Review

The most expensive item of the auction sale Ancient Art, conducted by Munich auction house Gorny & Mosch, was the slightly larger than life-size head of a bearded philosopher, sold for 129,800 euros. That, however, was by no means the only exciting result.

170,000 – 160,000 – 100,000 – that were the highest hammer prices of Künker’s summer auction sale. And all three lots came from Russia. It’s not that the other section had no big rarities to offer as well! The total 6,183 lots had been estimated at 5.8 million euros, the hammer prices added up to 9.6 million euros.

The Morton & Eden auction on June 5 and 6 was a wide-ranging two-day auction embracing everything from ancient Greek and Roman coins alongside Islamic, Oriental, British and Foreign coins, paper money and Renaissance medals and plaquettes.

That was the rarest stephanephoric tetradrachm of all: the enigmatic coin with the only known coin portrait of a Pergamene ruler alive obtained 170,000 euros in the recent Lanz auction sale.

In the evening of May 27, Peter Rapp called out 161 lots with a starting price of 242,000 Swiss francs. Not a single one was sold for its starting price or was returned. The room, which was filled to capacity, made sure of that.

Good results were seen at the May 17-18 auction by Stephen Album Rare Coins at their offices in Santa Rosa, CA. Particularly strong prices were seen in the Islamic, Chinese, and Mughal areas. The sale brought in a total of $545,125 for 1,903 lots.

The Morton & Eden sale of important coins of the Islamic world totalled nearly £850,000. A gold medal sold for £120,000 (ca. $185,532) even established a record auction price for an Ottoman commemorative.

Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio conducted their bi-annual Hong Kong sale from April 1-3 at the Sheraton Hotel in Kowloon. The sale featured more than 2,500 lots of Chinese and other Asian rarities, including both coins and paper money, and realized a strong $6,307,830.

Stack’s Bowers and Ponterio conducted their bi-annual Hong Kong sale from April 1-3 at the Sheraton Hotel in Kowloon. The sale featured more than 2,500 lots of Chinese and other Asian rarities, including both coins and paper money, and realized a strong $6,307,830.

More than 14 million euros was the turnover of Künker’s as a result of the five auction sales conducted between March 11 and 16, 2013. The numismatic spectrum ranged from ancient to modern times. Customers’ interest was huge.