The high market value of gold was reflected in the excellent prices achieved at a successful £150,000 books, coins and stamps auction in Shropshire on 9th April.
22/04/2025
Halls Fine Art continued its impressive run of coins auctions as one North Shropshire collection of gold coins made £20,000. Other collections from the county and Liverpool sold for £15,500 and £11,500 respectively.
The auction’s top price, however, went to a quality, Great Britain stamp collection, spanning from 1840 to 1936 and containing many iconic stamps, which sold for £16,000. The collection belonged to a Shrewsbury collector.
There were also notable prices in the books section, where the Works of William Shakespeare, published in 1709 by Jacob Tonson, tripled its pre-sale estimate to sell for £1,800.
Containing Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet Prince of Denmark, King Lear and Othello, it was the first eight volume edition, after the four great folios of the 17th century. It was also the first illustrated edition of Shakespeare with a plate before each play.
Top priced coins were £7,200 and £5,600 twice for limited edition 22ct gold Winston Churchill medallion and medals, respectively.
Two cases, each containing 10 gold Queen Victoria sovereigns, sold for £4,600 apiece, an Edward VII 1902 gold proof coronation set made £4,400, a case containing nine gold sovereigns made £4,350 and a 1969 South African Krugerrand sold for £2,300.
Other notable prices were £2,900 for an album containing an assortment of 138 silver, copper and bronze coinage from Roman to Edward VII, £2,100 for a limited edition Jubilee Mint Tristan Da Cunha 22ct gold proof £5 coin and £1,750 for a USA gold 20 dollars coin, dated 1897.
A surprise result in the books section was the first volume of ‘The Paintings in the Buddhist Cave - Temples of Ajanta’ by John Griffiths, dated 1896, which raced away to sell for £1,100.
Four volumes of Archibald Thorburn’s ‘British Birds’ and a King James version of the Holy Bible from 1683, with links to a Radnorshire family, made £500 each.
In the stamps section, a massive collection of covers housed in 21 albums and with some loose sold for £1,100 while a Great Britain collection of stamps form 1937 to 2018, contained in five albums including some Post and Go items, found a buyer at £900.
Maryanne Lineker-Mobberley, Halls Fine Art’s associate director, said: “We were delighted with the strong prices achieved in all sections of the auction, particularly the coins which reflects high market value of gold.”
Derek Ainsworth, Halls Fine Art’s coins specialist, said: “Gold coins are very much in demand as an investment and we were pleased to have some fine collections in this auction which achieved above estimate prices.”
For more information about the lots sold take a look at the full results by clicking on the link below or get in touch with us for FREE VALUATION. To book your appointment: 
+44 (0)1743 450 700 | 
fineart@hallsgb.com
+44 (0)1743 450 700fineart@hallsgb.com
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