Featured "Skull & bones" tokens: won two intriguing group lots in a recent Belgian auction

You see, I was missing the "Skully" token that I had sold back in March.

Belgium (Liège, Chapter of St. Lambert): copper communion token; memento mori, ca. 1680s


So I was casually browsing around for a replacement. While I don't think these are especially rare, they're not always easy to find, either. They first came to my attention when CNG was auctioning several of them. I ended up paying around $115-ish for the example above when I won it in a Heritage auction.

There are a few different varieties. Another type has a slightly different skull-and-bones memento mori motif and is dated, with the year 1686. I like the skull on this particular design a bit more, but kind of thought I might go for one of the dated ones next time.

But I never could seem to find any more, or was always too late on the few I saw that had been for sale. They do seem to be rather popular, and tend to get snapped up quickly.

But then I stumbled across the following group lots in a recent Belgian auction (Jean Elsen & ses Fils Auction 142). I bid a little over the estimate for each. To my surprise, I ended up winning both; the first for €360 ($394-ish USD) and the second for €265 ($290-ish USD), plus fees.

Look closely at the lot contents. The images are small and of low resolution, but you can see I will be having an interesting time going through these.

There are multiple "Skullies" in there! And some other cool types, too. So I will be able to choose the one(s) I want, then later sell the remainder of the lots and hopefully recoup most if not all of my investment.

Knowing relatively little about the coinage of Liège (let alone their 17th century tokens), I have no idea if I overbid or not, but I think these lots have some potential.

I had partly forgotten I was bidding in Euros, not US dollars, so the surprise win on both lots did come with some sticker shock, and I had to sell some stuff to scrape up the funds, but hopefully it will be worth it.

Ideally, I'll be getting another "Skully" on the cheap this way, and might make another find or two in the process.

If anyone is interested in seeing what's in these lots, perhaps I can post some of the individual pieces here, over time, as I go through them.

Secret note to self- people who are interested-
(Who else? There were one or two others. Must dig through PMs...)

 

Thanks for that link. Yes, demand seems to be high.

I notice that that single piece sold for about the same price as I paid for the entire second lot above (#1628), which contains multiple pieces!

That is encouraging.

 

PS- @Yorkshire- no, wait, the one you linked to sold for 260 GBP, not EUR, so even more! That's like 320-ish USD. Wow.

Of course it was PCGS AU55.

This confirms my decision to submit all my new Skullies to PCGS for certification when I get them.

I never got around to that with the one I sold back in March.

 

Low- to mid-$100s USD. I forget now. Not too much above my cost, if at all. But I was pricing stuff for quick sale back in March, since I needed to sell.

 

Thanks for taking the time to look, and "read over my shoulder", as it were. As of yesterday, they should be on their way across the pond from Belgium.

 

Probably so. Wouldn't surprise me, though I've not been on CU as much these last three years.

 

I'm not really up to speed on the full backstory of these particular tokens, but Wikipedia has an article on memento mori motifs. The gist of it, as I understand it, is that it was basically used as a solemn reminder of human mortality. In the context of these cathedral tokens, I gather the message must have been something like, "you're going to die someday, so you had better live a virtuous life while you're here". Something like that.

They're worth the price of grading to me, or will be, for a few pieces I'll select, as long as I'm confident they'll straight-grade. After that, I'll pick one for my collection and sell the rest. But you're right that most people probably collect them raw.