Dear Friends, Dear Clients,
We just had a golden two weeks during a great Olympic games in Paris. We forgot about war, riots, political campaigns or deadlocks and recession risks. For two weeks, I even forgot about my collections, which seldom happens to me. No doubt, the above issues will be upon us again very soon but seeing these often-unknown athletes in sometimes little-known sports crying of joy or despair, seeing their dreams fulfilled or destroyed, in the only window they have to showcase their sport and skills every four years, made me more hopeful for humankind. These games enabled us to witness the new sport rivalry between teams USA and China (40 gold medals each, but more medals overall for the US), with countries all over getting their share of the Olympic glory. France – dare I say unexpectedly – did quite well in organising the greatest shown on earth with the possible exception of the opening ceremony, which was full of great ideas but sometimes poorly executed. Paris was clean, not only the 45,000 volunteers but also the police were fun and engaging, the venues mind-blowing and even the Parisians were seen as welcoming – a rare feat. In sport, like in our collectables auction world, execution is everything. Like great champions (Biles, Marchand, Riner, Ledecki …), at Spink we pride ourselves in delivering the top performance on an auction day, when all eyes and expectations are on us.
The other take-away from this summer is the climate, with record temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. In July, Barcelona had its warmest ever, London and Paris were scorchingly hot and indeed, according to Bloomberg research, Europe is heating up twice as fast as other continents. They estimate that two years ago, 70,000 people died due to extreme heat. I often wonder how I can reduce my own carbon footprint, let alone the sustainability of Spink as a company. We introduced non-toxic ink and have been sourcing paper for our catalogues from sustainable forests for over 20 years now, way before it became the thing to do. We are also constantly implementing new measures to reduce our energy usage and increase our recycling, for example. We also make sure catalogues are printed when they will be kept for reference by recipients and have moved the general sales online. This is well received by many environmentally friendly collectors, and there is not a week that passes without several requests to stop sending catalogues and move online instead. As collectors are the ultimate in recycling, I believe we can be proud that our hobby does little to contribute to climate change overall.
In our auction rooms
It has been a busy few months at Spink – notably we held a groundbreaking series of charity auctions with the Bank of England between 13th June and 24th July, showcasing exclusive King Charles III low and special serial number banknotes and raising over £900,000 for Bank of England charities. The auctions featured £5, £10, £20, and £50 polymer notes, all bearing the portrait of King Charles III, and marking a historic moment as the first time the Bank of England changed the monarch on its currency, with King Charles III being the first King to appear on the notes.
The cover of this issue shows Sarah John, Chief Cashier of the Bank of England and signatory of all the notes, bringing the hammer down on a succession of sensational results, including the first lot in the £5 auction, serial number 3, which sold for an astounding £11,000, while a sheet of 60 £5 notes fetched £11,000. The £10 note auction made history by offering serial number 2 for the first time ever, which sold for an impressive £17,000. The series concluded with the £50 note auction on 24th July 2024, with serial number 3 commanding an outstanding £14,000, and an uncut sheet of 40 £50 notes fetching £26,000, setting a world record price not only for a Bank of England sheet, but also for any lot sold in a Bank of England charity auction.
The big headline for Medals was the Army Gold Cross to General Sir Colin Halkett, which sold for £220,000 Hammer (£283,800 all-in) on a £150- 200,000 estimate. Our July auction also included the exhibition and Sale of Medals related to the Charge of the Light Brigade from the Collection of the late EJ Boys. This followed the massive success of the Irish Guards VC exhibition in June around Trooping the Colour, when we displayed all six VCs awarded to the Regiment to date for the first time in public. Please see London News for a full review of both extraordinary events.
In July we also had a very successful Great Britain Stamps and Covers sale, which saw prices continuing to edge up progressively after a long period of depression caused by previous excessive investment in the field and the subsequent insolvency of a British historical house in December. One rare Mulready cover in that sale to a foreign destination, fetched over three times the estimate at £42,000 hammer price.
September brings with it the usual flurry of activity in all areas, with both Stampex and Coinex taking place during this month and the associated autumn sales across all categories. We kick off with the US and World Banknotes e-Auction from 6th to 19th September, and the Orrysdale Collection of Dr John Frissell Crellin MRCS MHK (1816-1886): Coins, Card Money, and Tokens e-Auction from 11th to 25th September. The Simon Greenwood collections of British East Africa and British Honduras follow at the RPSL on 24th September, ending the month with our British and World Coins and Medals Autumn Auction on the 26th.
We shall also offer the Alfred Leonard Fuller collection, a dream of any auctioneer as the collection of 900 British silver coins and 1,000 tokens was formed between 1896 and 1902 and has stayed intact since then. Interestingly the coins were mainly purchased from Spink’s Numismatic Circular at the time.
October sees our World Banknotes sale in London, and the ‘Connaught’ Collection of Hong Kong, Part 2 plus Hong Kong QV Registered Postal Stationery Featuring The ‘Flying Ace’ Collection at Spink China on 25th and 26th October respectively – for further details on all of these please visit our Forthcoming Sales pages, with many more exciting sales yet to be announced. Please download our Spink Live app to make sure you never miss one of our 100+ auctions every year.
A word on the collectables markets
As evidenced by the 30% or so contraction of the auction art market from 1H22 to 1H24 (source Wall Power – Marion Maneker), it has been a tough ride for major players in the field, with painful adjustments. Sotheby’s has just announced a few days ago a US$1 billion capital injection (although full details, notably between old and new shares, are not yet available). So the smart money is also seeing the green shoots I was referring to in the last Insider.
With inflation back in its box, interest rates having started to decline everywhere and the friendly mega-trend of the ageing population, with the over65 population expected to triple in the next couple of decades, the collectables scene looks auspicious overall. Of course, there will be necessary adjustments as people will collect differently, as affluent collectors from new generations join the hobby. So, expect disruptions here and there, but as a well-known asset manager once reminded me in my banking days at JPMorgan, “the trend is your friend”.
I would hence argue the collectables market has been more resilient than the art market in the downturn, and its prospects are also more attractive for the foreseeable future.
The only shadow on this positive outlook is the situation in China, most notably the Chinese property market which is still in the doldrums as it is estimated that a whopping 48 million paid-for flats have not been completed. With the lack of cash of property developers and the capacity constraints of the construction industry – as Chinese workers now prefer office work to construction jobs – it would take no less than eight years to finish those flats already paid for (according to a Bloomberg research report recently released). But many will never be finished as some developers are likely to go belly up. And I have highlighted many times in these pages the importance of Chinese collectors for our global collectors market. The slack has been taken up somehow by affluent Indian collectors, but they are still less international in their purchases than the Chinese collectors. We can expect some measures by the Chinese authorities to deal with these socially destabilising issues, but the timing of such measures remains uncertain. Rendez-vous in Monaco in December for all stamps afficionados.
Lastly, a reminder that this year’s instalment of MonacoPhil will take place from 5th to 7th December 2024 in a brand-new venue, the One Monte-Carlo Conference and Exhibition Centre, combining world-class philately from the trade, collectors and museums. A catalogue showcasing some of the fantastic pieces on display will be published alongside the 100 Philatelic Rarities, plus a special publication on the stamps and postal history of Labuan, together with the exhibition catalogue of the thematic exhibition of Far East, featuring the best collections in the world on the subject, and for the first time a few banknotes too.
In the meantime, I hope you had a chance to recharge your batteries during the holiday season with your loved ones, had a few smiles and tears over the Olympics, and are ready for an active start of the new collectables season in September.
Every good wish,
Olivier D. Stocker, CFA, FRPSL,
Chairman and CEO