The core business of the company, first established in 1982 by Howard and Frances Simmons, is the provision of a general service to collectors of numismatic coins and related material.
We now trade from Leytonstone, in east London, having given up our retail premises. As a result, we’re a virtual gallery with real people, real stock and a real passion for what we do.
Simmons Gallery actively promotes the smallest sculptural art objects, namely coins, tokens, medals and weights.
- We buy and sell world coins and have specialist numismatic knowledge for South East Asia, China, Japan, the Indian sub-continent and Latin America.
- Tokens and other coin-related items are a speciality with postal auctions for twice a year on average.
- We have pioneered postal auctions for coin weights and scales over the last 20 years.
- Historical medals and prizes form an important part of the business, particularly those of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Art Nouveau and Art Deco period.
- Modern and contemporary art medals feature strongly. We aim to blur the traditional boundaries between numismatics, sculpture and fine art, and to promote the contemporary studio cast medal as a truly vibrant form. We also advise in the commissioning of new medals and trophies, liaising between artist and client.
History:
Howard has been collecting coins since he was a toddler, when a family friend gave him some old silver threepences and sixpences. As a teenager and student he used to rummage in antique shops and in coin dealers’ junk boxes. He became interested in non-standard items such as tokens and weights, and series like those of Thailand, China, India and Japan. At that time these were not well-collected, as more monied collectors specialised in British milled coinage. Despite two degrees in geology and mineral chemistry, Howard gave up his postgraduate work and decided to make coin-dealing his profession. Meanwhile he married Frances who took up medal collecting in self defence and they eventually set up Simmons & Simmons Numismatists Ltd in 1982, now Simmons Gallery Ltd. After nearly 40 years of dealing professionally, a passionate curiosity in numismatics remains as strong as ever.
