Spink auction today

[pokal02]

What's going on - 180 lots taking 5 hours with another 420 to come?  They'll still be bidding at 1 a.m. on that schedule.   

[Rob]

That was fun, wasn't it. 12 hours and 2 minutes start to finish for 576 lots. There was some fairly ambitious bidding today. I thought I had done well in the morning session (which started at 10:00 and finished at 17:50) to make underbidder on one lot, albeit at nearly 3x book. When some things were going for up to 10x estimate and few lots reflected the book price, the overall results were always going to be good. Greg Edmund's comment that after half the lots in the morning, the lower estimate had been reached, was a good indicator of things to come. The afternoon session was halfway to lower estimate after 3 lots.

On the plus side, I did manage to get 2 lots.

[celtic_coin]

The auction is extremely hot – prices of high-quality coins are far more expensive than the estimate. However, I found it much more reasonable than auction of milled coin and later hammered coin – a large collection of early anglo-saxon coins can be unique, and early anglo-saxon coins of good condition are extremely difficult to find on the market. I only manage to get one lot: https://live.spink.com/lots/view/4-1TK3W3/anglo-saxon-england-continental-series-695-740-sceat-series-e-variety-c-crescent-enclosi

Edited March 19, 2021 by celtic_coin

[celtic_coin]

The series E Variety C type I acquired is not rare, but it is rare to have a bird motif. The coin is also  in good condition.

[pokal02]

Yes, it was all a bit strange. Although most of the coins either went for silly prices or proved that sceats/stycas are seriously undervalued in the catalogues, some went for fairly modest prices - I was so shell-shocked by some of the early bidding (and the extended wait didn't help) that I missed bidding on a Beonna that went for below low estimate.  One of the Eardwulf's looked quite low too.  

My theory that where there are two near-identical coins, the second always fetches more was proved in spades by the two 'Aelfwald II(?)' lots.  I was the underbidder on the first at 270, and then watched the second go for (I think) 1700.  

I'd expected to at least fill my Redwulf, Osberht and Wulfhere gaps given the number of coins offered - managed a Redwulf and Wulfhere, although with hindsight would have gone for the slightly inferior Wulfhere at 220-odd rather than paying 500 for mine.   The hammer came down on the last Osberht with my bid winning, but he re-opened it and I didn't bid on.