Weekly Market Report: ANA Convention is This Week as Rare Coin Market Goes Double Nuclear
Bruce Amspacher
- July 29, 2003
|
|
This 1895 Morgan dollar in PCGS PR68DCAM realized $120,750 at the Heritage Signature Sale.
|
The 2003 ANA "Worlds Fair of Money" convention is this week and PNG day is underway as this is being written as Baltimore is flooded with numismatists looking to buy and sell the hottest items going: rare coins!
"The action is everything that we expected it to be and more," says John Dannreuther of JDRC, Inc., in Cordova, Tennessee. "The demand for coins has expanded to include virtually everything as long as it has a semblance of eye appeal."
Dannreuther was speaking from his bourse table at the one-day show put on by the Professional Numismatists Guild that precedes the ANA. "There is a mass of humanity here with a thousand people trying to get through one door. Everyone is looking at every table, including people who haven't looked at my coins in years."
Is there anything specific that's hotter than everything else? "Not really," Dannreuther replied. "There is no series that's dead. What has happened is that everything is bringing so much at auction that the coins on the bourse floor seem like relative bargains even if they're 20% over the so-called bid prices. The market is so hot that it's almost unbelievable."
One major auction down…
Prices in the "Signature Sale" from Heritage Numismatic Auctions (July 26-28) proved to be as strong as the people on the bourse floor said they were. The numbers speak for themselves, so here they are:
- 1858 Flying Eagle Cent, Small Letters (PCGS PR66CAM) $87,400
- 1864 Two Cent, Small Motto (PCGS PR65RB) $43,700
- 1795 Half Dime (PCGS MS67) $94,875
- 1807 Draped Bust Quarter (PCGS MS65) $60,375
- 1942/1 Mercury Dime (PCGS MS65FB) $36,800
- 1918 Standing Liberty Quarter (PCGS MS68FH) $44,850
- 1859-O Half Dollar (PCGS MS67) $32,200
- 1895 Morgan Dollar (PCGS PR68DCAM) $120,750
- 1938 Boone Half Dollar (PCGS MS68) $29,900
- 1873 $3 Gold, Open 3 (PCGS PR65DCAM) $55,200
- 1812 $5 Gold, Narrow 5D (PCGS MS65) $54,625
- 1876 $5 Liberty (PCGS MS65) $36,800
- 1875 $10 Liberty (PCGS AU50) $37,950
- 1895-S $10 Liberty (PCGS MS67) $49,450
- MCMVII High Relief (PCGS MS65) $35,650
…and one to go!
The 2003 ANA auction by Bowers and Merena Galleries takes place later this week and is eagerly anticipated by numismatists across the country and around the world. Online bidding continues until July 30, July 31 or August 1 depending on the session in question.
Included in this sale are an 1804 Class III silver dollar in PCGS PR58, a 1795 $10 gold piece in PCGS MS65 and a 1927-D $20 St. Gaudens in PCGS MS66 to name three of the many highlights. To view the lots, to bid or just to dream, click here.
Bruce Amspacher has been a professional writer since the 1950s and a professional numismatist since the 1960s. He won the OIPA sportswriting award in 1958 and again in 1959, then spent eight years in college studying American Literature. This background somehow led him to become a professional numismatist in 1968. Since then he has published hundreds of articles on rare coins in dozens of publications as well as publishing his own newsletter, the “Bruce Amspacher Investment Report,” for more than a decade. His areas of expertise include Liberty Seated dollars, Morgan and Peace dollars, United States gold coins, sports trivia, Western history, modern literature and the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In 1986 he was a co-founder of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).
|
| This 1876 $5 Liberty in PCGS MS65 sold for $36,800 at the Signature Sale. |
|
 Click here to email this article to a friend.
PCGS Library
|
