This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(October 2023) |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Auction |
Founded | 1666 |
Founder | John Spink |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | Olivier Stocker (Chairman & CEO) [1] |
Divisions | Spink China Spink Singapore Spink Switzerland Spink UK Spink USA |
Website | www |
Spink & Son (established 1666) is an auction and collectibles company known principally for their sales of coins, banknotes and medals. They also deal in philatelic items, wine and spirits, and other collectible items.
John Spink founded a goldsmith's and pawnbroker's business near Lombard Street, London, in 1666. [2] The Great Fire of London caused a temporary relocation before Spink returned to the rebuilt Lombard Street.
In January 1778, Marshall Spink was apprenticed to John Flude at 2 Gracechurch Street where they brokered pledges of jewellery, coins and other household furnishings. [3]
In April 1785, Flude presented the Dartmouth Medal to Dartmouth College, New Hampshire "as a memento of his attachment to the United States of America and expressive of its future glory". [4] At least three craftsman are determined to have worked on the medal, probably including his apprentice Marshall Spink. [4]
In 1793, Flude retired and left Marshall in charge of the premises at Gracechurch Street, and a second pawnbroking business in Windsor. [3] In 1807, his son Daniel was apprenticed to the family firm, and Spink & Son was instituted. [3] After 1800, other premises were opened in Barbican and at Great Surrey Street but all were closed by 1812. 2 Gracechurch Street became the principal address for the firm for the remainder of the 19th Century. [3]
Spink & Son are recorded as numismatic auction agents and commission bidders as early as 1818. They were retailers of commemorative medals by March 1826. [3]
By the 1830s, Spink was dealing in art, porcelain and bronze sculptures. [3] Spink would be commissioned to produce a presentation wooden casket to contain the Freedom of the City of London for Dr David Livingstone in 1857. [5]
In the 1880s, they bought the Soho Mint and began to design and manufacture medals, gaining a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria in 1887. [2] Spink won the Gold Prize for Numismatic and Medal display at the Jamaica International Exhibition in 1891, [3] and offered its showroom to Sir Malcolm Fraser for the display of 6,886 ounces of recently mined gold ore from Bayley's Reward Claim, Coolgardie, on behalf of the Government of Western Australia. The exhibition ran between 2 and 14 April 1894. [6]
The 20th Century saw the firm's relocation to King Street and close partnership with Christie's auction house, who would eventually acquire the firm in 1993. [7] Global expansion continued with new offices opening in New York in June 1981 [8] and Melbourne, Australia in October 1981. [3]
On 20 March 2000, Spink & Son moved its London headquarters to 69 Southampton Row where it continues operations today. Christie's sold its remaining interest to the present ownership in March 2002. [9] [10] [11]
In 1996, Spink took over the entire publishing division of B.A. Seaby Ltd., [12] publishers of the Seaby Coin & Medal Bulletin.
Spink is well known for its annual Standard Catalogue of British Coins price guide and handbook, also part of the Seaby acquisition and founded in 1929. Already in 1962 it had been split in two parts, I. England and United Kingdom and II. Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands, in annual editions and with black and white photos of the coins, and in 2007 it was converted to colour printing with newly-taken coin photographs. [12] Later on, Volume I. was split further into Coins of England & the United Kingdom, Pre-Decimal Issues (2024: 59th edition), and Coins of England & the United Kingdom, Decimal Issues, both edited by Emma Howard.
In April 2024, the Spink's "Coins of England & the United Kingdom, Pre-Decimal Issues", "Coins of England & the United Kingdom, Decimal Issues" and "Coins of Scotland, Ireland and the Islands, including Anglo-Gallic Coins", were acquired by Sovereign Rarities Ltd. The acquisition by Sovereign Rarities Ltd will see the next edition for 2025 produced under their branding for the first time. [13]
The first recorded auction held by the company was undertaken by Marshall Spink at the Red Lion Inn in Staines, Middlesex on 20 March 1792. [3]
The principal business remained pawnbroking and sales were soon outsourced to other companies in the first half of the 19th Century. [3]
Soon after William John Webster, Inspector to the Royal Mint and Leonard Forrer joined the firm, Spink created a fixed price periodical for the sale of collectable coins. [3] The Numismatic Circular was issued monthly from December 1892 until January 2014, when it was discontinued in favour of a quarterly auction format for selling coins. It was "the oldest continually published coin and medal catalogue". [2]
Webster provided cataloguing expertise to Sotheby's and Glendining auctions in the 20th Century before auctioneering returned in house in 1978. [3] Spink holds numerous auction records across numismatics, philately and phaleristics including:
Since January 2003, [52] Spink has partnered with the Bank of England to offer low serial number banknotes and raise money for charity when new designs are issued. [53] In November 2022, it was announced that the NatWest Group were offering their own paper money archives to raise funds for the Trussell Trust. [54] [55]
Following Prime Minister Boris Johnson's announcement of lockdown measures in the United Kingdom on 23 March 2020, Spink was the first numismatic auctioneer in the world to pioneer a successful 'hybrid' sale where every bidder participated virtually. [56]
In July 2020, it was announced that Spink had remounted the campaign medals of Captain Sir Thomas Moore. [57] [58]
In 2022, the Antiques Trade Gazette announced that Spink was the leading auction firm in London for coins and medals. [59]
In 2021, prosecutors and investigative journalists probed Spink & Son's historic relationship with antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford, in relation to his false documentation of Khmer antiquities, sometimes together with Emma Bunker. [60] [61] [62] Latchford was indicted, but Spink & Son as a separate entity under new management was not charged. [63]
Over several centuries, many notable numismatists and auction specialists have worked at Spink, including:
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Coin grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a coin, one of the key factors in determining its collectible value. A coin's grade is generally determined by six criteria: strike, preservation, luster, color, attractiveness, and occasionally the country/state in which it was minted. Several grading systems have been developed. Certification services professionally grade coins for tiered fees.
The 1933 double eagle is a United States 20-dollar gold coin. Although 445,500 specimens of this Saint-Gaudens double eagle were minted in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression, none were ever officially circulated, and all but two were ordered to be melted down. However, 20 more are known to have been rescued from melting by being stolen and found their way into the hands of collectors before later being recovered. Nine of the recovered coins were destroyed, making this one of the world's rarest coins, with only 13 known specimens remaining—only one of which is privately owned, which is known as the Weitzman Specimen. Due to the fact that the coin was never released to the public, it is illegal to privately own any of the 1933 double eagles, with the exception of the Weitzman Specimen. The United States Secret Service is said to investigate reports of the existence of other specimens that come to light.
Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) is an international third-party coin grading and certification service based in Sarasota, Florida. It has certified more than 60 million coins. NGC certification consists of authentication, grading, attribution, and encapsulation in clear plastic holders. NGC is a subsidiary of Certified Collectibles Group (CCG), which owns six collectible certification services and is in turn owned by Blackstone, a multibillion-dollar New York City hedge fund.
Heritage Auctions is an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1976, Heritage is an auctioneer of numismatic collections, comics, fine art, books, luxury accessories, real estate, and memorabilia from film, music, history, and sports.
Certified Acceptance Corporation (CAC) is a Far Hills, New Jersey third-party coin certification company started in 2007 by coin dealer John Albanese. The firm evaluates certain numismatically valuable U.S. coins already certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) or Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).
Kenneth Edward Bressett is an American numismatist. He has actively promoted the study and hobby of numismatics for nearly 75 years. His published works on the subject cover a wide range of topics and extend from short articles to standard reference books on such diverse areas as ancient coins, paper money, British coins and United States coins.
Howard Franklin Bowker (1889-1970) was a numismatist and philatelist, collecting and specialising in Chinese coins, stamps and banknotes. He created the first bibliography of Western language publications on East Asian numismatics.
The double sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom with a nominal value of two pounds sterling (£2). Rarely issued in the first century and a half after its debut in 1820, it never had a significant presence in circulation. It is now a collector and bullion coin, and has been struck most years since 1980. It features the reigning monarch on its obverse and, most often, Benedetto Pistrucci's depiction of Saint George and the Dragon on the reverse.
Simon Bendall was an English numismatist, recognised as the leading authority on late Byzantine coins.
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Museums holding antiquities linked to Latchford. The reporting team tracked relics that museums received directly through Douglas Latchford, and the Doris and Nancy Wiener gallery or the London auction house Spink & Son, which prosecutors say helped him sell looted antiquities
Latchford was alleged in the legal action to have bought the Duryodhana in 1972 knowing it was looted, consigned it to a London auction house, Spink & Son, then conspired with Spink's representatives to "fraudulently obtain export licences".
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