The first tranche was offered by Baldwin’s of St James’s in October 2020. Part II comes for sale on September 23 under the sole banner of St James’s Auctions at The Cavendish Hotel.
Pictured here is a silver eight testerns – effectively the very first British ‘trade dollar’ issued for the Honourable East India Company, which received its charter from the queen on January 11, 1601.
The coin, the largest of four denominations of the same design struck at the Tower Mint in 1600-01, was modelled after the Spanish eight reales coin of the same size and value. Now very rare, it is guided at £20,000-25,000.
St James’s Auctions has two sales scheduled for October 5: The Premier Sale and a single-owner collection of Australian sovereigns titled The Regent Collection.
