History is often written by the winners. So said Churchill. Jawaharlal Nehu, the first Prime Minister of India, elaborated: “History is almost always written by the victors and gives their view. Or, at any rate, the victor’s version is given prominence and holds the field.

In 1842 the first Opium War ended. The Qing Dynasty was forced to concede indemnities, treaty ports and Hong Kong Island to the British. China as a nation was already suffering from the effects of natural disasters, famine and perceived overtaxation. Adding defeat in an expensive and unpopular war created a portentous mix. China seemed poised for an uprising. And it got one.

The Taiping Rebellion would last for the next fourteen years. It would become one of the bloodiest wars in human history, with estimated dead somewhere between twenty million and a hundred million, as well as millions more displaced. At its end, the Qing Dynasty prevailed, with the major players in its victory heralded as heroes and ‘saviours of the Qing Empire’.

And so says history.

In Chinese, The Taiping Rebellion is referred to as The Tai Ping Tian Guo – with the literal translation being ‘The Kingdom of Heavenly Peace’. A phrase many times removed from the English connotations of ‘rebellion’. But history is written by the victors, and it is the victor’s view that ‘holds the field’.

In 1843, a Christian sect named the ‘God Worshipping Society’ began to spread their ideas across Southern China. They gained support from the locals by suppressing gangs of bandits and pirates throughout the region – something that the ruling Qing government had failed to do.

The leader, Hong Xiuquan, believed himself divinely blessed (many commentators have stated that Hong claimed to be ‘Christ’s younger brother’, but this may well actually be a mistranslation of the Chinese term for younger brother: ‘xiōng dì’ which means ‘follower’ rather than a blood relative), and the group grew in popularity and numbers. By 1847 they had taken control of the whole Guangxi Province. By 1850, their puritanical doctrine had become the norm – based on snippets of Christianity that had been brought to China by Europeans during the Opium War. Opium itself was banned, as was tobacco, gambling and the masochistic practice of foot binding. Women were treated on an equal basis to men, and became soldiers and administrators and even civil servants.

‘Rebellion’, indeed.

Lot 292 in Hong Kong Auction 61 – An important Group of French Orders, Medals and Papers relating to the Taiping Rebellion – awarded to the Captain Jules Julhiet (1824-1898) and family.
Extremely fine to mint state.
Estimate: US$10,000-12,000

By 1853, two thirds of China’s land was controlled by the Taiping’s.

Is a rebellion still a rebellion when it has won? Can the label of ‘rebels’ be attached to a movement that controlled so much of the country? If they were the majority, just what were they rebelling against? The debate is open, but history is written by the victorious, and the fact is that the Taiping Rebellion did not win at all.

When, in 1860 and 1862, the Taipings moved to conquer Shanghai, the English and other European countries stood up and took notice. Shanghai was a port that the British had been ceded, and was considered incredibly valuable to trade. The decision was made that even a weakened Qing Dynasty was preferable to an unknown regime with a perceived version of Christianity that must have appeared quite radical to the Victorian British. The Qing ‘Ever Victorious Army’ (history is written by….etc), backed by the Europeans, recaptured Suxhou and Nanjing, culminating in the death of Hong.

Other factors played their part in the Taiping downfall. Hong’s reluctance to march North played into the ruling Manchu’s hands. Internal fighting amongst the Taiping leaders led to disillusionment and disorganisation amongst their ranks, and so on.

The victors were left to name history, and the rebellion will be forever thus.

As for the future – that, naturally, was still to be written. Many of the Taiping’s beliefs are now seen as a type of proto-Communism (for example, the control of all lands being passed to the rulers; every member had to turn over all funds to the Treasury), and most certainly paved the way for the end of Dynastic rule in China and the creation of the Communist Regime. It is highly unlikely that the Taiping’s had heard of Karl Marx; but he had certainly heard of them: “perhaps the next uprising in Europe may depend more on what is taking place in the Celestial Empire than any other existing cause”.

In numismatics, it is not the future but history (whomsoever it is writ by) that is our staple. And it is history that gives out the names. What would we have called the ‘rebellion’ had they been victorious? Would we today be collecting medals relating to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement – the movement that mayhap have led to a dominant economic and political system that never caused another war ever again….?

Hong Kong Auction 61
Thursday 25th August 2016

Click here to view all lots from this auction

A cup of tea. As quintessentially British as queuing or a 3-hour discussion about the weather. It is, however, a stereotype that often rings true. The British as a nation drink on average 3.5 cups of tea per day. This equates to around 165 million cups per day. Or a staggering 62 billion a year.

Ingrained as it is within the British culture (think afternoon-tea, high-tea, tea-cakes, the tea-trolley, and so on), it is little surprise that it has enthused (and infused) millions. George Orwell, for example, was a notable tea devotee, and identified 11 rules for tea-making. These, he insisted, should be adhered to at all times – details such as warming the teapot before use, only using certain types of tea, etc.

Orwell’s list may have seemed a trifle obsessive, but for some unfathomable reason he failed to include the process of drying and grinding tea leaves and then pressing them into bricks to use as currency.

Orwell’s baffling omission was probably due to the fact that he lived more than 1984 miles away from where this practice was prevalent: China and the Far East.

Hong Kong Coin Auction 61 – Lot 320

Russian Tea Brick, late 19th or early 20th Century, 185mm x 240mm
Edges and corners a little rubbed, otherwise well preserved.

Estimate: US$100-150

Tea-bricks were, in fact, the most commonly-used form of currency for the Far East region pre-Ming Dynasty (c.1368), due to the high value of tea at the time. They were carried by the caravans travelling to Tibet and Mongolia and used as currency en route, before any remaining were sold as food in Russia.

Early tea-bricks were often ground with binding agents such as flour, blood or manure, rather diminishing, one feels, their appeal as a foodstuff. In Britain, where tea is revered so, it is difficult to imagine the public taking to such ingredients being added to Orwell’s list (apologies to those currently reading this whilst enjoying a cup of their favourite beverage).

The practice of manufacturing tea-bricks continued through the centuries, reaching its height comparatively recently in the 1880’s when inscriptions of the manufacturer or the locality of the factory were pressed in the bricks. The advent of the hydraulic press in 1878 re-invigorated the process, and by the turn of the century there were French, American and German firms brokering tea-bricks in China.

The highest grade of tea-bricks were made for the Russian market (such as the example pictured above, for sale in Hong Kong Coin Auction 61), where they were extremely popular. During the Russian invasion of Tibet prior to WWII, for example, the Russians were noted for buying up huge stocks.

Tea-bricks are still made to this day, and widely used in Tibet and Central Asia.

In Britain, the traditional beverage-of-choice took a slightly different evolutionary route. For that, we have to thank Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant whom, in 1908, had the bright idea of selling tea in little silk bags. Many people were unaware they were supposed to empty the contents before use, and instead immersed them in water. The tea-bag was born.

The humble tea-bag as we know it today is, unlike the tea-brick, unlikely to ever be used as a form of currency (although never say never). For those of us fascinated by the more unusual forms of money, however, the tea-bricks stand as intriguing and absorbing examples of historical import.

So the next time someone asks you to ‘spare a penny for a cup of tea’, bear in mind that not so long ago these were one and the same thing…..

Click here to see all lots from this auction.

On June 23^rd of 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union. Some cried, some cheered. British politics imploded. Shockwaves were felt around the world. Markets fell. The value of the pound dropped to near-record levels. ‘Economic Uncertainty’ became the number one contender for Phrase of the Year (The Word of the Year has already been awarded to ‘Brexit’).

Over the next two years, the UK will negotiate its exit from the Union. The ramifications of those negotiations are still somewhat shrouded in mystery, and the finer details are obviously yet to be resolved. No matter if you’re in the UK or elsewhere, the questions remain the same: will we be missing out? Will we benefit?

Amongst the wreckage of the political resignations and stock market turmoil, however, it can now be argued that ‘Brexit’ has created ‘the perfect storm’ for numismatics all around the world.

Back in 2015 we brought to the attention of our subscribers a petition against new cultural laws proposed by the German government, provenance laws that threatened the trading of numismatic items by applying provenance regulations that most numismatists would find difficult to adhere to. At that time, Baldwin’s subscribers were amongst the most vociferous in their opposition to the proposal, causing the legislation to be delayed.

In May of 2016, one month before Brexit, this petition was presented to the German Bundestag with nearly 50,000 signatures. To the dismay of collectors everywhere, it was rejected.

On June 23^rd, as the UK was going to the polls, the German Bundestag adopted the new law, pending approval from the Bundesrat (it is worth noting that there were many concessions made regarding the sale of coins from the original document, but more on that later).

Apropos of this, on 15 and 16 September 2015, the European Parliament held a ‘legislative initiative’ on ‘Conflict Looting and the Importance of Provenance Research’.

This initiative, attended by all the major European governments (including the UK), aimed to address the role that the European Parliament played in ‘combatting the trafficking of plundered cultural heritage’.

Whilst this may seem at first glance tangential to numismatics (and collecting in general), it does have a direct effect on the buying and selling of coins. For anyone interested in history (and let’s face it, as numismatists we are de facto historians as well), the plundering and destruction of ancient cultural sites in certain parts of the world is of grave concern. And of course some of those items illegally removed from these areas inevitably include coins and other numismatic relics.

This European Parliament legislative initiative concluded by setting up a ‘Provenance Research Initiative Group’ to examine ‘provenance research as an indispensable mechanism to combat the trade in illicit antiquities’.

Whilst there are none among us who would disagree that provenance is most definitely an extremely good thing indeed, we can also agree that it is not always so straightforward, especially if new provenance guidelines are enacted retrospectively. Take a random coin from your collection, for example. Can you give a full history of that coin? Can you list the previous owners? Can you provide provenance going back over the last twenty years? Further, can you provide that provenance in writing?

The European parliament initiative on provenance research, along with the new German legislation, indicates that the buying and selling of coins in the future may well be a very different animal that it is at present. It will almost certainly mean that buying and selling your coins in certain areas will become far more difficult.

The UK now has two years (maybe much less if some reports are to be believed),to negotiate its departure from the European Union, and legislations that affect numismatics in general are inevitably going to be a part of those negotiations. In the case of the German Cultural law, the Bundestag has already pledged to revisit this in five years, with a view to tightening the concessions that the law made from its original form.

By that time, the UK will no longer be a part of the European Union.

So why the ‘perfect storm’?

Brexit has caused gold prices to rise exponentially as investors clamour to take refuge in precious metals (at the time of writing the price of gold stood at $1,317, and many commentators expect it to hit $1,400 in the coming months). The Royal Mint reported an increase of 550% in the sale of gold coins just one day after Brexit. Add to this the ‘economic uncertainty’ that is now engulfing both Westminster and Brussels (combined with speculation across the Atlantic of the perceived economic instability of a Trump Presidency), and we are presented with arguably the best time to buy rare coins that we have seen in recent years.

And of course, for those outside the UK, the value of the £pound (now at its lowest rate for decades) means that buying from within the UK means that you get a lot more coin for your, er, coin.

Whatever happens next, the world is set for some significant changes – both politically and economically. One thing we can be sure of, however, is that numismatics is set to be more popular and more fashionable than ever before, and that can only be a good thing for the collector.

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By Coin World’s Jeff Starck

A huge collection of the British equivalent of American inaugural medals realised an auction total of £153,618 ($224,778 US) during A H Baldwin & Sons May 4 auction in London.

The Dr Robert and Joshua Feldman Collection of Official British Coronation and Jubille Medals featured 75 lots with 77 medals (including a small number of copies or imitations).

The medals tell the history of royalty in Britain during the course of more than four centuries and reflect changing artistic values and abilities during that time.

Some of the most famous British coin designers were commissioned to create these medals, and the rarity often far surpasses coins of the same monarch but at fractions of the cost.

A history of the series

The Royal Mint has issued British Coronation Medals since James I’s coronation in 1603 and the tradition continued for more than 300 years.

According to Robert Feldman, the medals “constitute a wonderful historic legacy for the United Kingdom; cultural artifacts rich in symbolism.”

Though initially only silver and gold versions were issued, copper editions were added beginning in 1685 for James II’s coronation.

Argentum: silver; the 2^nd tier of precious metal under gold, but not without its own lustre and appeal.

The Baldwin’s Argentum auctions began at the start of the millennium, and on June 4 this year at The Holiday Inn on Coram Street London, it will be the 42^nd time we have held an Argentum auction as part of the London Coin Fair.

Nothing quite beats the thrill of actually being there live, in the room itself. And not just for the obvious excitement of bidding on that particular Gold Solidus you’ve had your eye on for a while – it’s also the buzz of seeing for yourself some of the most significant events in numismatics. Such as when two bidders went head-to-head for a full five minutes for the Lavrillier 1933 Penny at our May auctions and pushed the price to a World Record £72,000. Or the reaction of a standing-room-only packed salesroom when the Victoria Proof Set sold for a cool half million in September last year. Actually being there in person when numismatic history is made is priceless.

As most people are no doubt aware, Baldwin’s holds a number of high-profile auctions around the world every year- currently in Hong Kong, London and New York. Whilst these auctions are invariably fantastic and significant events, we know that it is not always possible (or, let’s face it, financially feasible) for keen collectors to attend in person.

And that’s what the Argentum auction is really all about. A chance for those who perhaps don’t have the odd half million stashed at the back of the wardrobe to experience an auction first-hand. And conducting the auction as part of the London Coin Fair makes it an even better chance to meet and chat with other collectors and dealers over a coffee (or a pint) in a relaxed and more informal environment.

With, of course, the added bonus of the opportunity to purchase some rare, and moreover reasonably priced, numismatic items to add to your collection.

Click here to view highlights from this auction.

Here at Baldwin’s, one of our enduring missions is to make the auction process as simple and accessible as possible to everyone – from the lifelong collector to the first-time buyer. All our major auctions are broadcast live through our website, and our integrated software allows people to bid on those items of interest from the comfort of their own home.

By holding our Argentum auctions as part of the London Coin Fair (the largest of its type in the UK), our goal is to replicate the relaxed environment that comes from bidding at home within the salesroom itself.

The London Coin Fair started back in the late 1960’s, when the advent of decimalisation in the UK prompted people to ‘check their change’ for old silver coins. Today, the show boasts more than 80 UK and international dealers covering all major areas of numismatics, meaning that you are quite likely to find what you are looking for.

As the show’s organisers state: “our aim is to encourage collectors to come and meet with like-minded people, chat to dealers and auctioneers with no pressure to buy, to take the opportunity to look at all the different stick on view and enjoy improving and understanding their own collections.”

So if you’ve always wanted to come to an auction but never had the opportunity, or you’ve always worried that a glamorous location may be a little intimidating to the casual buyer, the Argentum auction represents a perfect opportunity to see for yourself just how easy the whole process is.

And who knows, you might just bag yourself a bargain. And you won’t need £500,000 to do it.

To view the full catalogue for this auction, click here.

Click here for directions to The London Coin Fair

It was in November of 1899, in the midst of the Boer War that an armoured train departed Estcourt in Natal on a reconnaissance mission to report on the Boer advance at Ladysmith, a few dozen miles to the north.

The Second Anglo-Boer War had been raging for just a month, fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (ZAR). The Boer forces held Ladysmith, and the British held Estcourt. Between the two was the town of Colenso – which was to become the scene of a famous and bloody battle.

The armoured train journeys were dreaded by the British, who lived in (a very real) fear of the tracks being blown up at any moment. On the 15^th November the train departed Estcourt with a company of Royal Dublin Fusiliers and a half-company of Durban Light Infantry. It also contained the war correspondent of the Morning Post – a young man of 25 who went by the name of Winston Churchill.

It was to be the journey that so many of the soldiers had dreaded.

Two miles short of their destination the train encountered a force of Boer soldiers who opened fire. The driver increased speed to escape, but the Boers had foreseen such an action and the train almost immediately pounded into a boulder that had been strategically placed across the tracks and derailed. Eighty soldiers and one war correspondent had little choice but to surrender.

The train was ordered on its ill-fated mission by Colonel Long, who would subsequently play a prominent and ultimately disastrous role in the Battle of Colenso just a few weeks later.

At the battle, Long was in command of the heavy guns that formed such a vital part of the British artillery. He was a strong advocate of the Prussian strategy of moving the heavy guns ahead of the infantry – a tactic that would prove to be a big mistake.

On the 15^th December the Battle of Colenso began, with the guns proceeding at the vanguard. Within minutes of advancing under extreme heavy fire most of the horses were dead and two thirds of the gunners were dead or wounded. Long was urged to abandon the guns, and in a pique of stubbornness was reported to have said “Abandon be damned. We never abandon the guns.”

And so they didn’t, a move that was to prove fatal. Long himself was injured, and eventually just two gunners remained. When one of the two remaining was hit, the other made a hasty retreat. With the guns unmanned and the bodies of the gunners strewn across the battlefield, Long lapsed into delirium: “ah, my gunners. My gunners are splendid. Just look at them.”

With the guns sitting out in the open, volunteers were called to step forward and retrieve them. Major Prince Christian Victor (the grandson of Queen Victoria), Captain Schofield, Captain Congreve and Lieutenant Roberts heeded the call (all would subsequently receive the Victoria Cross for their actions). The four officers took five teams of horses across the open ground. Two of the teams were brought down almost immediately, with Victor, Congreve and Roberts wounded.

The remaining teams somehow managed to reach the guns, hitched them up and began to return to cover.

One of that team was Driver G. Rockall of the 66^th Battery Royal Field Artillery, who was awarded for his extreme bravery under the most challenging of circumstances the Distinguished Conduct Medal, now available to buy at our May auctions in London.

The Exceptional Colesnso, VC Action, Distinguished Conduct Medal Group of 5 to Driver G.Rockall of the 66th Battery Royal Field Artillery. Estimate: £5,000-7,000

The Battle of Colenso resulted in a spectacular defeat for the British – so much so that all the medals awarded for the Battle make no reference to Colenso at all. British casualties numbered 1,125 – the Boer losses by comparison were extremely light. Such figures point to the unmitigated failure on the part of the Generals – a fact that was no doubt not lost on a young Morning Post reporter who had escaped from Boer captivity just 3 days before the battle.

Had that young reporter been able to demonstrate the military prowess he would later display to victorious effect at Colenso there might well have been a different outcome. And yet, who is to say that the ill-fated events on that South African Battlefield did not shape the thinking of an impressionable Churchill? Perhaps, had the Battle of Colenso unfolded differently, the lessons learned might have produced an equally different outcome some forty years later on a beach in Northern France…..

To see the full Military Medals selection for this auction, click here:

Part one

Part two

To view the full catalogue, click here.

Want to see your items or collections right here? Baldwin’s is now taking consignments for our 2016-17 auction seasons. You can contact us directly by clicking here, or alternatively call Seth Freeman on +44 (0)20 7930 9808 or email seth@baldwin.co.uk

Historical tales of great military campaigns often celebrate the virtues of some of the greatest leaders this world has ever known –Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon – the list goes on and on. Tales of cunning; of famous manoeuvres; of evaluated risks and psychological tactics.

It is easy to forget, as we marvel at the magnitude of achievement and the Machiavellian shrewdness of the victorious Generals, that there is always a losing side. And it is on that losing side that we oft find the most extreme tales of bravery from the infantry – from the soldiers destined to face a formidable foe. Bravery and courage that stems perhaps from the ineptness of their own Generals – Generals themselves destined to have the words ‘defeated by’ forever etched after their names in the annals of history.

In November of 1914 we find one such example – of celebrated military tactics on one side aided by a level of incompetency on the other; seasoned by the bravery and distinguished conduct of the soldiers who found themselves led by a General destined to be the lesser of his counterpart.

It was the beginning of the war in East Africa – the Battle of Tanga, often referred to as the Battle of the Bees due to the swarms of indigenous bees that proved so hinderous to the British-led forces.

Tanga itself was situated on the coast of what was then German East Africa – a supremely tactical location as the area’s busiest seaport and the headquarters of the crucial Usambara railway that linked the town with the Usambara mountains and Lake Victoria.

The British command ordered General Aitken to capture the German port. On 2 November 1914, HMS Fox landed at Tanga and immediately demanded surrender. It was a tactical ploy that would prove to be a costly mistake. The request was summarily dismissed, and the German Colonel, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was immediately able to reinforce his position.

General Aitken had been reliably informed that the harbour was mined, and so diverted his forces to land some three kilometres further down the coast. The information was, however, utterly wrong, and the harbour was not only unmined but under-defended, as Lettow-Vorbeck had pulled many of his forces back to defend the town.

The next morning, Aitken sent four companies of the 13^th Rajputs towards the town. Indicative of the entire campaign, reconnaissance of the area had been somewhat lax, and the companies immediately found themselves under heavy fire. By the afternoon the fighting had become as disorganised as the aforementioned planning, taking on the nature of ‘jungle skirmishes’, not helped in the slightest by the swarms of angry bees that attacked constantly.

Lettow-Verbeck ordered a counter-attack and the British forces were soon left with no option but to retreat. It was a costly defeat – the British casualties numbered 847 (including 360 fatalities). By contrast, the German forces had incurred just 67 deaths.

General Aitken then, through a combination of poor planning, misinformation and bad decisions, doomed himself to have the words ‘defeated by’ forever preceding his name, leaving those under his command to steal the glory.

Lot 2177 in our May Auctions (3 & 4 May 2016) – The Distinguished Conduct Medal for Tanga East Africa Boer War Group to Pte Arnull, along with other medals from the Boer War. Estimate: £1,800-2,200

One of those such men was Private Charles Arnull, who received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his role in the ill-conceived attack, proving that when the Generals falter it is left to the common soldier to display the grit, bravery and determination that we normally reserve for the military greats.

Private Arnull’s heroics under the most adverse of circumstances are remembered here with this medal, sold alongside his others from WWI. The conditions that he had to endure in the face of such poor leadership we can only imagine, but summed up eloquently by this quote from a British soldier of the battle: “with (the enemy) firing at our backs and the bees stinging our arses, it was ‘ard.”

To see the full Military Medals selection for this auction, click here:

Part one

Part two

To view the full catalogue, click here.

Want to see your items or collections right here? Baldwin’s is now taking consignments for our 2016-17 auction seasons. You can contact us directly by clicking here, or alternatively call Seth Freeman on +44 (0)20 7930 9808 or email seth@baldwin.co.uk