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In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

A record for a British token was set at Dix Noonan Webb on May 26 when this copper coin – the only specimen known in commerce – took £7000 (estimate £400-500).

Quartet of West Country works featured in the same sale as our £105,000 cover star

Work produced in Brussels in the 1530s by a master of illumination soars way over estimate in Sotheby's London auction

A selection of 16 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.

Showing that not all the best UK numismatic action takes place in London, the first known gold coin of Caratacus – unearthed by a metal detectorist a year earlier in a Berkshire field – sold at auction for a record £71,000 an auction in Norwich.

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.

Though incomplete and in a decorative 19th century binding, a very desirable early Bible impressed at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium).

A sale to be held by Jack-Philippe Ruellan in Vannes in Brittany will feature this Olympic torch from the 10th Winter Olympics held in Grenoble in 1968.

On March 23 Christie’s France, in association with booksellers Jacques Quentin (Geneva) and Benoît Forgeot (Paris), will offer the first part of the poetic library of Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller.

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, including both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

The numismatic department of TimeLine is a small but important part of the auction house’s activities in the related disciplines of antiquities and medieval works of art.

The 1826 £5 piece was the highest denomination in the coinage of the George IV and was not issued for general circulation. The epitome of Regency design, the reverse features the royal shield while the obverse designed by William Wyon features the bare head portrait.

Two pieces of sculpture – both catalogued as 19th century copies – made much higher than expected prices in the UK regions last month.

The highest auction price for 12 years for Beryl Cook (1926-2008) was posted at David Lay’s recent fine art sale.

With ski season on ice for so many, exhibitions offering snowy scenes could fill in

Dix Noonan Webb’s highest-priced lot of 2020 was this Crimean War Naval Brigade Victoria Cross group of four sold for £240,000 on October 15. The estimate was £120,000-160,000.

This William and Mary Five Guineas piece from 1693 features conjoined busts of joint monarchs.

Georg Siegmund Stobwasser (1717-76) and his son Johann Heinrich (1740-1829) were among many craftsmen who moved to Brunswick during the Seven Years’ War.

Early look of Peanuts cartoon strip evident from lot offered at Heritage Auctions.