Weekly Market Watch

This market watch examines ebay CT sales for the week of August 18 thru 24. It was a busy week with 74 CTs sold, most of them last Sunday.
     There were no HD or D tokens sold this week, but a few really nice ones did find new owners. Most CTs (65 of them) sold for under $20, whereas eight more sold in the middle range. Only one CT broke the $50 benchmark -- it was a nice one that deserves some mention.
     The marketplace was active from the start with cobwrightfortishe offering 15 CTs on August 15th. As usual, there was strong bidding activity. Most of these tokens sold in middle range, plus the one exceptional piece that is profiled below.
     Another large group of CTs, nearly all of them primitive, hit the block later that day. This latter group was odd for the preponderance of incuse and single/double letter in relief designs without other common and contemporaneous pieces with more complex designs (i.e., borders, handcrafted digits) in the mix. One lot contained two M/FD incused CTs (one with a sideways D) that we recognize from this blog as BK562A from Kemnay in Aberdeen (or if on smaller lead, from the same minister [or father] when he was at Banchory Ternan BK96B) -- this is not a common piece in either case, and no variety with a sideways D is reported. Consequently, few bidders were attracted and most of these primitive bits went to 3 bidders -- in fact, one bidder got 9 of them uncontested.  Be aware and use the guidebooks and auction photos of known old collection pieces in order to make confident bids.

Here is another example of the Kinnell 1745 CT cataloged
as BK640 and B3831. It is an interesting cast piece with
primitive figures, irregular border and cut corners. It appears
that the die cutter made several attempts to cut the numbers.

     As before, several Canadian stock tokens sold (mostly round Croil pieces -- which I will profile at some point): seven of them were dispersed at very low prices (all under $10 with postage included). I bought one, too!
     As mentioned above, one CT was bid past the $50 mark: a cut rectangle from Kinnell, dated 1745 (BK640). Six bidders all gave it their best shot, as only six bids were cast. This piece was well worth the price of $53 in my opinion. Although it is not "rare," the token was as described: "superb!" Also, it is quaint piece with thinly carved lettering that gives it a unique, and a somewhat ancient (stone age) look -- a sharp, pointed tool must have been used to cut the die. Careful examination can discern several mistakes and start-overs. Very cool token.
     It is also one the first cut rectangles (dated, of course) that you will find. The corners were probably cut to soften the edges, making the piece more hand-friendly. Here is the link:  COMMUNION-TOKEN-KINNELL-WEST-LOTHIAN-1745-SCOTLAND-BROOK-640-superb.