Rare penny struck in Northern Ireland breaks auction records

By Rebecca Black, PA

A rare 17th century penny struck in Northern Ireland has broken an auction record.

The penny from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, sold for £6,200 in a live online auction of tokens and historical medals.

International coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery specialist Dix Noonan Webb (DNW) said it set a worldwide auction record.

It had been expected to fetch £240-£300 but the price rocketed more than 20 times that value before the hammer fell.

The buyer was a collector in the US.

Elsewhere at the auction on Tuesday, a 19th century copper half crown dating from 1812, which was struck in Sheffield, sold for £8,680 to a private collector, and a 19th century sixpence dating from 1813, from a workhouse in Birmingham, sold for £4,464.

The sale also included a collection of 18th and 19th century horseracing tickets and passes.

The highest price was achieved for an extremely rare copper-gilt pass from Richmond Racecourse in North Yorkshire, stamped Lord Dundas, which sold for £1,240 against an estimate of £200-£300.

Peter Preston-Morley, specialist and associate director at DNW, said: "The market for quality was very strong in this sale and all the horseracing material was keenly bid on, mostly acquired by private individuals in the UK."

DNW is donating 5% of buyers' premiums to NHS Charities Together, and a total of £24,879 has been donated since the lockdown started.