Review

Excellent prices were realized in the Gorny & Mosch Fall Auction. Above all, among the ancient coins the Archaic coins from Athens achieved five-digit hammer prices.

Grossing 13.8 million euros based on an original estimate of 10.5 million, the Künker Fall Auction of 2015 entered the company’s history as its top-selling auction week ever. Responsible for this impressive result was an astonishingly broad range of numismatic items including many incredible special collections. This review features auction 270 which was dedicated to the coins from the Ancient World.

On the afternoon of October 1, the Rarities Auction, comprising 135 lots of coins and numismatic Americana, was presented to an active audience. When the gavel fell on the last lot, a total of $2,993,230 worth of coins, medals, and documents had traded hands.

The second part of the D. Brent Pogue Collection auction by Stack’s Bowers Galleries and Sotheby’s brought $26,120,838, surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $20.6425 million. The collection is acclaimed as the most valuable group of coins ever assembled by a private collector.

Grossing 13.8 million euros based on an original estimate of 10.5 million, the Künker Fall Auction of 2015 entered the company`s history as its top-selling auction week ever. Responsible for this impressive result was an astonishingly broad range of numismatic items including many incredible special collections. This review features auction 266 to 269.

The first auction of the auction week of Künker was dedicated to orders and decorations. In its 12 phaleristic auction, Künker offered 900 lots, which obtained a total hammer price of 630,000 euros. Thematically, the focus was placed on the German Empire.

A strong market was present during the 23rd auction of Stephen Album Rare Coins on September 10-12, 2015. Total sales for the 2,747 lots was $1.57 million, a new record for the firm. Strong prices were seen throughout the catalog, in particular in the Chinese section.

The company’s Rarities Night session was a resounding success. Its 306 premium lots with U.S. coins realized over $6.45 million. Prominent highlight of the sale was an 1807/6 Draped Bust Large Cent sold for $470,000.

The Künker Summer Auction Sale was full of numismatic highlights: the hammer price for the only pattern of the very first (West-)German commemorative coin was 28,000 euros, a Hamburg bankportugalöser was sold for 36,000 euros, a Nuremberg 6 ducat piece for 80,000 euros, and a 1692 10 ducat piece of the Holy Roman Empire for 130,000 euros.

85,000 euros for a ‘Large Herculaneum Woman’ type head, 30,000 euros for an enchanting arm of a Roman Aphrodite, 90,000 euros for a torso of Diana of Ephesus – those results testify to the great interest that ancient art sparks these days.