And then there is the "shock bidding" technique. John Jay Pittman, well-known numismatist and past president of the American Numismatic Association, once wanted to own a rare Cuban gold coin being offered at auction. During the bidding he walked to the front of the sale room, turned to face the other bidders, and held his hand straight up in the air in an attempt to indicate to everyone that he would not stop bidding, no matter how high the price. It worked.

Similarly, in one of our New York City sales a lot opened at $1,500, and a bidder who just had to have it shouted "Five thousand dollars!"- without waiting for the normal auctioneer's advance to $1,600, then to $1,700, etc. This technique worked, too, although I suspect that the new owner of the coin might have had second thoughts later, and wondered if he could have bought it for much less, for the coin had never sold at the $5,000 level before.

Sometimes bidding is so hectic that it is difficult to keep track of what is happening. In our sale of the Garrett Collection for The Johns Hopkins University, I recall that the father and son team of Art and Don Kagin was present, and in one instance Don and Art, seated apart from each other in the room, were bidding against each other on the same coin!

It is often the case that a bidder attending a sale in person does not want to bid from the audience, and gives us bids, which we enter in the bid book just before the sale, just as we would enter mail bids. Then when the lot crosses the block, if his "mail bid" is exceeded by floor competition he may step in and do some bidding in person or have an agent do it.

When all is said and done, and the last lot has been sold everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Many hours of planning, excitement, and anticipation are over! Now it is time for those attending the sale to pick up their new treasures, or to arrange to have us ship them. Now the coins are parts of new collections all over the world. Hopefully, we will get the chance to

The Garrett Collection