A FAIR DEAL FOR EVERYONE

HERE’S something a bit special: a collectors’ fair dubbed the largest of its kind in Europe that now charges its dealers, auction houses and collecting societies alike, zero fees to exhibit, while all buyers – collectors and interested members of the public – will no longer pay for admission.

And there is no catch, other than the fact that the only things on sale at the Britannia Medal Fair on Sunday, March 17 are, well… medals.

It’s a canny bit of marketing by the new owners of the fair, leading specialist auctioneers of coins, tokens, medals, militaria and paper money, Dix Noonan Webb.

DNW will run the fair on a not-for-profit basis “to benefit the medal collecting community, ensuring that it remains at the Victory Services Club” in central London, its home for more than 30 years.

A more appropriate venue in such a prestigious location would be hard to find. The club, pictured below, was founded in 1907 to unite members of the armed forces returning from the Boer War, and it remains the only military club of its kind in London.

Mark Carter, who had owned the fair since 2016, will continue to organise and manage the event as a consultant. He sold to DNW only because increased costs in hiring the venue made it unsustainable.

He told the Antiques Trade Gazette at the time: “The fact that DNW is introducing the radical new regime of free tables for stallholders and free admission for collectors is to be applauded.”

A medal dealer in his own right, he will continue to run fairs at Aldershot, Stratford-upon-Avon and Yate in South Gloucestershire.

Pierce Noonan, managing director and chief executive officer of DNW, described the fair as an institution.

“As well as being a place for dealers to sell and collectors to buy, it has also performed a vital social function,” he said.

“Contacts and friendships have been made and strengthened, information exchanged and knowledge enhanced.

“In an age when the internet threatens to turn everyone into armchair operators, I believe that it is crucial to keep this human dimension alive.”

The fair is held twice a year, the next is on November 17.

The Victory Services Club is located at 63-79 Seymour Street W2.

For more information, call: 0207 016 1700.