The bidding may have started at R1, but by the end of the online auction the price paid for a set of eleven South African coins minted in 1892 reached another record high.

A set of eleven South African coins from 1892 was sold on an online auction at Bob Shop to the highest bidder for R170,000. The set was placed on Bob Shop site on 13 June 2008, with the starting price of R1 and the minimum bid increment of R1000. The auction closed on 1 Jul at 20:00 with the price tag of R170,000. On the first day of the listing, the bidding went from R4,500 to R40,000. The R100,000 mark was surpassed the next day.

The set of eleven 116 years old coins includes: one coin with the face value of 6 pence, one half-a- pound coin, one  2.5 shillings coin, one 2 shillings coin, one 1 shilling coin, one 2 pence coin and one 1 penny coin, as well as two coins with the face value of 5 shillings and two 2 pounds  coins. All coins come with the grading issued by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. Both the seller and the buyer remain anonymous, because the seller chose to protect both his identity and the identity of the bidders by using Bob Shop’s discrete listing option.

This is by no means the highest price paid for valuable coins on Bob Shop. In July 2007, Bob Shop facilitated the online sale of an 1892 extremely rare South African 1892 Kruger coin for R210,000. South African coins minted between 1874 and 1902 are believed to be some of the fastest appreciating coins in the world.