Noble’s historic £4.45m takeover of Baldwins, a family-owned rare coin dealer, should transform the group’s fortunes, allowing the concern to take on London’s leading dealer Spink & Son, move into running auctions and possibly dealing in other collectables.

Noble was set up by stockbroker Ian Goldbart, a coin enthusiast who has run the business part-time until now. In the year to August, the recruitment of numismatic experts saw turnover double to £1.85m, enabling operating profits to rise 83% to £119,000. Baldwins made a £42,000 pre-tax profit on £1.03m turnover in the year to January.

However, there is a lot of hidden value in the acquired entity. The assets, valued at £4.2m, include the freehold of Baldwins’ premises on the Strand as well as basement stock – a treasure trove of coins collected over the past century. This has a book value of just £22,000 but is considered by Baldwins to be worth at least £2.94m. This means Noble has acquired Baldwins’ good name in the coin world and existing business for £0.25m.

Baldwins also runs a fledgling auction business and Goldbart plans to develop this capability – using the skills of chairman Nick Bonham, formerly of the auctioneers – to complement the group’s dealing activities. The purchase was funded by a £5m placing at 58p a share. The latest price values the group at £10.5m post deal.

If Noble can now replicate the strong growth at stamp specialist Stanley Gibbons, which has quadrupled in value over the past three years to £24m, against sales of £10m last year, then today’s price tag might seem cheap.