Baldwin's London Auction 71 Baldwin's London auction 71 offers a spectacular array of Indian, Islamic and Latin-American coinage. Including the Yashoda Singh Collection of Indian Coins and the Alan Harley Collection of Latin Ame
News-Antique.com - Sep 11,2011 - Baldwin’s auction 71, the second of two official Coinex auctions, contains an array of high quality, interesting pieces from the Indian, Ancient and Islamic worlds and is set to be one of the most spectacular sales of the Coinex season. Held in the CIPFA Conference Centre on the 29th September the auction starts at 10.00am promptly and runs in conjunction with the BNTA organised Coinex numismatic convention.
The first section of the auction comprises The Yashoda Singh Collection of Indian Coins. A collection collated over the course of 25 years by a collector with a true passion for the history of the coinage of India. Twenty five years ago when Yashoda Singh first started to collect coins there were no coin shows, auctions or dealers specialising in Indian coins. In the US a couple of dealers became more prominent but Baldwin’s have blazed the trail as far as auctioning Indian coins are concerned, beginning with The Sir John Wheeler collection of coins of the East India Company and British Imperial India and more recently the sale of the Diana Collection of Coins of the British Empire. The Singh collection is formed of historically significant and artistically beautiful coins from every period of Indian coinage, all of which have an emotional resonance with the current owner. In the introduction to his collection Mr. Singh draws particular attention to the coins from the mints of Patliputra (also known by other names in different periods - Patna or Azimabad or Hazrat Rasulpur), Rajgriha, Chunar, and Tirhut. All these mints lay in the state of Bihar or eastern Uttar Pradesh, the region in which Mr. Singh was born. He says of his collection ‘I did not collect these coins specifically for profit but for my emotional satisfaction. It so happens that Indian coins are now sought by Indians and non-Indians from all over the world and prices have skyrocketed.’
Lots 1228 and 1233 are the two main pieces in the collection. The first, an 1835 Proof Restrike Gold Mohur is an unusually nice piece estimated at £3,000-5,000. The second, an 1835 Gold Proof Re-strike 2-Mohurs is estimated at £5,000–8,000. Other highlights from this collection include lot 1005, a Vima Kadphises, gold Dinar in extremely fine condition, estimate £1,200 - £1,500; lot 1147, a Bengal Presidency Gold Mohur, Year 31 in extremely fine condition, estimate £1,000-1,500; lot 1221, a 1939B Silver Rupee, estimate £1,000-1,500; lot 1226, an 1870 Gold Early Proof Restrike 10-Rupees, estimate £1,500-£2,500 and lot 1238, one of only 10 know specimens this Marathas, Silver 1/5-Rupee or “Velli Fanam” is estimated to sell for £1,000-1,200.
The Indian section continues with a further array of coinage from other properties including a small selection of coins from Hyderabad, lots 1472-1476. Lot 1472, a Mir Mahbub Ali Khan II (1868-1911), Copper Pattern Rupee, AH 1301, estimate £15,000-25,000 is of particular interest. A major article by Jan Lingen, recording some of the AH1312 Hyderabad coins, was published in the Oriental Numismatic Society Newsletter No. 153 (Summer 1997),
