglary and robbery that private collectors and dealers. It's definitely not a reason to keep coins out of museums.
