Image: One of the coins sold in the auction (Noonans)
The collection of more than 200 Greek coins reached up to 10 times their pre-sale estimate
A collection of more than 200 Greek gold and silver coins have been sold at auction for a collective £3,140,000.
The collection was sold to benefit the Heberden Coin Room in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University’s Museum of Art and Archaeology, which houses approximately 50,000 Greek and Roman Provincial coins.
The capital generated from the sale will endow the post of the curator of Greek coins at the Heberden Coin Room.
Prior to the sale, the collection of 254 coins had been estimated to fetch £1m. The collection includes coins which have not been on the market for 80 years, and had been formed over 90 years by a father and son, who asked to remain anonymous.
Following the sale Bradley Hopper, Coin Specialist at Noonans said many of prices reached were more than 10 times their pre-sale estimate, which “reflected the importance of this collection.”
The highest price of the sale was paid for a stater from Crete that was struck between c425-400 which fetched a hammer price of £300,000. Showing the head of a Minatour, the coin was once part of the Sir Arthur J. Evans Collection – the archaeologist who discovered the palace at Knossos – and was exhibited as part of the Burlington Fine Arts Club’s Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art in 1903.
Prior to the sale, Dr Alexander Sturgis, Director, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology commented: “This will ensure the long-term future of Greek numismatics at the University of Oxford, where the subject has a long and illustrious tradition.”
