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Hammer Price vs Realised Price: UK Coin Auctions Explained
The figure announced when the auctioneer’s gavel falls is rarely what the buyer actually pays. Add the auction house’s buyer’s premium of around 25% and a small VAT charge on the premium and the cheque is roughly 30% above hammer. This guide explains the difference between hammer and realised prices, the buyer’s premium tables for the major UK numismatic houses, the VAT rules, and why MyCoinage stores only realised prices in our coin database.
Last updated: 23 June 2026
In brief. Hammer price = the figure at which the gavel falls. Realised price = hammer + buyer’s premium + VAT on premium. UK numismatic premiums in 2026 are typically 24–25%; effective VAT on the premium is around 5% for second-hand goods under the margin scheme. Investment-grade gold (sovereigns, Britannias) is VAT-free. A £1,000 hammer typically becomes a £1,300 realised price (or £1,250 for sovereigns). MyCoinage stores realised prices only because that is what the market actually pays. eBay sold listings are already realised — no separate premium.
Two definitions, one transaction
Every auction sale produces two numbers: the hammer price, and the realised price. They describe the same transaction at different points in the settlement.
- Hammer price. The winning bid as called by the auctioneer when the gavel falls. This is the figure announced in the rostrum, the figure printed in early auction-report headlines, and the figure on which the seller’s commission is computed. It is what a bidder hears in the room. It is not what the bidder pays.
- Realised price. The total amount the buyer is invoiced and pays. It is the hammer price plus the auction house’s buyer’s premium (typically 24–25% in UK numismatic sales), plus VAT on the premium element where applicable. The realised price is what the buyer’s bank statement records, what the auction house’s post-sale report publishes, and what the market data should track.
The gap between the two numbers is significant. For a £1,000 hammer at a typical UK numismatic auction the realised price is around £1,300; for a £100,000 hammer the realised is around £128,000 to £130,000 depending on tapered premium thresholds. Reading the wrong number can lead to under-insurance, bad consignment decisions and inaccurate market research.
Why MyCoinage uses realised prices
Three reasons drive the choice.
- Realised is what the market actually pays. A coin’s replacement cost — the figure a buyer would have to write a cheque for to obtain an identical example today — is the realised price, not the hammer price. Insurance valuations, inheritance reporting and consignment decisions all need the replacement cost number, not the lower headline number.
- Cross-venue consistency. Auction houses vary in how they publish hammer-only and realised-with-premium figures, and historic catalogues are inconsistent. The realised number, computed from the published post-sale report and reconciled against the auction-house rate card, is the only consistently comparable figure across Spink, Baldwin’s, Noonans, Heritage and London Coins.
- It matches eBay. eBay’s sold-listing prices are already realised — the buyer paid exactly the figure shown, with no separate buyer’s premium. By using realised prices for auction lots we keep the two largest data sources directly comparable, which is essential for tracking the price differential between the auction-house and online-marketplace channels.
UK auction-house buyer’s premiums (2026)
Buyer’s premium is the percentage fee charged on top of the hammer price by the auction house. Premiums have risen steadily over the last twenty years — it was 10–15% in the 1990s — and now sit around 24–25% across most major venues. Some houses taper the premium downwards for very high-value lots crossing thresholds at £500,000 or US$1m hammer.
| Auction house | Standard premium | Tapered above | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spink | 25% | Reduced on lots > £500,000 hammer | London-based; long-running British numismatic specialist. |
| Baldwin’s of St James’s | 25% | Reduced above threshold | St James’s, London; high-end British and ancient. |
| Noonans Mayfair | 24% | Standard rate | Mayfair, London; broad coin and medal coverage. |
| Heritage Auctions | 25% | Reduced on lots > US$500k hammer | US house with major UK consignor base. |
| London Coins (Bracknell) | 22% | Standard rate | Bracknell, Berkshire; mid-tier UK material. |
| Dix Noonan Webb (now Noonans) | 24% | Standard rate | Now trading as Noonans Mayfair. |
Rates accurate as of June 2026. Always check the buyer terms of the specific catalogue before bidding.
VAT treatment on auction premiums
UK auction VAT is the most-misunderstood element of the realised-price calculation. The headline figures:
- Margin scheme (default for second-hand numismatic items). VAT is charged on the buyer’s premium element only, at the standard 20% rate. For a 25% buyer’s premium on a £1,000 hammer that means £250 of premium plus £50 of VAT on the premium — an effective 5% of total cost. This is the typical treatment for ordinary collectable coins.
- Investment-grade gold. Sovereigns and Britannias of .995 fineness or higher fall under VAT Notice 701/21A as "investment gold" and are fully VAT-free — no VAT on hammer, no VAT on premium. Realised price is hammer + premium only.
- Imported lots. Items imported into the UK for auction may carry import VAT at the reduced 5% rate for collectors’ items, charged on the full hammer price (not just the premium). The catalogue marks these clearly with a symbol — usually a dagger (†) — next to the lot number. Confirm with the auction house before bidding on flagged lots.
- Standard 20% items. Modern medals, accessories and certain non-coin numismatic items may be subject to standard 20% VAT on hammer plus premium. Always check the catalogue VAT-symbol key.
Worked example: £1,000 hammer to £1,365 paid
Take a £1,000 hammer on a typical UK silver coin at a London auction in 2026 with the standard 25% buyer’s premium under the second-hand margin scheme:
| Component | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer price | Winning bid | £1,000.00 |
| Buyer’s premium | 25% × £1,000 | £250.00 |
| Subtotal (realised, ex-VAT) | Hammer + premium | £1,250.00 |
| VAT on premium (margin scheme) | 20% × £250 = £50; effective ~5% of subtotal | £50.00 |
| Total realised price (paid) | Hammer × 1.30 (approximate) | £1,300.00 |
For a sovereign at the same hammer the VAT line disappears (investment gold) and the buyer pays £1,250 total. For an item flagged with import VAT at 5%, add another £50 to the total bringing it to £1,350. The same hammer can produce three quite different cheque amounts depending on category.
Why eBay sold listings include the entire price
eBay’s sold-listing price is the figure the buyer agreed to pay, all-in (excluding postage, which is shown separately). There is no separate buyer’s premium added on top of the eBay sold price. eBay charges its fees to the seller as a percentage of the sale price (10–15% under the standard final-value-fee structure), so the seller nets less than the headline sold figure, but the buyer paid exactly the figure shown.
This makes eBay sold listings directly comparable to a realised price in auction-house terms. Both are "total amount the buyer paid" figures. We use eBay sold listings extensively in our value guides for ordinary-grade and modern collectable coins where the auction-house data is thin — see our eBay sold listings coin value UK guide for the full reading guide.
How to read an auction catalogue
The catalogue is the legal contract for the sale. Read four things on every lot:
- Estimate range. Printed as "£800–1,200" or similar. The auction house’s view of likely hammer (not realised) at fair market value. Estimates are guidance, not commitments.
- VAT symbol. A small symbol next to the lot number indicates VAT treatment. Common symbols: no symbol (margin scheme, default), † (import VAT at 5% on hammer), Ω (standard 20% on hammer + premium). The catalogue front matter explains the house’s symbol key.
- Provenance line. Previous ownership history. A lot with documented provenance from a named historic collection (Norweb, Eliasberg, Pittman) typically commands a premium of 10–30% over the equivalent unprovenanced piece, all else equal.
- Condition note. The catalogue’s grade or descriptive condition assessment. UK auction houses typically use the descriptive UK grading scale (Fine, VF, EF, UNC, FDC); some now also quote PCGS or NGC slab grades where available. See our coin collecting glossary for full terminology.
Estimate, reserve, starting price — what they mean
Three commonly-confused auction terms, all of them sub-elements of the bidding process before the hammer falls:
- Estimate — the auction house’s pre-sale guidance on likely hammer. Usually printed as a low-high range. Not binding. Routinely beaten or missed.
- Reserve — the minimum price at which the seller has agreed the lot will sell. Not normally published. Typically set at 70–80% of low estimate. If bidding fails to reach the reserve, the lot is bought in (returned unsold).
- Starting price — the figure at which the auctioneer opens bidding. Below the reserve, intended to draw early bidders. Often announced verbally rather than printed. On online platforms (eBay, Catawiki, the timed sales of major auction houses) the term is used differently to mean the actual minimum bid the lot will accept.
Why media coverage usually quotes hammer
Newspaper and TV coverage of headline auction results almost always uses the hammer price, not the realised price. Two reasons:
- The drama is the gavel. The hammer price is the announced moment, the public event, the line that journalists capture from the room. The post-sale invoice is a quiet office document. Reporting follows the moment.
- The numbers are cleaner. "£1m at hammer" is a cleaner headline than the £1.3m realised. Hammer figures are also less volatile across venues, since they don’t embed each house’s slightly different premium structure.
Specialist trade press (Coin News, Numismatic News, the dealer trade circulars) is more careful and typically quotes realised prices because their professional readers are pricing inventory and need accurate replacement-cost data. When you read a headline coin sale figure in a national newspaper, assume it is hammer; when you read one in a specialist publication, assume it is realised.
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Related guides
- Auction house comparison UK — full venue-by-venue commission and premium tables.
- eBay sold listings coin value UK — how to read eBay sold prices for valuation.
- Where to sell rare coins UK — venue choice by coin value bracket.
- Where to buy rare coins UK — the buyer’s side of the same equation.
- Coin collecting glossary — every numismatic term explained.
- CGT-exempt coins UK — tax treatment of UK coin gains and losses.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hammer price?
The hammer price is the figure at which the auctioneer’s gavel falls — the winning bid before any auction-house fees are added. If you bid £1,000 for a coin and your bid is the highest, the hammer price is £1,000. The hammer price is what is announced from the rostrum, what appears in early auction reports, and (still, frequently) what is quoted in newspaper coverage of headline lots. It is not what the buyer actually pays. The full cheque written by the buyer always includes a buyer’s premium added on top, and on dutiable items also includes VAT on that premium. Anyone reading auction prices for portfolio purposes — insurance, inheritance, market research — needs the realised price, not the hammer price.
What is a realised price?
The realised price (sometimes "price realised" or "total price") is the actual amount the buyer paid: hammer price plus buyer’s premium plus any VAT on the premium. For the same £1,000 hammer at a UK numismatic auction, the typical realised price is in the region of £1,300 (with a 25% premium and a small VAT charge on the premium element). Realised price is the figure the seller’s consignee receives a percentage of, the figure the buyer’s home-contents insurer should care about, and the figure on which Capital Gains Tax (where applicable) is computed. MyCoinage stores only realised prices in our coin price database because that is the only number that reflects what the market actually pays.
Why does MyCoinage use realised prices not hammer prices?
Three reasons. First, the realised price is what the market actually pays, so it is the accurate basis for valuation and for tracking trends. Second, hammer prices vary in their published exclusions across auction houses (some auction houses publish results gross of fees, others net) which makes raw hammer-price tracking inconsistent across venues. Third, our users are pricing collections for insurance, sale planning and inheritance — all of which require the figure a real buyer would have to pay to replace the coin, not the lower attention-grabbing hammer figure. Every realised-price quoted in a MyCoinage guide is sourced from the published post-sale results of Baldwin’s, Spink, Noonans and Heritage Auctions over the past five years.
What is buyer’s premium?
Buyer’s premium is a percentage fee charged by the auction house on top of the hammer price. The buyer pays it; the auction house keeps it (alongside seller’s commission, charged separately to the consignor). UK numismatic auction premiums are typically 24–25% on the first tranche of the hammer price, sometimes tapering for very high-value lots above £500,000. The premium has crept up steadily over the last twenty years — it was 10–15% in the 1990s — and is now the dominant fee model that has effectively replaced separate seller commissions on many auction-house contracts. As a buyer you always pay it; as a seller you should always know what your buyer is paying so you understand what your hammer price is producing in net market interest.
What VAT applies to auction sales?
In the UK, numismatic items normally fall under the auctioneer’s margin scheme, where VAT is charged on the buyer’s premium element only, not on the hammer price. The standard rate of VAT on auction premiums is 20%, but for second-hand goods sold under the margin scheme this typically equates to an effective rate of around 5% of the total price. Investment-grade gold (sovereigns, Britannias) is fully VAT-exempt under VAT Notice 701/21A, so for sovereigns the realised price is simply hammer plus premium, no VAT. Some imported lots may carry import VAT at 5% on the full hammer price under the "reduced rate" for collectors’ items; the auction house catalogue marks these clearly with a symbol next to the lot number.
How do I calculate the realised price from the hammer price?
For a typical UK numismatic auction with no import VAT and an item that is not investment gold: realised ≈ hammer × 1.30. That is the back-of-envelope figure for budgeting purposes (25% premium plus 5% effective VAT on premium). For sovereigns and Britannias, realised ≈ hammer × 1.25 (because investment gold is VAT-free). For high-value lots crossing tapered-premium thresholds, the multiplier drops slightly above the threshold. For US Heritage Auctions buying GBP equivalent, expect realised ≈ hammer × 1.20 plus FX. Always check the auction-house current rate card before computing precisely; rates change.
How do UK auction houses compare on buyer’s premium?
UK and international numismatic auction houses charge similar but not identical buyer’s premiums in 2026. Spink charges 25% on the first £500,000 of hammer, tapering above. Baldwin’s of St James’s charges 25%. Noonans Mayfair charges 24%. Heritage Auctions (US, but with regular UK consignors) charges 25% on the first US$500,000, tapering above. London Coins (Bracknell) typically charges 22%. Always read the buyer terms of the specific catalogue before bidding; rates vary by sale, lot category and hammer threshold. See our auction house comparison UK guide for full venue-by-venue commission tables.
Why does media coverage usually quote hammer prices?
Two reasons. First, the hammer price is the dramatic moment — the gavel falls, a number is announced, the room reacts. Newspaper journalism follows the moment, not the post-sale reconciliation. Second, hammer prices are lower than realised prices, which paradoxically makes them more dramatic-sounding: "sold for £1m at hammer" reads better than £1.3m. Both numbers exist in the same auction; media reports tend to pick the hammer for narrative reasons. Specialist trade press (Coin News, Numismatic News, the dealer trade circulars) is much more careful: they typically quote realised prices because their professional readers are pricing inventory and need accurate replacement-cost data.
What about eBay sold prices — do those have premiums?
No, in the way auction premiums work. eBay’s sold listing price is the all-in figure the buyer paid to the seller (excluding postage, shown separately). There is no separate buyer’s premium added on top. eBay’s fees are charged to the seller as a percentage of the sale price (10–15%), so the seller nets less than the headline sold figure, but the buyer paid exactly the figure shown. That makes eBay sold listings directly comparable to a realised price in auction-house terms. eBay sold listings are therefore one of the cleanest market signals for ordinary-grade collectable coins, and we use them in all our value guides — see our eBay sold listings coin value UK guide for how to read them properly.
What is an "estimate" in an auction catalogue?
The estimate is the auction house’s pre-sale guidance: the price range at which it expects the lot to sell. It is usually printed as a low-high range ("£800–1,200") and represents the auctioneer’s view of likely hammer (not realised) at fair market value. Estimates are not commitments and are routinely beaten or missed. They serve three purposes: they guide bidder expectations, they signal the seller’s price expectation, and they pace the room (auctioneers will open bidding around the low estimate). A useful rule: if a coin has historically sold around £1,000 hammer at recent auctions, the estimate this time will probably print as £800–1,200, the low end being a small psychological discount to attract early bidding.
What is a reserve price?
The reserve is the minimum price at which the seller has agreed the lot will sell. It is normally not disclosed in the catalogue but is set in private agreement between the seller and the auction house, and almost always sits at or just below the low estimate. If bidding fails to reach the reserve, the lot is "bought in" (returned unsold to the consignor); the auction house typically charges a small unsold-lot fee in that case. The reserve is the seller’s floor; the estimate is the auction house’s expectation; the hammer is what actually happened. For coin sales, reserves are typically set at 70–80% of low estimate — high enough to protect the seller from a soft room, low enough to allow the auction’s natural price discovery to work.
What is a starting price?
The starting price is the figure at which the auctioneer opens bidding from the rostrum. It is usually announced verbally rather than printed in the catalogue, and sits below the reserve to draw bidders in. A typical starting bid for a £1,000-low-estimate coin lot might be £500 or £600. The starting price is psychological, not contractual; the lot will not sell at the starting price unless a single bidder pursues it past the reserve. Online marketplaces (eBay, Catawiki, the "timed" sales of major auction houses) use the term differently to mean the actual minimum bid the lot will accept — in those cases starting price is operationally similar to a reserve.
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