REVIEW: THE PUDDESTER COLLECTION (PART II): 1 & 2 OCTOBER

Bidders took many of the top lots in this £1.7 million sale to multiple-estimate record prices, led by an original 1903 Calcutta proof rupee for Edward VII. With trifling hairlines, but otherwise in brilliant mint state with fully reflective surfaces, it sold for £95,000 against an estimate of £15,000-20,000.

It was a similar story for the next dozen or so top lots, starting with an experimental silver Bombay Rupee from 1939 for George VI. Of the highest rarity and thought to be the best example of the few known, it left a guide of £20,000-30,000 behind to sell for £60,000.

An exceptionally rare 1863 silver Proof Pattern Rupee from the Royal Mint – the only coin of British India dated 1863 – took £55,000, well over expectations of £9,000-12,000.
The best performing set of coins was an original Pattern set of 1861 from the Royal Mint and Calcutta, comprising a silver rupee, half-rupee, and quarter-rupee, as well as silver 2 annas, copper half-anna, similar, copper quarter-anna, copper half-pice, and copper twelfth-anna. An extremely rare set that came with hopes of £14,000-18,000, it made £55,000.

Another set, – an East India Company original silver Pattern set from the Royal Mint, dated 1849 and deemed “an exceptional set of the highest quality, extremely rare” – took £42,000 against a guide of £15,000-£20,000.

An East India Company Calcutta gold 2 Mohurs for William IV, dated 1835, was another extremely rare coin and pitched at £15,000-£20,000. It sold for £50,000.

An original East India Company silver Proof Mohur for Queen Victoria, dated 1854 and of the highest rarity, had been expected to sell for £7,000-9,000 but rose to £46,000.

The original silver piédfort Pattern set, dated 1860-1, from the Royal Mint, and almost as struck and exceptionally rare, carried an estimate of £20,000-26,000, but went on to a price of £42,000.

Peter Preston-Morley, Special Projects Director (Numismatics) at Noonans, said: “As the second in a series of nine sales from the Puddester Collection, the exceptional prices achieved are a tribute to the discernment of a gifted collector. Noonans are delighted to have played their part and look forward to the next instalment.”

The total taken for the first two parts of the collection comes to just under £3.3 million hammer.