The Mowbray Collectables auction in Wellington will see a record $750,000 of medals, coins and banknotes and $1.1 million in stamps go under the hammer.
The auction will also include a once‑in‑a‑lifetime piece of New Zealand history. One hundred and fifty years after it was awarded to Dr Isaac Featherston in 1875, his exceptionally rare New Zealand Cross will headline the Mowbray Collectables’ Medal, Coin and Stamp Auctions at noon in the West Plaza Hotel, Wellington.
Featherston earned the medal under fire in 1866 in the New Zealand Wars. It is estimated at $200,000.
There will also be a Gallantry Medal (Flying), one of only five given to NZ airmen in WW2 and 103 worldwide, up for auction. The medal was awarded to Leslie Wallace from Darfield.
A German attack on the Lancaster Bomber in which he was the wireless operator injured him and the bomb aimer, and set flares inside the aircraft alight.
Despite a continuous attack from German aircraft, he continued to throw all burning material out of the plane and finally put the fire out. Only at the end of the flight did he reveal he had taken a bullet to his leg. His medal group is estimated to be worth $20,000.
Page served as an Air Navigator and Pilot Officer during WW2 and was involved in the “Firestorm” raids on Hamburg and the German rocket base of Peenemünde in 1943.
Other Canterbury lots will include a silver Ashburton A&P prize medal, estimated to be worth $400. A 19th-century South Canterbury Rifle Battalion helmet plate ($1000), and rare envelopes from a Boer War training camp at Addington in 1902 ($1250) are also up for auction.
There will also be a rare Korean War Military Medal group, estimated at $9000, awarded to Bruce Redfearn of Nelson for laying telephone cables under heavy fire.
-Allied Media
