Noonans Mayfair, formerly Dix Noonan Webb, is an auction house based in London. It specialises in coins, medals, jewellery and paper money.[1] Since being established, the firm has sold over 400,000 lots.[2]
Noonans was established in 1990 as Buckland Dix and Wood. The name was changed to Dix Noonan Webb in 1996 and to its present name in 2022.[3] It holds regular traditional auctions throughout the year.[4] As of March 2022, the founders are CEO and chairman Pierce Noonan,[5] deputy chairman and managing director Nimrod Dix,[6] and director of numismatics Christopher Webb.[7][8] Frances Noble heads the jewellery department.[9]
Matthew Richardson, curator of social history at Manx National Heritage, suggests that the company are "Britain's foremost auctioneers of military medals".[10] In 2010, The Independent called the firm "a prominent London auction house, specialising in militaria".[11] Noonans is the largest numismatics auctioneer in London; it had £11.7m of total hammer sales in 2018.[12]
In September 2019, it increased its buyer's premium to 24%, becoming the first UK numismatics auctioneer to go above 20%.[12] During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the company donated 5% of all buyer's premiums to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Appeal for a total of £24,879.[13][14] The firm experienced a record level of website traffic during the COVID lockdown; according to the CEO, "people were stuck at home with little else to spend their money on."[15]
Noonans Mayfair is mentioned in Jeffrey Archer's 2019 novel Nothing Ventured, in which a character is encouraged to visit the firm because they are specialists in Spanish cob coins.[16]