Weekly Market Report: Long Beach Show on the Horizon with Strong Auctions and Bourse Activity Expected

By Bruce Amspacher - February 6, 2001

Long Beach Coin & Collectibles Expo

The Long Beach Coin and Collectibles Exposition is almost here! The extremely popular show is held three times annually, and each Expo is among the most eagerly anticipated numismatic events of the year. Commonly known as "The Long Beach Show," the Expo is always an important market bellwether for the months ahead. This time the show is being held later in the month than usual, opening on February 22nd and running through the 25th.

In addition to the always large and highly active bourse ("bourse" is a fancy and somewhat obscure word that means "purse" but has come to mean "a place to buy and sell"), there will be lots of auction action on the agenda. The Kingswood Coin Auctions "Bristol" sale is scheduled for March 1st, 2001 and auction lots will be available for public viewing at Long Beach from February 22nd through the 24th at tables 929-931.

Some of the collector-oriented highlights of the Kingswood sale include a 1797 Large cent (S-123) in PCGS MS64BN [Brown], an 1877 Indian cent in PCGS PR64RB [Red & Brown], a 1918/17-D Buffalo nickel in PCGS EF45, an 1893-S Morgan dollar in PCGS EF45 and an 1860-C $5 Liberty in PCGS AU58.

Spectacular quality is also available in the Kingswood sale, such as a 1915 Buffalo nickel in PCGS PR67, an 1828 Small Date dime in PCGS MS65, an 1834 Large 4 dime in PCGS MS66, an 1897 Barber dime in PCGS PR67 and a Judd 1571 1878 $5 Pattern in copper in PCGS PR65BN. The entire 550-lot sale will be available for viewing and bidding online as of February 15. For more information on this sale, click here.

S. S. Central America ingots in tremendous demand

The gold bars (a.k.a. "ingots") that were recovered from the S. S. Central America tragedy continue to be one of the most active areas of the market. "There is an almost unending demand for these treasures," reports Gordon Wrubel, Director of Numismatic Operations for Bowers & Merena Galleries of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. "We knew that the ingots would sell briskly, but the call for them has exceeded the expectations of almost everyone by a considerable margin."

The high collector demand for the ingots has also spurred renewed interest in the 1856-S and 1857-S $20 Liberty gold pieces from the same famed 1857 shipwreck. "The S. S. Central America continues to be the number one story in the world of numismatics," one dealer said.

Expansion of PCGS Set Registry continues

"It seems like every morning when I come in there are five or six new sets posted on the Registry," says B. J. Searls, project coordinator for the PCGS Set Registry. The Registry went online in early January, and collectors from across the country have taken advantage of the interactive system to list the highest quality collections in the world.

The PCGS Set Registry is an ongoing project. Four different sets of California fractional gold are being added this week, and sets of Dahlonega and Charlotte gold and mintmarked type sets, among many others, will be added in the coming months. For more information on the PCGS Set Registry, click here.

Benson and Heathgate collections to be auctioned February 16-20

The Benson Collection of United States Coins and Currency and the Heathgate Collection of United States Small Cents are being offered in one massive auction by Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Inc., of Beverly Hills, California. The 4,335-lot sale will be spread over five days (February 16-20) just before the Long Beach show. The sale also features over 1,000 lots of Ancient and World coins.

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).