Shrewsbury auction house's reputation for selling coins attracts collections from across UK

In the latest coins auction at Halls Fine Art in Shrewsbury, a 22ct gold commemorative medallion made as a memorial to Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer sold for more than £20,000 for a Merseyside seller.

A collection of gold commemorative coins from South Shropshire sold for £8,000, a rare coin from India returned to the sub-continent for £3,200 and a rare set of three Tongan palladium coins made £1,740 for a Cambridgeshire seller.

Now, Halls Fine Art’s coins specialist, Derek Ainsworth, is busy cataloguing a quality collection of gold coins and 30 Maundy sets, the earliest of which are from the reigns of Charles II and Queen Anne.

The collection, consigned by a Warwickshire collector, is valued at up to £20,000 and will be going under the hammer at the company’s next books, coins and stamps auction on November 6.

Also entered in the auction is a collection of 18th and 19th century copper tokens and silver coinage from a Cheshire collector, which is expected to fetch up to £10,000.

Tokens, which were not official coins of the realm, were made to facilitate trade at a time when copper coinage was in short supply. Due to the rising cost of copper, caused by the war with France, most coins were melted down and people were desperate for coinage to carry out transactions.

To cater for this demand, in 1787, Parys Copper Mine on Anglesey started making coins and it wasn’t long until every town in the UK had merchants making their own copper tokens to give as change.

“The collection of copper tokens is one of the best I have seen,” said Derek. “To have 120, top quality tokens in this collection is very rare. They are absolutely beautiful. The Cheshire collector bought them back in the 1960s and he has also consigned some very good silver coinage.”

Referring to the Maundy sets, he added: “It’s very unusual to see such a good collection and they are certain to attract keen interest from collectors.”