The most complete collection of Lesher Dollars - Henderson-Marchase Collection

Zoins

The Henderson-Marchase Collection of Lesher Dollars was owned by a grandfather / grandson combo.

The Henderson-Marchase Collection was previously owned by William C. Henderson, a longtime ANA treasurer and mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who was instrumental in convincing the ANA to locate its headquarters there. The set was submitted to NGC for certification in 2017 by Christopher Marchase, Henderson’s grandson.

It was was auctioned off last month by Kagin's.

The Capital Plastics holder display for these is awesome. I still think Capital Plastics holders are one of the most impressive ways to display collections. For the sale, they were removed an encapsulated in NGC holders.

Anyone see, bid on or win these?

• http://lesherdollars.com/henderson-marchase-collection-lesher-dollars-auction
• https://www.ngccoin.com/gallery/lesher/
• https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/8099/kagins-auction-lesher-dollar-collection-henderson-marchase/

dcarr

I was planning on bidding live (via internet) on some of these. But I was delayed in getting home and when I did I found that there was some issue with the Kagin's auction web site. By the time I had figured out how to get around that problem, all the Lesher Dollars had already sold

The prices seemed very favorable to the buyers. If any of these show up for resale, I expect the prices to be quite a bit higher. I think perhaps, unluckily for the seller, that the auction was on the worst possible day of the year (major drop in precious metals prices earlier that day, coronavirus fears, severe stock market correction underway, internet issues, etc).

I did win one moderately-priced (but rare) so-called dollar in the auction:
https://auctions.kagins.com/So-Called-Dollar-1889-Consolidated-Kansas-City-Smelting-Refining-Co-HK-731-Silver-Plain-Edge_i35946651

Zoins

I also had issues using Kagin's site. I missed some pieces I was interested in that also seem to go for very reasonable prices, one of which was Ford's silver Lincoln Wide Awakes token

Congrats on picking up that HK-731. NGC only has 14 in the census and there are none in the PCGS census.

DCW

This certainly was a big opportunity for anyone who is actively collecting Leshers. As anyone familiar with the series knows, the opportunity to add a new piece to one's collection comes very infrequently.

Zoins

@DCW said:
This certainly was a big opportunity for anyone who is actively collecting Leshers. As anyone familiar with the series knows, the opportunity to add a new piece to one's collection comes very infrequently.

This is even more pronounced with this set which given that it was collected over 3 generations. I just added another link and more info to the OP including the following excerpt. There's quite a bit of history with the provenance here.

The Henderson-Marchase Collection was previously owned by William C. Henderson, a longtime ANA treasurer and mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who was instrumental in convincing the ANA to locate its headquarters there. The set was submitted to NGC for certification in 2017 by Christopher Marchase, Henderson’s grandson.

keets

most if not all of the Lesher's sold well below pre-sale estimates.

WinLoseWin

@keets said:
most if not all of the Lesher's sold well below pre-sale estimates.

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Noticed that also.

Anyone familiar with this area know if Kagin's estimates were reasonable or were they too high?

Did the market change compared to other sales or were the estimates just off or did website problems lead to some bargains?

I'm not familiar with the exonumia market so wondering if it really was weak or are they just difficult to accurately estimate.

Looks like only the Henderson Collection of Lesher Dollars had listed estimates and 18 of the lots sold at around only half or a little more of the low end price. The 2 highest priced ones did out do the high end estimates though, at $84,000 and $52,800.
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Link to Kagin's sale list showing estimate ranges and results:

https://auctions.kagins.com/KAGIN-S-2020-ANA-AUCTION-NATIONAL-MONEY-SHOW_as63303?vm=0

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keets

my opinion is that it probably wasn't the best venue for these items. my experience is that Stack's may be the best option for Exonumia.

Zoins

@keets said:
my opinion is that it probably wasn't the best venue for these items. my experience is that Stack's may be the best option for Exonumia.

I was surprised these and other tokens sold on Kagin’s as I normally think of them for territorial gold only. I imagine they may not have a strong following for areas where they don't do a lot of business themselves.

DCW

I think it is extremely tough to put estimates on exonumia, especially the rare stuff. How many people are trying to put together a complete set of Lesher dollars? And just how much money are they willing to put into it?
This sale represented a "once in a lifetime" opportunity for Lesher Dollar collectors. If money was no object, I'd be all over these.

Lakesammman

Learned a lot about the Lesher "dollars" from the Kagin sales catalog. Would have liked to have ended up with 1 or 2 of them and will definitely be on the lookout for them in the future!

No Headlights

I have never owned one, not my field of interest. But I saw several for sale at Atlanta ANA

Zoins

Given the high prices, I've wondered who are big collectors of these. I don't see people posting these online often. PCGS shows just 2 Registry Sets for these at 72% and 50% completion.

https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/composite/1015

keets

Leshers are similar to the Wilson Dollars, HK-449-450, being collected by mainstream collectors who typically have no interest in Exonumia.

Zoins

@keets said:
Leshers are similar to the Wilson Dollars, HK-449-450, being collected by mainstream collectors who typically have no interest in Exonumia.

Well, by definition if they are collecting Lesher or Wilson dollars, they have an interest in Exonumia, but perhaps no other interest.

My question is mostly about "who" are these people since there aren't many Registry Sets or posts. We hear of a lot of famous coin collectors both in articles and posts here, but not so much for Lesher or Wilson dollars.

keets

who are these people

send Don Kagin an e-mail, but I doubt he will answer your question, but he knows who some of them are.

Leshers are similar to the Wilson Dollars, HK-449-450, being collected by mainstream collectors who typically have no interest in Exonumia.

Leshers are similar to the Wilson Dollars, HK-449-450, being collected by mainstream collectors who typically have no other interest in Exonumia. there, it's fixed.

WinLoseWin

@Zoins said:
Given the high prices, I've wondered who are big collectors of these. I don't see people posting these online often. PCGS shows just 2 Registry Sets for these at 72% and 50% completion.

https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/composite/1015

If you check your link closely, you might be able to contact one of them. Whether it still works or if they will answer is uncertain. Perhaps you have already noticed and tried.

It would be something if one of these sets soon showed up as being completed as some of those sold by Kagin's were unique types. I didn't know there was a registry set for these until you posted. Though I have never sought to buy any, always found the historical info and stories included in some auction catalog offerings to be interesting enough to read.