A Scion Society of The Baker Street Irregulars
Some 1970’s Auction Appearances of ACD Collection Coins
“… he had put up for auction …”
– The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (BRUC)
In late 1968 and early 1969, the New York firm of Manfra, Tordella & Brookes sold the ancient coin collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle via private transations with individual collectors and Sherlockians. Shortly afterwards, some of these coins were then sold at public auctions when the purchasing collector consigned his collection.
Thanks to the Newman Numismatic Portal, from time to time, we are able to locate some of these coins.
Harmer, Rooke Numismatists, Ltd. featured two lots from the Conan Doyle collection in their June 19, 1973 auction.
Lot 147 didn’t get near the estimated value of $125 and was hammered for $72.50. Lot 206 was closer to the estimate and sold for $70.
Superior Galleries, in their December 1972 auction sale, had one lot that featured two coins from ACD’s collection. Lot 579 sold for $45, nearly reaching the high end of the estimate
Unfortunately, while photgraphs are plentiful in today’s auction listings, it is quite a different story in the pre 1990s sales. It was expensive to take photographs and include in the catalogs. Generally, only higher value items woud be photographed. Unfortunately, in reviewing the MTB price list from ACD’s collection, he did not have many coins of high collector value.
We will note that a reorganized version of Superior Galleries would later auction the manuscript for The Adventures of the Three Garridebs in 1995.
We will continue to scan for previous sale appearances of coins from the Arthur Conan Doyle collection and post periodic updates on this website.
