Ancient, British and World Coins, Numismatic Books

Australia, NEW SOUTH WALES, Sydney, Hogarth, Erichsen & Co, ‘Aborigine’ Threepence, 1860, kangaroo and emu under bush, remembrance australia, rev. Aborigine walking right, edge plain, 16mm, 2.24g/12h (A 692; Heyde R44; KM. Tn 119). Damaged from old piercing at top, otherwise about fine, of the highest rarity, very few specimens known £1,000-1,500

Provenance: From an old English collection.

Only seven other specimens traced as having been on the market in the last 30 or so years, viz. Spink Australia, 2 November 1978, lot 464 (loop mounted and gilt, Aus$3,200); Spink Australia, 22 November 1979, lot 154 (ex Bergsøe Sale, Amsterdam, September 1903, ‘beautifully toned,’ Aus$10,500); Spink Australia, 20 November 1980, lot 305 (pierced at top = Osborne collection, Spink Noble Auction 43, 17-18 November 1993, lot 1018, Aus$4,400); Spink Australia Auction 25, 13-15 July 1988, lot 1681 (holed, Aus$7,800); DNW Auction 60, 9 December 2003, lot 1008, from an old collection in Chile (about very fine, £9,800); Noble Numismatics, April 2004, lot 790 (ex Stewart McLeod, acquired in Brisbane 1958, unsold at the time); Noble Numismatics, 26-8 July 2005, lot 903 (the Heyde plate coin, ex Sir Marcus Clark 1954 and ‘Tasmanian’ collections, ‘virtually mint state, the finest known,’ Aus$79,000)