A rare 1921 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, MS62 PCGS sold for $144,000 to lead Heritage’s March 28-31 US Coins Signature® Auction to $6,241,741.
The event’s top lot came after the coin drew 39 bids from among the 2,723 bidders who took part in the sold-out event.
"This was an exceptional result for an exceptional coin," says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. "It is a leading condition rarity in the series, and part of what makes it so desirable is the fact that it is one of the few issues from the 1920s that is seen more often in circulated grades than in Mint State. More than a half million were originally minted, but it is believed only 175 remain in existence. This coin is a fantastic addition to any collection."
Two coins – an 1882 Double Eagle AU58 NGC and a 1915-S Panama-Pacific Round Fifty Dollar, MS65+ NGC – pushed for top honors in the event, each closing at $138,000. The 1882 double eagle tied the previous auction record, which was set at Heritage in 2007 for an MS60 PCGS coin.
It is a survivor from a miniscule population; the 1882 was not a proof-only issue, but it might as well have been, as just 571 pieces were struck for circulation – of which maybe two dozen are believed to remain in any grade; the small number of survivors is explained, in part, by the fact that collectors at the time preferred proofs almost exclusively.
The 1915-S Panama-Pacific is among the massive fifty-dollar "slugs" designed by California sculptor Robert Ingersoll Aitken to commemorate the Panama-Pacific Exposition. This magnificent round representative is one of just 483 pieces distributed.
An 1860 Clark, Gruber Eagle, K-3, MS61 NGC, CAC, from the one-time banking partnership in Leavenworth, Kansas, set a new record when it ended at $114,000. The previous record of $111,625 for an MS63 NGC coin, was set at Heritage in 2014.
The obverse design features the artist’s conception of Pike’s Peak that was not very realistic, and subsequently was replaced the following year by the more familiar head of Liberty.
A fifth coin, a 1929 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, MS65+ PCGS, also reached six figures when it also drew a winning bid of $114,000. The United States stopped producing most gold coinage after 1904, but continued to mint double eagles, because they were better-suited for settling large accounts in foreign trade and the government was required to back its currency with gold.
The Philadelphia Mint struck nearly 1.8 million Saint-Gaudens double eagles in 1929 … of which 1.75 million never left Mint vaults, and 74 were destroyed in assay testing, and most of the remaining cache of 29,676 either were stored in the Mint cashier’s safe or delivered to the Treasurer’s office to help pay depositors or supply sales to collectors. After a 1931 melting, just 1,176 of the 1929 double eagles that were ever released into private hands remained, no more than 350 of which survived.
A 1918/7-D Buffalo Nickel, MS64 NGC drew 38 bids on its way to $72,000. Among the rarest and most sought-after issues of the popular series, this elusive variety was not discovered until the 1930s, by which time the coins had been widely circulating for more than a decade; as a result, it rarely is found in Mint State, especially in MS64. Like most 20th-century overdates, the 1918/7-D nickel was the result of a double hubbing error that occurred in late 1917, when dies dated 1917 were still in use and dies for the next year were hurriedly manufactured.
A 1793 Chain Cent, AMERICA, S-3, B-4, Low R.3, XF45 NGC, which represents one of five die combinations for America’s first large cent coinage, reached $66,000. Based on Elias Boudinot’s 1795 report on the Mint, it is certain that Chief Coiner Henry Voigt engraved these early dies for the 1793 copper coins.
Other top results included, but were not limited to:
- $52,800: 1885 Twenty Dollar, AU55 NGC
- $52,800: 1929 Half Eagle, MS64+ PCGS. CAC
- $50,400: 1892-S Morgan Dollar, MS61 NGC
- $49,200: 1799 B-16, BB-158 Dollar, MS63 NGC
- $48,000: 1795 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle, AU55
Complete results can be found at HA.com/1373.
About Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam, Brussels and Hong Kong.
Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet’s most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,750,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of more than 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.
Government Drone previous thread, said: “I agree with CaliSkier’s comment at the top of the comments; the space-themed dollars tend to sell out.”
The 2024 Alabama P rolls, are now on “remind me” status. This may or may not indicate strong sales? The US Mint has been known to not be so accurate with their numbers, published or otherwise! My guess is that they do become available again at an upcoming 7:30 EST “Fire Sale”! Not to be confused with the “2023 Everlasting Eternal Cyber Monday Vault Sale”! LOL
CaliSkier, in following other AI$ rolls and bags there is usually a dump of more product after the initial release date. I expect the mintage for the P & D to be around 1,000,000 combined. Based on the product limits, P is 525,000 max and D 478,750. Past releases for each P and D have been in the 450,000 range, but the Mint has increased product limits since then (just like it did with the AWQ rolls and bags). The next sales report (April 14) should be a good indication as to what to expect. To sell out this quickly… Read more »
The HHL’s will “lift off”, in T-minus 4 minutes, for the Alabama AI $1’s! Then it’s fair game and we will see what the demand looks like? Or speculation looks like? Ponder
HA.com has a nice SMS Kennedy for a decent price ($920 Buy it Now).
Do you think it is an Ultra Cameo?
Experts? Comments….
1966 50C SMS SP67 DC NGC. Pop (111/25), CDN Collector Price | Inv #519097047 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com)
IMO, proof coins, especially cameos, are sometimes difficult to determine much by photos. So I will trust HA agrees with NGC. Since PCGS, which I personally favor,, uses Deep Cameo instead of Ultra Cameo, I’m curious how it would stand up to their standards if submitted for a cross over.
I love cameos. As a kid, dealers & collectors, my grandfather included, said countless times I was wasting time & money on modern coins. I loved the frosted proofs from 1950 -1970. They were cheap and no one else was interested.
Hong Kong Customs seizes $10M worth of gold concealed inside of air compressors. The internal mechanical components were fabricated from pure gold. They were enroute from China to Japan.
E1 says,
“Do you think it is an Ultra Cameo?”..I’ll let you know-It’s on the way!!
Just kidding lol ^_~.. In all seriousness however, I believe it is UC..
I am no expert, but I have carefully looked at around 100 individual 1966 SMS Kennedy coins(Heritage included)and “cherry-picked” & bought the one below for half that price, and I’m totally pleased with it. Compare the two coins side by side and you can see a difference..I will add that the photos do not do these coins justice at all. In hand, at these grades–Eye poppingly gorgeous…
https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/6539514-020/68/
The P bags for Alabama are now also on “Remind Me” status! People, looking for errors possibly? MarkInFlorida, I’m wondering if you purchased a P bag or? Also, curious if you intend to look through the coins for errors, prior to leaving them as tips? You should look for errors or wait for others to declare, their errors(?) so you’ll know what to keep an eye out for possibly? I could be mistaken, however “missing edge lettering” is probably the most likely error to find?
I got a D bag since it’s from farther away. I haven’t looked at the previous ones I bought for errors, but missing edge lettering is an easy one to do. A teller in my bank said she had some missing edge lettering on Washington dollars when they came out but I didn’t follow up on it.
100% in agreement with you Cali on comment placement.
I’m still waiting to see if that item I bought 2.5 weeks ago shows up on the sales report. It has missed 2 reports it could have been shown. They obviously don’t cover all of the sales in the week they are made.
sharks2th, the sales report numbers are net- they reflect the combined sales and returns as of the date of the report. We really don’t know the exact sales number or the exact returns number.
Just checked again and the April 7 Mint sales report is out. The item bought 3 reports ago still does not show up in the report. I guess the mint does not want to add items back into the report they have previously removed from reporting.
If you bought something which was returned by someone you will not see in the Mint report.
-1+1=0
Only option left now is the 100-coin bag from Denver! P bags now on “Remind Me”. Looks like the demand is there, however who knows, with how the Mint decides when or how soon to play the FOMO/ accurate/inaccurate/ accounted/ unaccounted counting game, as has been done often over these past few years. Right Sharks2th? When or if a product shows up in the weekly sales numbers is a mystery at best, like our good Buddy Cags posts. LOL BTW, where are you Cag? You used to comment(coins) on this site years ago, join us! I know more than a… Read more »
Out of the coins highlighted above, my favs are the Pan Pacific $50 round “slug”, the Clark Gruber Pikes Peak gold and that 1918/7 Buffalo is cool! Does anyone know if the 8 over 7( $.05) variety is as well defined, in most MS coins, as in this specimen. Also, a funny bit. As I read the article, I paused at the site of the Pikes Peak coin and did a double take and then went to look up images online of Pikes Peak. Also wondered if perhaps a nearby or attached peaked looked like this “Hershey Kiss”/“poop” of a… Read more »
@Darek – It has been off the report since January 30, 2022. At least 6 were sold 2.5 weeks ago. After I made my purchase, I went back and put in numbers to see and there were 5 more available. I’m not sure if a few were sold before I completed my purchase. The item was clean and did not appear to be a return. I got 3 items back at the Monday clearance sale and they all look like 70s. One box had dust on it and you could see the dust missing where the warehouse person picked the… Read more »
sharks2th, I think it harkens back to the Cyber Monday Vault Sale that the Mint did on Nov 27 last year. They definitely want to clear the shelves on any old stuff lying around. The weekly sales reports have been a jumble since then.
E1,
Following up on that ’66 SMS SP/MS-67 UC. It looks like a good buy given the $1700 at both NGC and PCGS, but that is retail and can be subjective as well.
Too bad there aren’t more photos w/different lighting. It’s a gamble sometimes. The photos can be deceiving for good, or bad once seen in person. While my MSCA(apple) is not an MSUC(orange), those SMS CA/UC struck coins are about as PL as you can get without being a PF coin! They’re approaching 60 years old and couldn’t look any better! My &.02.
The Saturn P rolls available this morning!
I noticed a few weeks back(?), however no one else(?) has seemingly noticed or mentioned? The George Bush Coin and Chronicles set has been moved to “Remind Me” status. I’m thinking that this now has the lowest mintage(?) RP Presidential dollar from the Coin and Chronicle series. LKS as of 4/7/24 was at 11,512. We should see a sales report article here on Coin News today.
That’s surprising as they had 25,008 available last Fall (when I was last able to check on data-available). Based on sales at that time I had the projected mintage at 34,702. Sales as of April 7 were only 11,512. So, the Mint destroyed 13,496 sets? If so, that would be a first as everything other than commemoratives hang around until sold no matter how many years it takes. Something very fishy going on here.
CaliSkier, btw still waiting on those Gatewest sets. Going on 4 weeks and still do not even have a valid tracking number. Never had anything from Canada take this long to cross the border.
Major D, I did one time have a product from them take 4-5+ weeks only once. Curious, what became of your attempts to contact them? I’m imagining they should be arriving this week or next at the latest. Id give them a call and see if they are able to figure out where the coins are at or if they may have a different way of tracking your shipment? Has your CC been charged or is there a “pending charge”? Good Luck!
I think the 1793 Cent was the lowest selling coin in the article and it was still way out of my ballpark
I did get one of the George HW C&C sets. I would have one of the 11,512 if the other 13,000+ didn’t magically appear. However I believe the rarity vs. interest level does not have it going for much more than the US Mint sales price. I think I bought mine for $105. I don’t recall if there was ever a price increase.
MNB seems to have gone whoosh while I wasn’t paying attention.
Speaking of US Coin auctions. Whoa! WOW!!! “Gold coins kept in vault for over 100 years come to market” Coin World Staff, for Coin World. “said PCGS President Stephanie Sabin. “This historic collection boasts not only magnificent rarities and grades, but also hails from the cabinets of renowned collector Henry Chapman. Preserving the coins themselves and their history is an honor.” “The grading results were beyond my expectations, with a number of the coins reaching the finest known tier,” said Martinez. “When I shared the results with the owners, they were astonished and filled with disbelief. A collection they would… Read more »
From previous threads. Thanks AKBob for sharing your grades with us and congratulations on that David Ryder signature signed COA! Thanks Rick and E1 also for sharing coins from your collections and all those albums were impressive E1! Also, it looks like Dansco does offer American Innovation albums with Proofs. 8188 and 8189. Then one just has to decide whether to populate with proof or reverse proof I guess. Wizard supply has a few in stock out of the 4 different albums offered. The different albums are AI Date Set 2018-2032, Date Set P & D 2018-2032; then there are… Read more »
LOL, I stumbled into a Major D comment, he posted(2hours ago) on that Canadian Air Force Coin thread: “I guess the trick is to put some bleach in your eyes before viewing! I saw Totality in Ohio, but of course with the right glasses- pretty cool to see!” This was in response to the image of Trump staring up at the previous eclipse, declaring the sun as “fake news”. Are you sure Major D, it was bleach? I thought that only worked when desiring the clearest of clear views, while looking at coins under 5X or greater magnification? JK PS… Read more »
Thanks for the disclaimer/qualifier, CaliSkier. The experts warned that even short looks at viewing the sun without the right equipment will burn a hole in your retina, just like when you hold up a magnifying glass to a piece of paper in the sun. As for the bleach, well… Trump did say drinking it worked for Covid! But listen to CaliSkier kids!
I forgot to mention, thanks Rick for posting that GC auction news on that “FS” nickel re: Bidder #8. I think that bidder really wanted to own that coin and had done their research and more or less, knew what it would, should or could sell for, then made a calculated bid, based on what they thought it would take to secure the winning bid? They sure weren’t going to bid moment by moment hoping to place that winning bid at the last second for the “Snipe”, as others apparently were? And you all thought “Snipe”, were a rare bird,… Read more »