By Jesse Robitaille
Realizations include buyer’s premium.
Kitchener, Ont.’s Colonial Acres broke a new company sales record during its third online-only Premier Auction this April.
Topping the sale’s projected realizations by 30 per cent, 1,385 lots crossed the block on April 9-10 with a 93 per cent sell-through rate, which is “excellent for a Premier Auction,” according to auctioneer and Colonial co-owner Kirk Parsons.
“Participation and active bidders were up from the last Premier, and several lots sold for or above Trends—and this was pre-hammer bidding,” added Parsons.
BULLION
Bullion coins led the way with three top highlights, including:
- a 2013 $500 coin, “The Shannon and the Chesapeake,” one of only 200 examples struck, sold for $14,030 – the sale’s top-selling lot – as Lot 79;
- a 2014 $500 coin, “Aboriginal Story: The Legend of the Spirit Bear,” one of only 50 examples struck, sold for $13,916.15 as Lot 83; and
- a 2018 $250 coin, “The Magnificent Maple,” one of only 250 examples struck, sold for $5,980 as Lot 91.
SPECIMEN SETS DRAW INTEREST
Also among the top highlights were a pair of specimen sets, including one from 1908, when the British Royal Mint opened its Ottawa Branch, which later became the Royal Canadian Mint.
Canada’s 1908 five-coin specimen set, complete with its original presentation case, crossed the block as Lot 1271. The coins (one, five, 10, 25 and 50 cents) were all certified as either Specimen-65 or Specimen-64 by International Coin Certification Service (ICCS). The set sold for $3,737.50.
Lot 1272 offered another “Ottawa Mint” specimen set, this one a six-piece set from 1950. The coins were taken from their original case and then certified and slabbed by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) for the Cornerstone Collection, which was sold in a fixed-price catalogue for more than $5 million altogether beginning in 2019. The $1, 10-cent and five-cent coins were certified as Specimen-66, the 50-cent coin was certified as Specimen-65, the cent was certified as Specimen-65 Red Brown and the 25-cent coin was certified as Specimen-64. The six-coin set sold for $4,456.25.
COINS & TOKENS
The sale’s coinage section also offered several highlights, including:
- an 1885 five-cent “Large 5” variety in Mint-State-64 brought $2,702.50 as Lot 354;
- a 1905-dated 50-cent coin, one of only 40,000 struck that year, in Extremely Fine-45 sold for $4,025 as Lot 757;
- a 1966 $1 “Small Beads” variety in Mint State-63 sold for $3,795 as Lot 934;
- a 1948 silver dollar in Mint State-62 sold for $3,220 as Lot 881;
- an 1892-dated 50-cent “Obverse 4” variety brought $2,702.50 as Lot 739; and
- a 1967 silver double-struck dollar in Mint State-65 brought $2,298.85 as Lot 938.
In exonumia, Lot 987 offered a circa 1830-35 “Ships, Colonies & Commerce” half-penny token (Breton 997/Charlton PE10-13). A rarity and one of just two examples are reported in the NGC census, the example offered in April – certified as Fine-12 by ICCS – sold for $1,380.
PAPER MONEY
Two paper money lots round out the highlights.
A matching nine-note specimen set from the Bank of Canada’s “Scenes of Canada” issue crossed the block as Lot 1206. Each note ($1, $2, $10, $50, $100 and two $5 and $20 bills) features a red “SPECIMEN 485” overprint and was certified by Banknote Certification Service. Ranging in grade from Choice Uncirculated-62 to Choice Uncirculated-64 Original, the lot brought $2,645.
An uncut sheet of 1989 $10 banknotes, each with the Knight-Thiessen signature combination and “BEH” prefix, was offered as Lot 1196. With 40 notes in total (printed in a five-by-eight format), the “near-pristine sheet” sold for $2,213.75, Parsons said.