EXTREMELY RARE ROBERT THE BRUCE COIN FETCHES HAMMER PRICE OF £4,200 AT NOONANS

An important and rare Robert the Bruce silver penny from the mint of Berwick fetched a hammer price of £4,200 – almost three times its high estimate - at Noonans Mayfair in a single-owner sale titled A Collection of Scottish Coins, the Property of a Gentleman (Part I) on Wednesday, January 24, 2024. The large collection of Scottish coins that had been amassed over the last 50 years by an anonymous collector, were 100% sold and fetched an overall hammer price of £86,270. Coins of Robert the Bruce are always popular, and this exceptional example sold to a collector in the USA [lot 53].

Elsewhere, from the reign of James II (1437-1460), an exceptionally well-struck groat from the Edinburgh mint sold for a hammer price of £2,400 – double its pre-sale high estimate and was bought by a UK Collector [lot 140]. From the mint of Holyrood Abbey was a groat from the reign of James V (1513-1542) that also sold for a hammer price of £2,400 – double its low estimate and was purchased by a UK Collector. The coin was decorated with a fine Renaissance-style portrait, which bore no resemblance to the King who was only 14 years old at the time and had a distinguished provenance [lot 153]

An excessively rare and important sterling from the first coinage of Alexander III (1249-1286) from the Kinghorn mint in Fife - the place where Alexander is known to have died in a riding accident on a stormy night in March 1286 - fetched a hammer price £2,200 against an estimate of £1,200-1,500. It was bought by a UK private collector [lot 13]

From the very rare Aberdeen mint was a groat from the reign of Robert III (1390-1406), that realised a hammer price of £2,000 – double its low estimate and was bought by a Collector from the USA [lot 128].