THE BUMPER CHRISTMAS ISSUE OF COIN NEWS IS OUT NOW! The December issue of Britain's biggest-selling coin magazine, COIN NEWS, is now on sale at newsagents, from our website www.tokenpublishing.com or from our office 01404 44166.
feel that something like this cannot and should not be ignored. Firstly you have the “Top Gear” factor I mentioned a couple of months ago—the fact that whilst most of us won’t ever own these rare and important coins we can always hope—and such hope is a hugely important factor in collecting, it keeps us going even when we know the chances of completing that date run or finding that die flaw are very slim indeed. However, it isn’t only hope that such a record price brings. On a more practical level, the huge sums paid for coins such as this are actually essential for our hobby and here’s why. Take a look at the housing market in the US and the UK at the moment—why has it ground to a halt? Simply because for one reason or another people have stopped spending, the money has dried up, houses aren’t selling, many people are staying put and those that need to sell are having to lower their prices. As those prices get lower so more people get scared about moving—fearing they’ll either lose on their current house or buy something today that they could get cheaper later on. So they too stay put. As they do so more pressure is put on the market, prices fall further and a downward spiral is created—all because money wasn’t put into the market in the first place. This record coin was sold at St James’s auctions in London, a company run by Knightsbridge Coins; Stephen Fenton, the owner of Knightsbridge Coins has been a coin dealer for many years. He’s a former Chairman of the BNTA and is passionate about the hobby, so it’s reasonable to assume that much of the money made for St James’s from this sale will be ploughed back into the coin market in general through acquisition of new stock, etc. This in turn keeps other dealers, other auction houses, in business and so they can continue to buy new stock for themselves. They are also able to buy from collectors keen to sell to finance new purchases— those collectors then make their new purchases from other dealers and so on. . . the money is kept in the system and our market remains buoyant—no housing style crash here! As well as this, you can guarantee that the sale of such a coin will attract the attention of other buyers—even if only those looking for investment potential, after all, if coins start making this much money they are going to look very attractive to those with serious money of their own. Of course, we never advocate buying purely for investment but in this day and age we are happy to see money coming into the hobby from any quarter! Then you’ve got the “just missed out” factor. The sale of this coin at £1.55 million meant that at least two people were prepared to spend serious money on coins—the one (or more) that missed out on the purchase might
