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Posted 05/31/2015 11:03 am
A 170 year-old Newfoundland coin sold for over $50,000 this week at an auction in Toronto.
The extremely rare Peter McAuslane's token was the star of the Toronto Coin Expo. It was expected to sell for $45,000, but was purchased for $51,600 by an individual from the United States.
Coin collector Geoffrey Bell owned the token for the past two years before deciding to auction it off. He says it's unusual to see a coin go for such a high price.
"It was the highlight of the whole auction. It was a very very valuable coin, we knew that right up front," said Bell, whose firm auctioned it off.
"It's kind of exciting to see a piece go that high."
The St. John's token is one of few left in the world, after most of its kind were destroyed in the great fire of 1846. It is believed that a wealthy merchant named Peter McAuslane ordered 100 of the tokens around in the 1840s.
McAuslane was a dry goods merchant on Water Street. At the time, custom-made tokens would have served as a form of local currency.
This particular token is considered the finest of the few remaining, the only comparison being in the Bank of Canada collection.
Bell said like any piece of art or collectible, the token will likely increase in value as time goes on.
"I wouldn't be surprised if this one would sell for a quarter of a million dollars," Bell said, noting that saying goodbye to the piece is bittersweet.
"In a way you get attached to these things and I was kind of sad to see it go," he said. "But I tell everybody we're like curators, collectors. We have our items for a certain time and then we let it go."
The Toronto Coin Expo is a big event for Canada's numismatics. Held twice a year in downtown Toronto, it features rare coins and banknotes for collectors to buy and sell.
CBC News - May 31, 2015 - 5:01 AM NT
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/new...on-1.3093458
The extremely rare Peter McAuslane's token was the star of the Toronto Coin Expo. It was expected to sell for $45,000, but was purchased for $51,600 by an individual from the United States.
Coin collector Geoffrey Bell owned the token for the past two years before deciding to auction it off. He says it's unusual to see a coin go for such a high price.
"It was the highlight of the whole auction. It was a very very valuable coin, we knew that right up front," said Bell, whose firm auctioned it off.
"It's kind of exciting to see a piece go that high."
The St. John's token is one of few left in the world, after most of its kind were destroyed in the great fire of 1846. It is believed that a wealthy merchant named Peter McAuslane ordered 100 of the tokens around in the 1840s.
McAuslane was a dry goods merchant on Water Street. At the time, custom-made tokens would have served as a form of local currency.
This particular token is considered the finest of the few remaining, the only comparison being in the Bank of Canada collection.
Bell said like any piece of art or collectible, the token will likely increase in value as time goes on.
"I wouldn't be surprised if this one would sell for a quarter of a million dollars," Bell said, noting that saying goodbye to the piece is bittersweet.
"In a way you get attached to these things and I was kind of sad to see it go," he said. "But I tell everybody we're like curators, collectors. We have our items for a certain time and then we let it go."
The Toronto Coin Expo is a big event for Canada's numismatics. Held twice a year in downtown Toronto, it features rare coins and banknotes for collectors to buy and sell.
CBC News - May 31, 2015 - 5:01 AM NT
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/new...on-1.3093458
