The Mystery of the Vanished Petition Crown by Ernest Braham, 1927

About the author: Ernest Bramah (1868 - 1942) was an English author. He published 21 books and numerous short stories and features. Bramah created the characters Kai Lung and Max Carrados. (excerpt from wikipedia)

Major characters:

• Max Carrados, blind amateur detective
• Parkinson, his butler/guide
• Greatorex, his reader
• Louis Carlyle, private inquiry agent
• Miss Frensham, a newspaper reporter
• Muir, an auction attendent
• Mr. Marrabel, an auction patron
  
  

Locale: London

Synopsis: Amateur detective Max Carrados is enjoying his newspaper as his reader, Greatorex, reads to him. The big story of the day is the disappearance of a valuable coin from an auction of Lord Willington's collection. The coin, called the "Petition Crown", is valuable because on a tiny engraved petition around the edge. 

Carrados' friend, private inquiry agent Louis Carlyle, calls him up and asks him to meet with a distraught newspaper reporer, Miss Frensham. She arrives and tells her story: she was covering the auction for her newspaper, and had asked the attendent Muir to let her examine the coin, Lot 64. He provided a tray holding a number of small numbered boxes. After she examined it, the attendent returned the tray to the cabinet until it came up for bid. When it was taken out again, Lot 64 was not the Petition Crown, but instead a common Crown coin. The auction was stopped, the premises searched, but the Petition Crown could not be found. Miss Frensham was the last to have handled it, and she had left the building for lunch shortly after - causing suspicion to fall upon her. 

While relating this story, she suddenly remembers that she had also picked up a common Crown from another box (lot 56) to compare the two, and surmises she must have inadvertently exchanged them when replacing them. However, the Petition Crown was not found in lot 56 either.

Review: This is a nice little shell-game story. It is obvious that if Miss Frensham didn't take it, some slight-of-hand has occurred. But the questions are: how was it done? who did it? and where is the coin now? Carrados visits the auction room and figures it out. It reminds me of an early Ellery Queen-like puzzle. The story is improved by Carrados having two simultaneous goals: finding the coin, and removing suspicion from Miss Frensham. 

You may also enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.