Charles Moore knows we’re talking about more than pocket change. So when Western approached the president of Moore Numismatic Auctions about shepherding the university’s Outstanding Newfoundland Coinage collection to auction, he didn’t think twice.
“Oh, it’s very exciting,” Moore said.
Going up for auction today, the Western Collection features coins that have not appeared in the numismatic marketplace in decades.
Newfoundland maintained a separate coinage from Canada, issuing coins in denominations of one, five, 10, 20, 25 and 50 cents at various times, and as coinage was needed, from 1865-1947. The mintages were quite small and few examples survive in mint condition. It was only after Newfoundland joined confederation in 1949 that the local currency was replaced by the currency of Canada. For more than two decades, from 1865-88, Newfoundland also issued $2 gold coins and was the only British colony with its own gold issue.
Consisting of 21 individual coins, the Western collection contains a single coin of each denomination for each monarch, from Queen Victoria to King George VI. Each has been independently graded, packaged and certified as genuine by the International Coin Certification Service of Toronto.
The coins were investment-grade at the time of purchase, but have appreciated significantly over the decades. Moore, in fact, sold some of the original pieces to a London investment group years ago.
“To find mint state Newfoundland coins is very difficult – the mintages were low and the metals were soft,” said Moore, who started collecting by going through pocket change as a boy. “These are still some of the finest to survive.”
And he should know.
Since 1977, his California-based firm has held 124 sales, and currently conducts two major auctions in Canada each year. It has sold more than $50 million of primarily Canadian coins for more than 2,000 individuals (including three sales for the Bank of Canada) to more than 25,000 people. Moore’s has set numerous world-price records for Canadian coins and banknotes, including a 1910 Bank of Vancouver $5 note, serial number 000001, that brought $150,000 in 2010.
Highlights of the Western collection include an 1882-H five-cents silver in Specimen-67 condition, tied for the finest known example; a 1904-H 20-cents piece, graded near gem Mint State-64, the second-finest known; and an 1882-H 50-cents piece, assigned the grade of Specimen-66 and one of only three known examples.
Those three coins alone could bring more than $40,000. The entire collection is on the auction block for more than $86,000.
The funds will benefit Schulich Dentistry.
Jane Edwards, Western Alumni Relations and Development gift planning officer, calls the collection “probably among the most unique gifts to Western ever.”
Western received the collection from the estate of Dr. Allan Coote, a London dentist, in January 2010.
“This is not a traditional donation. Gifts of cash, property, securities, sure, we get those. But a coin collection, we don’t see those. There’s been a buzz about them for some time,” Edwards said. “That’s the exciting thing. This is a very unique collection.
“It will be nice to go to the auction and see this through.”
Collectors will attack the collection as individual pieces, not looking to keep the whole set together, Moore said. Advanced collectors will look for the more expensive coins to add to or upgrade the condition of existing ones in their personal collections.
Collectibles – coins included – dipped in prices “three or four years ago,” Moore said, but prices have been on an upswing. He expects good things from this auction.
“The collectors are back,” he said. “Some never went away, others just went on hiatus.”