RECORDS SET AT STACK’S 75th ANNIVERSARY SALE

1894-S Barber Dime Soars to $1,552,500

Stack’s 72nd Anniversary Sale was conducted October 16-17 in the Estrela Penthouse of Le Parker-Meredien Hotel and set records in several areas reported firm CEO and Director of Numismatics Lawrence R. Stack. Offering 1,737 lots of high quality United States coins from several advanced collections, the sale was an unqualified success, netting $7,390,908.55 (including the 15% buyer’s premium).
Virtually all areas of American coinage were represented with emphasis on such areas as pioneer gold, rare date Federal coinage and Liberty Seated silver dollars. Among headline-makers in the pioneer field was a unique Copper Pattern $1 struck by California private coiner J.H. Bowie that was recently discovered in Great Britain.

This historic discovery piece presents the known pine tree obverse of the Garrett Collection example but with a new reverse characterized by more careful and balanced layout of denomination and lettering. Grading Extremely Fine-45, this Bowie pattern realized $63,250 including the 15 percent buyer’s fee.

The legendary “King of Territorial Gold” is the 1855 $50 struck by California pioneer John Glover Kellogg. The PCGS Proof-62 example gracing the Anniversary Sale was one of perhaps 11 to 13 pieces now in existence. Kellogg was perhaps the most respected private coiner of the later Gold Rush, whose $20 coins were universally accepted.

Like other rarities in the Anniversary Sale, the Kellogg $50 had a distinguished pedigree. Long in the possession of the Kellogg family, the coin later appeared in Abe Kosoff’s 1948 Jake Shapiro-Memorable Sale, the Don Kiefer, Fuad Saab, Henry Gibson and Jerome S. Cole Collections. This massive and beautifully struck gold coin climbed to $460,000 in spirited bidding.

U.S. gold commemoratives were highlighted by examples of the round and octagonal $50 Panama-Pacific International Exposition coins that closed at $92,000 and $81,650 respectively, both graded MS-64 by NGC. A 10-piece Philadelphia Mint 1904 Proof set including all denominations from the bronze Indian Cent to Liberty Double Eagle graded PCGS Proof-62 to Proof-64 attracted a winning bid of $74,750.
With the ongoing pursuit of high grades, it was interesting to observe the success of the 1848 Quarter Eagle (Gold $2.50) countermarked CAL., graded VG-10 by PCGS. Regarded by some as America’s first commemorative coin, these Quarter Eagles were struck from the first California Gold sent east by Col. R.B. Mason to Secretary of War Macy, countermarked while each coin rested in the die. A major historical rarity, this circulated example brought $28,750.

Regular issue gold included a PCGS MS-65 1854 $3 that climbed to $26,450; an 1805 Half Eagle in NGC MS-63 closed at $34,500; and an 1865 Double Eagle from the wreck of the S.S. Republic graded NGC MS-64 reached $21,850.

Among the most historic Double Eagles was the 1906-D $20 graded PCGS Specimen-66, recorded as the fourth coin struck by the newly opened Denver Mint. It was presented to pioneer Isaac Gothelf, founder of the town of Saguache, Colorado and a member of the legislature. Preserved with a extensive documentation and newspaper reports of the first striking, this coin was a later owner’s favorite numismatic exhibit item in the next century. With its trove of documents and the rare copper 1906 So-Called Dollar struck in commemoration of the Denver Mint opening, this Double Eagle sold for $172,500.

The magic of this Denver date was also shown by a business strike, one of only 10 to 20 surviving Gems; graded PCGS MS-65, this coin brought $23,000. Highlighting the offering of ever-popular High Relief St. Gaudens Double Eagles of 1907 was an example graded NGC MS-66 which sold for $66,700, while a PCGS MS-63 example of the sought-after 1931 Double Eagle, one of an estimated 200 known, peaked at $69,000.
The Second Session opened with a blockbuster of the Colonial era, an NGC Proof-64 RB example of the Washington Roman Head Cent, struck in England in 1792 from dies cut by the young and talented John Gregory Hancock. Bearing an undraped bust with hair confined by a filet, this golden-tan piece portrayed Washington in the style of a Roman Emperor. It is one of perhaps 12 to 15 examples in existence, of which perhaps eight are accessible to collectors, and it has resided in the famous holdings of John G. Mills, Hillyer Ryder, F.C.C. Boyd and John J. Ford Jr. The coin climbed to a winning bid of $97,750, multiples of its selling price of a few short years ago.

A classic among small Cents is the famous 1856 Flying Eagle, represented in the Stack’s Anniversary Sale by a Mint State-60 example that sold for $14,950.
The star attraction of the Anniversary Sale was the legendary1894-S Barber Dime, graded PCGS Branch Mint Proof-64. It was traditionally held that 24 pieces were struck, but as few as 10 examples are known to exist in 2007. This virtual Gem had last appeared at auction in Kagin’s Gillespie Sale in 1984, and is unquestionably among the few finest known examples. It undoubtedly belonged to Hallie Daggett, daughter of San Francisco Mint Superintendent John Daggett, later to dealers Earl Parker and Dan Brown.

The 1894-S is the most famous U.S. Dime and attracted in-depth research by such numismatists as William A. Burd, the late Walter Breen and Kevin Flynn but many mysteries remain about the coin’s creation and the reasons for its existence. Other specimens were centerpieces of such great collections as those formed by Augustus G. Heaton, F.C.C. Boyd, Louis E. Eliasberg and James G. Johnson. The Stack’s Anniversary Sale 1894-S sold for a record $1,552,500 after spirited bidding.

Another undoubted classic of all U.S. coinage is the 1876-CC 20 Cents, the rarest of all dates of this short-lived denomination, of which a mere handful escaped Mint Director Henry G. Linderman’s order that the mintage of 10,000 be melted. The Anniversary Sale example was graded PCGS MS-64 and was a satiny silver-white near-Gem that lost little time in advancing to a final bid of $350,750.
Early Silver Dollars opened with a fascinating Very Fine-30 example of the inaugural year 1794. The late Jack Collins’ research showed that perhaps as many as 130 survive in all grades. The specimen in the Anniversary Sale appeared only once before at auction in the last 100 years in Bowers and Merena’s sale of the S. Benton Emory and Walter P. Nichols Collections in November 1984. The coin realized $161,000 after active bidding

Although most U.S. series were well represented in the Anniversary Sale, Liberty Seated silver dollars excelled, showing dynamic interest throughout. The series opened with a Brilliant Proof Restrike 1836 Gobrecht Dollar (Judd 58, Pollock 61) with C. GOBRECHT F. in the field, eagle flying straight in starry sky. This exciting coin sold for 50,600.
Original examples of the name on base, plain edge variety (Judd 60, Pollock 65) appeared in Proof-58 and Proof-53, bringing $19,550 and $21,850 respectively. An 1838 name on base, plain field restrike (Judd 84, Pollock 93) in Brilliant Proof brought $46,000 while an 1839 name on base, plain field restrike (Judd 104, Pollock 116) in Proof-45 closed at $20,700.
Regular issue Liberty Seated Dollars included an original 1851 high date coin in Brilliant Proof at $41,400, a restrike 1851 centered date in PCGS Proof-62 that realized $39,100 and restrike 1852 with doubled reverse in Brilliant Proof that closed at $37,375.

Another coin of legend in this sale was the King Farouk example of the famous 1870-S Liberty Seated Dollar, a Very Fine-20 coin that is the center of another fascinating mystery of the San Francisco Mint. This lightly circulated example was one of only nine positively confirmed as existing, boasting pleasing silver-gray surfaces without distracting edge nicks, scratches or marks. It passed through the hands of Egypt’s King Farouk, B. Max Mehl, Norman Schultz, and Abner Kreisberg in the past and is considered the landmark rarity of the regular circulation strike Liberty Seated Dollars. It soared to $552,000.
Less famous, but still another Branch Mint rarity, was the EF-40 example of the 1873-CC Liberty Seated Dollar, selling at $31,625. Morgan Dollar highlights included an NGC Proof-66 cameo dated 1884 that brought $21,850, and an EF-40 1893-S Dollar which sold for $7,450. Among modern Proof Sets was a 1937 set grading Brilliant Proof-64 to 67 at $10,925.

Standing out among U.S. Silver commemoratives was an exceptional PCGS Proof-66 World’s Columbian Exposition Half Dollar, toned deep dusky gold and steel with a fascinating hint of peripheral blue, one of three bearing this exquisite grade. This Half Dollar reached $17,250.

Stack’s has completed 72 years of successful numismatic auctions, an uncontested record for the United States. Collectors may contact the firm at 123 West 57th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019, by phone at 800-566-2580/866-811-1804, or by email at [email protected].