2016-02-22 Mon

The star coin of the 45th annual World Money Fair from 5th February to 7th February was an early Holey dollar that is now returning to Australia after an extremely competitive bid at the auction. Another such exciting ‘homecoming’ exhibits at show was the return to Germany of German-made tooling and dies for Chinese coins.

Though the attendance was not good as good as it was in 2013 or 2014, the bourse floor this time was busier than it was last year. The result of falling oil prices and soft market for Chinese coins led to the show’s mixed performance. Commemorative 2 Euro coins were the common favourites among modern European numismatics. The new 2016 French circulating commemorative €2 UEFA soccer tournament coin and the Vatican City coins of Pope were other showstoppers.

Fritz Rudolph Künker’s auction No. 271, on 4th February, realized a total hammer price of more than $7.2 million U.S. Leading the sale was an 1813 silver Holey dollar which was struck from a 1777 silver 8-real coin of at the Mexico City Mint, for King Carlos III. The coin is an example of emergency coinage from colonial Australia. Both the host coin and the counterstamp were graded Extremely Fine and was in superb condition, considering its antiquity. The Holey dollar realized a hammer price of $252,140 U.S.

A collection of 42 dies and 36 punches from the German manufacturer Otto Beh were returned to the nation, for exhibit at the German State Coin Cabinet in Saxony-Anhalt. The tooling had been used to strike some of the early machine-struck coins in China’s history. The gold example was sold for $10,140 U.S. and the silver example realized $2,412.