Stack’s Bowers Galleries is pleased to be presenting Part III of the Mark & Lottie Salton Collection on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, as part of the Summer Global Showcase Auction. We showcased Part I of this incredible cabinet in January 2022, while Part II was sold by Künker in March. Part III will feature coins from Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Great Britain, Scotland and the Commonwealth.
Masterpieces abound in this offering, beginning with an extremely rare 10 Cruzados of Joao III, an impressively large denomination for the 16th century created at the beginning of the Portuguese Empire and meant to celebrate the growth of her overseas possessions. If the 10 Cruzados celebrates the beginning of a European empire, a 1825 Simon Bolivar gold medal of 8 Escudos weight struck by the city of Potosi in gratitude to the great liberator is symbolically celebratory of the end of Spain’s empire in South America. Extremely rare in gold and hailing from the Waldo Newcomer Collection, this medal is yet more fascinating as a flipover double strike error.
For aficionados of British coinage, this offering from the Salton Collection includes rarities both hammered and milled, with a particular focus upon the large silver issues of Charles I during the English Civil War and gold denominations of the 17th to 19th centuries. Seldom encountered gold Pounds from the very end of the Elizabethan era offer wonderfully detailed portraits of the famous queen. A run of “declaration” types under Charles I channels the strife taking place within the realm at that time—with the 1644 Oxford Pound taking center stage. Within the milled coinage, the 5 Guineas denomination in particular features a number of these majestic specimens. A “fine work” example from the reign of William III displays tremendous quality and a planchet crack that only augments its character.
