CT Auction is Live

The Simmons Gallery has posted the auction of Bob Merchant's CT collection.
     There are 415 CTs up for grabs plus three lots of CT production artifacts: an unfinished token with attached casting sprue, a die trial or impression on a lead plate, and a pair of molds (obverse & reverse). Most of the CTs are from Scotland, but 33 are from Ireland and 17 more from other countries: France, Germany, Italy, India, Argentina, Jamaica & Isle of Man. Here is the link to the auction: Simmonsgallery.co.uk/Tokens/Auction.

Here is a page from the CT auction. There are 50+ pages
like this to look at. Plus, many other kinds of tokens
are offered, so there are 100s of pages -- enough to fill
a morning while drinking many cups of coffee.

     Most of them are from the nineteenth century except for a few that came later at the end of the CT era. Consequently, there are many rounds, ovals and cut rectangles. A few squares and straight rectangles complete the offering. This makes for a very attractive mix with most of them (three-quarters) in nearly VF condition or above. The reserve price is under $10 in most cases, so there will be ample opportunity to enter successful bids. Of course, the Irish ones are about twice the price and the others are a bit more.
     There are a few duplicates, as there are several CTs with consecutive table numbers marked on them. One set from Broughton in Lanark (B774) has table numbers from I to IX. This is a great opportunity to add a few CTs to your collection. Hopefully, we will all get a few! 
     The two-part mold from Duirness in Sutherland, dated 1803 (B2095), is very cool and deserves special attention, so I will save it for a separate post. It is not cheap with a reserve of about $800 -- but where else are you going to find one! It is apparently from Autence Bason's collection.
     Just think: you could make your own tokens!
     Please remember that all photos on this post are copyright of Simmons Gallery Limited as described on their website.