British Rarities Are Shining Star

AUCTION FEATURES PEH COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

-  GREG REYNOLDS

The premier event in the Americas for world-coin experts and enthusiasts T is the annual New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC), which was held in January at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel, in the heart of New York City.

Although there were major auctions by several firms at the convention, a top attraction was a collection of coins not auctioned or offered for sale there. The Goldbergs brought with them the first part of the Peh Collection, which was auctioned in Los Angeles about two weeks later.

On January 30, the firm of Ira & Larry Goldberg auctioned the first part of the Peh Collection at the Fairmont Century City hotel in Los Angeles. Of the slightly more than 220 coins, patterns, tokens and medals in the auction of the first part of the Peh Collection, around 85 of them were British. In terms of current market values and the traditional fame of rarities included, British coins and patterns dominated this auction.

There were about 30 items from the United States in this first part of the Peh Collection.

Twenty-five or so ancient coins were included. A few from Ancient Greece and a couple from the Roman Republic were followed by a noteworthy offering of coins from the Ancient Roman Empire. Five coins from Ancient Egypt were all struck between 300 BC and 100 BC. A very significant percentage of the items in this Peh Collection, Part 1, auction were struck during the 19th century and included European, Latin American, Asian and Oceanic coins.

THE BRITISH INVASION

 A large number of societies were represented in this auction; however, British coins were the highlight and the core of the first auction of the Peh Collection at the convention.

The first large-scale gold coinage program on the British Isles was based upon the noble denomination, introduced by King Edward III in the mid-14th century.