2019-09-30 Mon

The Edward VIII 1937 Pattern Penny sparked an international bidding war under the auctioneers Spink & Son in London. The auctioneer's estimate of the coin was £60,000. However, the coin was bought by a British private collector at the price of £111,000, but the extra fees tipped the final figure paid to £133,000.

The coin was created as a trial coin by the Royal Mint ahead of Edward VIII’s coronation in the year 1937. However, the coin never entered large scale manufacturing since he abandoned in December 1936 to wed American socialite Wallis Simpson, finishing his rule.

Only a handful of the coins were created, making them desirable to collectors.

The Edward VIII pattern coins were added to the Royal Collection in June 1938, and the remaining coins are stored in the safe of the Royal Mint.

Auctioneer Gregory Edmund said that the abdication crisis of 1936 forever denied the mass production of coins bearing Edward VIII's likeness. The handful of his attractive trial specimens produced in anticipation of the coronation is all that exist for those seeking to complete their coin collections.

It goes without saying that Edward VIII coins do not appear at auction very often, indeed the last time this particular coin appeared was in 1978, so the sale becomes an occasion in and of itself. It is no surprise therefore that collectors the world over have fought tooth and nail to obtain this example today, particularly as its extreme rarity goes hand in hand with the very fact this coin represents such a tangible link to a defining historical event within living memory.

Image Courtesy: The Sun UK