Sale 104 Preview
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Welcome to Sale 104 in our thirty-seventh year of sales in Sydney. The auction features a wide range of material in seventeen sessions totalling 5,133 lots. The Patrick Connolly collection of English milled coins, half crowns to farthings, is a prominent highlight and comprises sessions eight and nine.
The single outstanding item is the copper medal of the First Fleet ship the Charlotte. This disc was engraved by the convict Thomas Barrett who has the dubious distinction of being the first person to be hanged in New South Wales. A skilled engraver, Barrett crafted this historic keepsake aboard the Charlotte as a unique record of the historic voyage of Australia’s founders.
As well as the Charlotte Medal, the third session includes other Australian historical medals and tokens including two silver medals of Daniel Solander. These are part of the collection formed by Dr Jocelyn Powell, a botanist who found numismatics a fascinating adjunct to her studies. Now retired, Dr Powell is returning to her native New Zealand. She has been buying from our company since the 1970s acquiring some important tokens of Sydney including those by J.C.Thornthwaite.
The evening session offers an important range of New South Wales fifteen pence or dumps, 1813, Australia’s first coins, authorised to be struck by Governor Macquarie. These are followed by an important series of Australian gold coins.
The second day features world coins in sessions six and seven, followed by British coins for the remainder of the day. British gold highlights include Elizabeth I issues and a choice five guineas of George II, 1748.
The third day features an exciting offering of orders, decorations and medals in the twelfth session at 11:30am. This session includes the important and rare Naval MSM group to a member of the crew of HMAS Sydney who was in the action that sank the German Raider, Emden. Also on offer are several other Sydney-Emden related medals and memorabilia. Another outstanding item is the Air Force Cross group to an Australian pioneer aviator and one-time co-pilot to Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
There are many other important items in this session including a Polar Medal to an Australian, medals to casualties, POWs and an Army of India Medal to Capt Hugh Piper with connections to Sydney’s Point Piper and the early settlement of the Port Dalrymple area of Tasmania.
The remainder of the third day is dedicated to world banknotes followed by Australian banknotes in the 7:30pm fifteenth session.
The fourth and final day presents ancient coins in gold, silver and bronze and concludes with a selection of stamps.
On behalf of the company I would like to express our gratitude to all our vendors for their support, especially Patrick Connolly, Dr Jocelyn Powell, and the families of Otto Filipitsch, A.G Simmonds, A.R.G Morrison and Pat Boland.
We are pleased to announce the introduction of an incremental online bidding system. This will enable online absentee bidders to view the current level of bidding for each lot prior to auction and place bids accordingly. This bidding system will be timed to close prior to the live auction and the current bidding level for each lot (where available) will be used to open bidding at the auction.
Live online bidding will now be available for all sessions and lots following the limited but successful introduction in Sale 103.
Accounting for our expanded range of auction services we will be applying a small increase in the buyer’s premium to 19.25% (GST included) for all Australian and overseas buyers.
Please note that the auction is being held in the Dixson Room of the State Library of New South Wales opposite our Sydney office in Macquarie Street.
Finally, we look forward to being of assistance at the viewing and throughout the auction and wish bidders every success.