Coins & Banknotes
Here at the coins and banknotes department we are busy researching and cataloguing for our upcoming auctions, providing insurance and other types of valuations for coin and banknote collections throughout Scotland and the North of England and helping clients with identifying unknown entities held in their own personal collections.
If you have a collection of coins or banknotes that you wish to learn more about, have identified and valued or professionally catalogued and presented for auction then contact our specialist to receive free no obligation professional advice.
The coin and banknote auctions are held eight to ten times a year at our Edinburgh and Carlisle auction rooms and broadcast worldwide online to an international market. The department record for a single coin is the £12,600 hammer price achieved in February 2016 for an English James II gold five guinea dated 1688. Other stand out results include: £5,500 for a Chinese Republic 1912 Li Yuanhong yuan dollar in April 2024; £4,800 for a 2002 Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee gold proof set in October 2018; £4,500 for a 1902 Edward VII thirteen-coin specimen set in March 2018; £4,200 for a George V twelve-coin specimen set in December 2014; £4,100 for a 1937 George VI gold proof four-coin set in February 2014; £2,800 for an 1887 Victoria Silver Jubilee eleven-coin specimen set in February 2014; £2,550 for a rare 1905 half crown of Edward VII achieved in October 2013; £2,500 for a 1579 Scottish James VI thistle dollar in February 2017; £2,100 for a set of Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank banknotes in November 2015; £2,000 for a 1694 English William and Mary gold two guineas in December 2014; and £1,900 for an 1847 Victoria Gothic head crown in June 2013.
You may have heard of Thomson Roddick from advertisements in publications including Token Publishing’s Coin Yearbook, Coin News, Stamp & Coin Mart, Spinks’ Coins of Scotland or the Antiques Trade Gazette, The Scotsman or Scottish Field. If you are social media inclined, and don’t follow us yet, then we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: you can find our social media icons in the footer of the website to start following us. Perhaps you have seen a member of our team on tv recently? We feature regularly on Bargain Hunt, Antiques Road Trip, Dickinson’s Real Deal, Cash in the Attic and the much missed Flog It, or you may have met one of our valuers presenting a talk on antiques to your local group. Tune in to our new television series, The Edinburgh Auction House, following the Scottish team as they travel around the country searching for exciting lots to sell. Starting at 9pm on 10th January 2023 on the Really channel, it's sure to be a great watch!
We like jargon, if you do too, then here are some related jargon and terms that you may find in one of our coin and banknote auction catalogues:
Gold Silver Guinea Sovereign £ Crown Florin Shilling Sixpence Threepence Penny Token Conder Check Bawbee Turner Bodle Unicorn Unite Merk Noble Demy Lion Rider Plack Ducat Testoon Sword & Sceptre James Anne Charles William Elizabeth George Edward Henry Mary Robert David Wyon Petrucci $ Dollar Cent Specimen Banknote Bank Copper Bronze Hammered Milled Mint Proof Flan Die Gothic Godless Florin Low Tide Uncirculated Heaton King's Norton Money Cash Pond Krugerrand Royal Franklin Westminster Tower
Gavin Durward Tavendale BSc (Hons) is the head of Department and is always happy to conduct free no obligation valuations whether that be in person at the auction room, over email or in the comfort of your own home.
Gavin can be contacted by telephone on 0131 440 2448 or by email edinburgh@thomsonroddick.com.
