Classic Rarities Dominate Today’s Market
(Irvine, CA) – Conducted in three sessions on March 16 and 17, 2006, Bowers and Merena’s Official Auction of the March 2006 Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention realized more than $4 million.
“While we witnessed strong prices realized for all U.S. coin series, there were two types of consignments that performed exceptionally well in our Baltimore Auction: those with fresh material and/or seldom-offered types, and those with classic numismatic rarities,” stated Bowers and Merena President Steve Deeds,
“Lot 6 offered a Saint Patrick ‘Farthing’ in PCGS VF-30 whose realized price of $10,638 surpassed the 2006 Guide Book price of $8,000 for EF examples,” said Deeds.
“We also sold, as lot 2081, a historic sandblast proof striking of the 1928 Hawaiian Sesquicentennial Commemorative Half Dollar. This coin, which is new to the world of third-party certification, secured an unsurpassable grade of Proof-66 from NGC just prior to the auction, and then went on to demand a realized price of $65,550 from the winning bidder. Originally presented to Juliette Mae Frazer, designer of the Hawaiian commem, this coin is the eighth of just 50 sandblast proof specimens distributed by the Captain Cook Sesquicentennial Commission. The combined PCGS and NGC population for this issue in Proof-66 is just 2⁄0.”
Jeff Ambio, Director of Numismatics for Bowers and Merena said there was also strong bidding on “classic rarities.”
“A key-date 1892-S Morgan Dollar that PCGS certified as MS-63 traded hands for $60,950 despite a Coin Dealer Newsletter (CDN, commonly referred to as the “Greysheet”) bid of $42,000 in this grade. Another Silver Dollar of note is an elusive 1921 Peace Dollar in NGC Satin Proof-64 that realized $41,975 as lot 1807.”
“Moving on to gold rarities, we sold an 1876 Three-Dollar gold piece in PCGS Proof-65 DCAM for $78,200, an exceptionally well produced and preserved 1909-O Indian Half Eagle graded MS-64 by PCGS for $175,375, and a key-date 1921 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle in PCGS MS-62 for $134,550. The final two coins sold for well in excess of their Greysheet bids, which were ‘only’ $106,000 and $120,000, respectively,” said Ambio.
For a complete list of prices realized for the Official March 2006 Baltimore Auction, visit Bowers and Merena on the Internet at www.bowersandmerena.com.