That's not a US minted coin. It's a privately minted coin. I'm not even sure that it's proper to call it a coin since it wasn't issued by any government entity. Perhaps it may be more accurate to call it a bullion token.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
It is a nice original example, but I think it is priced optimistically given its last auction record a few years ago. Even the very top off the market has not been completely spared from the decline in U.S. coin values. Is the foreign coin market trending upward?
A marvelous issue! Since it was dated before the Constitution, it plainly was not a governmental issue (PerryHall is one smart dude ). And what a stunning piece! A Brasher doubloon, in a stunning state of preservation. Yummie!
Awesome coin. 15 million sounds unrealistic. I still can’t get over how “cheaply” the Pogue 1854-S $5 just sold for. Doesn’t seem like the right uber rare coin buying environment for a coin to top $10 million right now.
@cameonut2011 said:
It is a nice original example, but I think it is priced optimistically given its last auction record a few years ago. Even the very top off the market has not been completely spared from the decline in U.S. coin values. Is the foreign coin market trending upward?
Not from what I can tell, although I haven't been all that involved with it for a few years.
Curious, how does it compare to the other six? I recall seeing one at either the Portland ANA Money Show or at a coin show in Santa Clara. I don't remember if it was this one with the EB initials in the center.
@1northcoin said:
Curious, how does it compare to the other six? I recall seeing one at either the Portland ANA Money Show or at a coin show in Santa Clara. I don't remember if it was this one with the EB initials in the center.
The one for sale is the only one with EB on the eagle's breast. All others have the punch on the eagle's wing.
The Holy Grail of coins has just popped up for sale. The 1787 Brasher Doubloon was the first gold coin struck in the US and represents one of the most important pieces in America’s numismatic history. It was originally worth about $15, but is currently being offered privately for 1 million times that price.
The coveted coin was privately minted in 1787—five years before the federal mint opened—by Ephraim Brasher, a New York silversmith, who lived next door to George Washington.
[...]
“It was the first gold coin in the denomination dollars, and it set forth how our monetary system would move forward,” numismatic adviser and president of PCAG Inc. Jeff Sherid tells Robb Report. “There is no other coin that can actually claim that and it puts this unique Brasher Doubloon in a class all by itself.”
[...]
The coveted coin has flipped between collectors just a handful of times, exponentially increasing in value with every sale. It sold for $625,000 in 1981, $2.99 million in 2005 and an impressive $7.4 million in 2011. The current owner, a former Wall Street executive, purchased the Brasher through PCAG Inc. for an undisclosed sum in a 2015 private transaction.
“He saw the coin for what it was: a huge investment,” Sherid says. “We always knew that at one point he was going to sell it—he’s not a collector, he’s an investor—and the market on ultra-rarities has been strong.”
The Los Angeles-based firm is currently offering the coin privately at an asking price of $15 million, though Sherid believes it could reach $100 million in the future. The firm says it has received a number of serious inquiries.
[...]
“It’s the Mona Lisa of our industry,” Sherid adds.
@cameonut2011 said:
It is a nice original example, but I think it is priced optimistically given its last auction record a few years ago. Even the very top off the market has not been completely spared from the decline in U.S. coin values. Is the foreign coin market trending upward?
Certain sectors are. I think it is a mistake to refer to the "foreign coun market" as though during not American would move as a monolithic unit.
India and Mexico, for example, have been hot. China had cooled. Etc.
I seem to remember the Coins Magazine cover for the 1981 sale. Here is an NYT Article exceprt of the sale;
YALE TO SELL BRASHER DOUBLOON TO HELP FINANCE UNIVERSITY'S NEW LIBRARY
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
One of the world's most famous, valuable and storied coins - Yale University's Brasher Doubloon - has been put up for sale for $650,000 to help underwrite a new library for the New Haven campus, Yale's president, A. Bartlett Giamatti, announced yesterday.
The coin is the prize of Yale's 150,000-coin, $3 million Numismatic Collection, and the decision to sell it was described by a number of Yale officials yesterday as one of the university's most painful decisions to part with a museum piece.
An intense budget squeeze and rising construction costs were cited as the main reasons for the decision. In addition, officials said the coin was of limited academic value, but was so monetarily valuable that it could not be handled without possible damage. Its security has been so troublesome that it has been in a vault in Sterling Memorial Library for years.
Doubloon Had Bizarre History
''To help alleviate the financial stringency which has come to Yale, and to assist in building our new library, the decision has been made, painfully and after much consideration, to sell the Yale Brasher Doubloon,'' Mr. Giamatti said.
He added: ''The high concentration of value in this single object and the security problems attendant to its being placed on public exhibition have weighed heavily in our deliberations.''
The coin, one of seven surviving specimens struck in 1787 by the New York goldsmith Ephraim Brasher, has a bizarre and romantic history. It includes its celebrated theft and recovery in the 1960's and featured treatment in Raymond Chandler's 1942 Philip Marlowe detective story ''The High Window,'' and the later film ''The Brasher Doubloon.''
Though little is known of the coin's early years, it is one of the few remaining American gold pieces from the pre-Federal period, before the United States Mint was established in Philadelphia. After 1890, it was owned by various collectors and was given to Yale in 1944 by the Rev. William H. Owen, the rector of Holy Trinity Church in New York.
The doubloon will be sold through Stack's Coin Company in New York, one of the world's foremost coin dealers, to help close a $1.5 million gap in construction funds for the $6.7 million Seeley G. Mudd Library, started last October, Mr. Giamatti said.
Dr. Mudd, who died in 1968, was a mining heir, physician and philanthropist. The library named for him is to house Yale's vast collections of United States Government and United Nations documents, among other collections.
Though another Brasher Doubloon owned by Johns Hopkins University was sold at auction 14 months ago for $725,000 - the world's record price for a single coin - Yale's curator of numismatics, John P. Burnham, and Norman Stack, the president of Stack's, said that Yale's coin was of slightly less fine quality and would be put up for $650,000.
The decision to sell it outright for a fixed price rather than put it up for auction, Mr. Stack said, was made because of the slight risk of ''stigma'' should it fail to bring its reserve, or floor, price in the rarefied market of high-priced coins.
In addition to Yale's coin, six other Brasher Doubloons are known. Three are owned by private collectors or dealers, one is at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, another is held by Johns Hopkins and the other by the American Numismatic Society in New York.
Ephraim Brasher was one of a few men responsible for periodically reassaying and adding gold to bring coins up to their proper weight in the pre-Federal period. He struck the doubloons as a limited edition of his own coin bearing his mark, E.B. within an oval cartouche.
Yale's Brasher is one of the better preserved specimens. It is 29.8 millimeters in diameter and weighs 26.41 grams. The obverse depicts a sun rising over a mountain set in a body of water, with the name ''Brasher'' beneath, all within a beaded border surrounded by the inscription ''Nova Eboraca (New York) Columbia (America)'' and the New York State motto ''Excelsior (Ever Upward).''
The reverse shows the traditional American Eagle, an olive branch in one claw, arrows in the other and 13 stars in the field around the head, all surrounded by a wreath of leaves. The inscription reads ''UNUM E-PLURIBUS,'' with the date 1787 below and Brasher's private mark stamped on the right wing.
In 1965, the doubloon was stolen in a spectacular theft by a gang of thieves who hid in Sterling Memorial Library before closing time, overpowered security guards and took nearly $1 million worth of rare coins. Except for the doubloon, all were carefully chosen for their resale value and vanished without a trace. Doubloon Had Its Own Renown
Yale officials feared that the the doubloon - known among coin collectors as well as a Rembrandt among art lovers -might be melted down because it could not easily be sold. For two years, the case remained unsolved.
Then, a private detective in Miami traced it through underworld figures to a coin collector in the Chicago area. Negotiations ensued and the coin was returned with no questions asked. The thieves were never caught.
Some said the case recalled Raymond Chandler's detective story, ''The High Window,'' which featured the theft of a Brasher Doubloon and this passage:
He placed my card face down on his desk. ''What can I do for you, Mr. Marlowe?'' ''Tell me about the Brasher Doubloon.'' ''Ah yes,'' he said. ''The Brasher Doubloon. In some ways the most interesting and valuable of all early American coins. As you no doubt know.''
''What I don't know about early American coins you could almost crowd into the Rose Bowl.''
@oih82w8 said:
I seem to remember the Coins Magazine cover for the 1981 sale. Here is an NYT Article exceprt of the sale;
YALE TO SELL BRASHER DOUBLOON TO HELP FINANCE UNIVERSITY'S NEW LIBRARY
[...]
Though little is known of the coin's early years, it is one of the few remaining American gold pieces from the pre-Federal period, before the United States Mint was established in Philadelphia. After 1890, it was owned by various collectors and was given to Yale in 1944 by the Rev. William H. Owen, the rector of Holy Trinity Church in New York.
Great history on this coin.
Yale's Brasher is one of the better preserved specimens. It is 29.8 millimeters in diameter and weighs 26.41 grams. The obverse depicts a sun rising over a mountain set in a body of water, with the name ''Brasher'' beneath, all within a beaded border surrounded by the inscription ''Nova Eboraca (New York) Columbia (America)'' and the New York State motto ''Excelsior (Ever Upward).''
The reverse shows the traditional American Eagle, an olive branch in one claw, arrows in the other and 13 stars in the field around the head, all surrounded by a wreath of leaves. The inscription reads ''UNUM E-PLURIBUS,'' with the date 1787 below and Brasher's private mark stamped on the right wing.
It seems like the Owen-Yale specimen is not the piece in the OP because the Owen-Yale specimen has the EB punch is on the right wing on this piece, while the piece being offered now is the unique piece with the EB punch on the shield.
All that is known about the current owner of this rare coin is that the collector is a former Wall Street executive who acquired the coin in 2015 in a private transaction for an undisclosed price, Bloomberg reported. Records show that this particular coin was sold for $625,000 in 1981, then nearly for $3 million in 2005, and for $7.4 million in 2011.
2005, 2011, 2015, 2020...........................
if this is such an important "coin" and so highly desirable, why is it that nobody seems to want to own it for very long?? I can speculate --- it is an "INVESTMENT PIECE" that is priced beyond its reasonable collector value. that means that Investors find it an attractive place to park cash, hold for a brief period and then sell at a profit. I would hope that a serious collector(maybe Hansen) would buy this and hold it where it belongs, in a top collection for an extended time. I doubt that will happen because a savvy person such as him knows the price is inflated.
it might make us all feel excited about the Collectible Coin Market to have something sell for $10 million+ until you realize that it's only an investment for some wealthy individual and not actually a collector who's buying it.
Here's the ANS specimen for comparison
1787 Brasher doubloon, punch on wing. 30mm, 26.309g. Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. Found by workers in a Philadelphia sewer in 1897. American Numismatic Society, 1969.62.1
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS). Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
@JesseKraft said:
Here's the ANS specimen for comparison
1787 Brasher doubloon, punch on wing. 30mm, 26.309g. Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. Found by workers in a Philadelphia sewer in 1897. American Numismatic Society, 1969.62.1
@JesseKraft said:
Here's the ANS specimen for comparison
1787 Brasher doubloon, punch on wing. 30mm, 26.309g. Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. Found by workers in a Philadelphia sewer in 1897. American Numismatic Society, 1969.62.1
Great provenance on that one!
This is the first time I've seen a coin attributed to William Randolph Hearst. How big of a collector was he?
Mrs. R. Henry Norweb
New Netherlands Coin Co. sale
Boyd estate
F. C. C. Boyd
Burdette G. Johnson sale William Randolph Hearst
Col. E. H. R. Green
Waldo Newcomer
A. W. Jackman
S. H. and Henry Chapman sale
It will be interesting to watch.... However, I agree with @keets....It has become an investment pawn for the wealthy. Such a great 'coin'...likely belongs in a museum since it has been priced out of reach for most collectors. Cheers, RickO
@Weiss said:
Thanks, @Boosibri ! When you've only got one good piece in your collection, you have to pull it out at every opportunity!
The Met has a beautiful bowl and a lovely coffee pot by Brasher. Pretty hardcore from the standpoint of American history that it's at it's coffee, not tea.
And the Art Institute of Chicago has a gorgeous covered urn with a near identical engraved acanthus.
But I haven't found more than maybe 10 or 12 pieces of his (excluding silverware) in my research. And no other drinking vessels of any kind.
My sister in law works at the Met. When this all settles down Ill see if I can get a look up close next time I’m out there.
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS). Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
@JesseKraft said:
Here's the ANS specimen for comparison
1787 Brasher doubloon, punch on wing. 30mm, 26.309g. Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. Found by workers in a Philadelphia sewer in 1897. American Numismatic Society, 1969.62.1
Great provenance on that one!
This is the first time I've seen a coin attributed to William Randolph Hearst. How big of a collector was he?
Mrs. R. Henry Norweb
New Netherlands Coin Co. sale
Boyd estate
F. C. C. Boyd
Burdette G. Johnson sale William Randolph Hearst
Col. E. H. R. Green
Waldo Newcomer
A. W. Jackman
S. H. and Henry Chapman sale
Good question! Not sure, however. As far as I can tell, this is the only coin we have that he owned.
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS). Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
if this is such an important "coin" and so highly desirable, why is it that nobody seems to want to own it for very long?? I can speculate --- it is an "INVESTMENT PIECE" that is priced beyond its reasonable collector value. that means that Investors find it an attractive place to park cash, hold for a brief period and then sell at a profit. I would hope that a serious collector(maybe Hansen) would buy this and hold it where it belongs, in a top collection for an extended time. I doubt that will happen because a savvy person such as him knows the price is inflated.
it might make us all feel excited about the Collectible Coin Market to have something sell for $10 million+ until you realize that it's only an investment for some wealthy individual and not actually a collector who's buying it.
Your sentiments on the holding period are also evident in other prominent coins. The ones that come to mind first are the 1804 original dollar and 1913 LHN. The holding period for both doesn't seem to be that long either. This as opposed to the 1861 CSA original half dollar and 1792 Getz silver half, even though the latter is proportionately a lot more common.
@PerryHall said:
That's not a US minted coin. It's a privately minted coin. I'm not even sure that it's proper to call it a coin since it wasn't issued by any government entity. Perhaps it may be more accurate to call it a bullion token.
In the end, being privately minted is part of what makes this coin so attractive as it was the first gold coin minted in the US, before the US even had a Mint.
@PerryHall said:
That's not a US minted coin. It's a privately minted coin. I'm not even sure that it's proper to call it a coin since it wasn't issued by any government entity. Perhaps it may be more accurate to call it a bullion token.
In the end, being privately minted is part of what makes this coin so attractive as it was the first gold coin minted in the US, before the US even had a Mint.
Brasher being Washington's neighbor certainly adds to the mystique.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
@PerryHall said:
That's not a US minted coin. It's a privately minted coin. I'm not even sure that it's proper to call it a coin since it wasn't issued by any government entity. Perhaps it may be more accurate to call it a bullion token.
In the end, being privately minted is part of what makes this coin so attractive as it was the first gold coin minted in the US, before the US even had a Mint.
Brasher being Washington's neighbor certainly adds to the mystique.
Definitely. Imagine if the unique piece with the EB on the shield was made for Washington?
@keets said: All that is known about the current owner of this rare coin is that the collector is a former Wall Street executive who acquired the coin in 2015 in a private transaction for an undisclosed price, Bloomberg reported. Records show that this particular coin was sold for $625,000 in 1981, then nearly for $3 million in 2005, and for $7.4 million in 2011.
2005, 2011, 2015, 2020...........................
if this is such an important "coin" and so highly desirable, why is it that nobody seems to want to own it for very long?? I can speculate --- it is an "INVESTMENT PIECE" that is priced beyond its reasonable collector value. that means that Investors find it an attractive place to park cash, hold for a brief period and then sell at a profit. I would hope that a serious collector(maybe Hansen) would buy this and hold it where it belongs, in a top collection for an extended time. I doubt that will happen because a savvy person such as him knows the price is inflated.
it might make us all feel excited about the Collectible Coin Market to have something sell for $10 million+ until you realize that it's only an investment for some wealthy individual and not actually a collector who's buying it.
One plausible reason that collectors own it for relatively short periods is that they buy it to be part of history. They become one of the few to own it. Once that is accomplished the coin does tie up a significant amount of money and by selling it they free up the cash and become part of the provenance of a famous coin. Maybe even make some money too.
jt88
Posts: 2,939 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
I don’t know what it will sell for but it will be big. Maybe the new owner will let it be seen at a show?
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
I'm a little short of cash right now so i will have to pass.
Biggest question: did it bean?
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
That's not a US minted coin. It's a privately minted coin. I'm not even sure that it's proper to call it a coin since it wasn't issued by any government entity. Perhaps it may be more accurate to call it a bullion token.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Biggest answer: YES
The owner should change the holder with true view photo. It will look very good,
Coin or token, it is still really cool.
I was attending that auction that night when Don bought both of these , site to see
If my memory serves me , I think one was 2. something and the other 4 million
Like it really needed a bean.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
You have to wonder some times.
I wouldn’t. The old blue holder shows over a decade of stability.
It is a nice original example, but I think it is priced optimistically given its last auction record a few years ago. Even the very top off the market has not been completely spared from the decline in U.S. coin values. Is the foreign coin market trending upward?
A marvelous issue! Since it was dated before the Constitution, it plainly was not a governmental issue (PerryHall is one smart dude
). And what a stunning piece! A Brasher doubloon, in a stunning state of preservation. Yummie!
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
Drooling.
The entertainment can never be overdressed....except in burlesque
If it does sell for 15 million then that will be a new record high for a coin. I wonder if Bruce has his eye on it?
Awesome coin. 15 million sounds unrealistic. I still can’t get over how “cheaply” the Pogue 1854-S $5 just sold for. Doesn’t seem like the right uber rare coin buying environment for a coin to top $10 million right now.
I've never seen a $15 denomination before.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
Not from what I can tell, although I haven't been all that involved with it for a few years.
Nice gold coin... But very unrealistic price tag !!!
Curious, how does it compare to the other six? I recall seeing one at either the Portland ANA Money Show or at a coin show in Santa Clara. I don't remember if it was this one with the EB initials in the center.
The one for sale is the only one with EB on the eagle's breast. All others have the punch on the eagle's wing.
Like the "King of American Coins", this coin has a tag line as well:
"The Holy Grail of coins"
Here's some interesting info:
https://robbreport.com/lifestyle/news/first-us-gold-coin-brasher-doubloon-1787-private-sale-2925692/
Amazing !!!
Certain sectors are. I think it is a mistake to refer to the "foreign coun market" as though during not American would move as a monolithic unit.
India and Mexico, for example, have been hot. China had cooled. Etc.
I seem to remember the Coins Magazine cover for the 1981 sale. Here is an NYT Article exceprt of the sale;
YALE TO SELL BRASHER DOUBLOON TO HELP FINANCE UNIVERSITY'S NEW LIBRARY
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
One of the world's most famous, valuable and storied coins - Yale University's Brasher Doubloon - has been put up for sale for $650,000 to help underwrite a new library for the New Haven campus, Yale's president, A. Bartlett Giamatti, announced yesterday.
The coin is the prize of Yale's 150,000-coin, $3 million Numismatic Collection, and the decision to sell it was described by a number of Yale officials yesterday as one of the university's most painful decisions to part with a museum piece.
An intense budget squeeze and rising construction costs were cited as the main reasons for the decision. In addition, officials said the coin was of limited academic value, but was so monetarily valuable that it could not be handled without possible damage. Its security has been so troublesome that it has been in a vault in Sterling Memorial Library for years.
Doubloon Had Bizarre History
''To help alleviate the financial stringency which has come to Yale, and to assist in building our new library, the decision has been made, painfully and after much consideration, to sell the Yale Brasher Doubloon,'' Mr. Giamatti said.
He added: ''The high concentration of value in this single object and the security problems attendant to its being placed on public exhibition have weighed heavily in our deliberations.''
The coin, one of seven surviving specimens struck in 1787 by the New York goldsmith Ephraim Brasher, has a bizarre and romantic history. It includes its celebrated theft and recovery in the 1960's and featured treatment in Raymond Chandler's 1942 Philip Marlowe detective story ''The High Window,'' and the later film ''The Brasher Doubloon.''
Though little is known of the coin's early years, it is one of the few remaining American gold pieces from the pre-Federal period, before the United States Mint was established in Philadelphia. After 1890, it was owned by various collectors and was given to Yale in 1944 by the Rev. William H. Owen, the rector of Holy Trinity Church in New York.
The doubloon will be sold through Stack's Coin Company in New York, one of the world's foremost coin dealers, to help close a $1.5 million gap in construction funds for the $6.7 million Seeley G. Mudd Library, started last October, Mr. Giamatti said.
Dr. Mudd, who died in 1968, was a mining heir, physician and philanthropist. The library named for him is to house Yale's vast collections of United States Government and United Nations documents, among other collections.
Though another Brasher Doubloon owned by Johns Hopkins University was sold at auction 14 months ago for $725,000 - the world's record price for a single coin - Yale's curator of numismatics, John P. Burnham, and Norman Stack, the president of Stack's, said that Yale's coin was of slightly less fine quality and would be put up for $650,000.
The decision to sell it outright for a fixed price rather than put it up for auction, Mr. Stack said, was made because of the slight risk of ''stigma'' should it fail to bring its reserve, or floor, price in the rarefied market of high-priced coins.
In addition to Yale's coin, six other Brasher Doubloons are known. Three are owned by private collectors or dealers, one is at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, another is held by Johns Hopkins and the other by the American Numismatic Society in New York.
Ephraim Brasher was one of a few men responsible for periodically reassaying and adding gold to bring coins up to their proper weight in the pre-Federal period. He struck the doubloons as a limited edition of his own coin bearing his mark, E.B. within an oval cartouche.
Yale's Brasher is one of the better preserved specimens. It is 29.8 millimeters in diameter and weighs 26.41 grams. The obverse depicts a sun rising over a mountain set in a body of water, with the name ''Brasher'' beneath, all within a beaded border surrounded by the inscription ''Nova Eboraca (New York) Columbia (America)'' and the New York State motto ''Excelsior (Ever Upward).''
The reverse shows the traditional American Eagle, an olive branch in one claw, arrows in the other and 13 stars in the field around the head, all surrounded by a wreath of leaves. The inscription reads ''UNUM E-PLURIBUS,'' with the date 1787 below and Brasher's private mark stamped on the right wing.
In 1965, the doubloon was stolen in a spectacular theft by a gang of thieves who hid in Sterling Memorial Library before closing time, overpowered security guards and took nearly $1 million worth of rare coins. Except for the doubloon, all were carefully chosen for their resale value and vanished without a trace. Doubloon Had Its Own Renown
Yale officials feared that the the doubloon - known among coin collectors as well as a Rembrandt among art lovers -might be melted down because it could not easily be sold. For two years, the case remained unsolved.
Then, a private detective in Miami traced it through underworld figures to a coin collector in the Chicago area. Negotiations ensued and the coin was returned with no questions asked. The thieves were never caught.
Some said the case recalled Raymond Chandler's detective story, ''The High Window,'' which featured the theft of a Brasher Doubloon and this passage:
He placed my card face down on his desk. ''What can I do for you, Mr. Marlowe?'' ''Tell me about the Brasher Doubloon.'' ''Ah yes,'' he said. ''The Brasher Doubloon. In some ways the most interesting and valuable of all early American coins. As you no doubt know.''
''What I don't know about early American coins you could almost crowd into the Rose Bowl.''
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/04/nyregion/yale-to-sell-brasher-doubloon-to-help-finance-university-s-new-library.html
On a unrelated, but similar note;
https://randall120.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/overlooked-movies-the-brasher-doubloon1947/
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore...
Great history on this coin.
It seems like the Owen-Yale specimen is not the piece in the OP because the Owen-Yale specimen has the EB punch is on the right wing on this piece, while the piece being offered now is the unique piece with the EB punch on the shield.
All that is known about the current owner of this rare coin is that the collector is a former Wall Street executive who acquired the coin in 2015 in a private transaction for an undisclosed price, Bloomberg reported. Records show that this particular coin was sold for $625,000 in 1981, then nearly for $3 million in 2005, and for $7.4 million in 2011.
2005, 2011, 2015, 2020...........................
if this is such an important "coin" and so highly desirable, why is it that nobody seems to want to own it for very long?? I can speculate --- it is an "INVESTMENT PIECE" that is priced beyond its reasonable collector value. that means that Investors find it an attractive place to park cash, hold for a brief period and then sell at a profit. I would hope that a serious collector(maybe Hansen) would buy this and hold it where it belongs, in a top collection for an extended time. I doubt that will happen because a savvy person such as him knows the price is inflated.
it might make us all feel excited about the Collectible Coin Market to have something sell for $10 million+ until you realize that it's only an investment for some wealthy individual and not actually a collector who's buying it.
Here's the ANS specimen for comparison
1787 Brasher doubloon, punch on wing. 30mm, 26.309g. Gift of Mrs. R. Henry Norweb. Found by workers in a Philadelphia sewer in 1897.
American Numismatic Society, 1969.62.1
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS).
Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
Ultimate “parking lot” find
Latin American Collection
Great provenance on that one!
This is the first time I've seen a coin attributed to William Randolph Hearst. How big of a collector was he?
It will be interesting to watch.... However, I agree with @keets....It has become an investment pawn for the wealthy. Such a great 'coin'...likely belongs in a museum since it has been priced out of reach for most collectors. Cheers, RickO
Ephraim Brasher (1744-1828)
Beer Cann
c. 1770
Raised and Engraved Silver
13 cm x 8.75 cm, 383 grams
--Severian the Lame
I have seen several Brasher spoons, some candlesticks, this is the only mug I have seen. Must be quite rare. Nicely done!
I have always hoped to cherrypick a Brasher piece.
Latin American Collection
Thanks, @Boosibri ! When you've only got one good piece in your collection, you have to pull it out at every opportunity!
The Met has a beautiful bowl and a lovely coffee pot by Brasher. Pretty hardcore from the standpoint of American history that it's coffee, not tea.
And the Art Institute of Chicago has a gorgeous covered urn with a near identical engraved acanthus.
But I haven't found more than maybe 10 or 12 pieces of his (excluding silverware) in my research. And no other drinking vessels of any kind.
--Severian the Lame
That beer mug deserves a bean.
My sister in law works at the Met. When this all settles down Ill see if I can get a look up close next time I’m out there.
Latin American Collection
So if your uber wealthy you can’t also be a collector? Odd logic...
China coin market is on fire. Very hot
Here is the version I saw at Winter FUN 2014. It was very cool to hold in hand and have my daughter hold it as well.
There was chatter that this one below could sell for 10Mil but no one showed up for it.
It sold for a bit over $4.5Mil
https://coins.ha.com/itm/colonials/1787-dbln-brasher-doubloon-eb-on-wing-w-5840-ms63-ngc-cac/a/1201-5100.s
https://greatcollections.com/Collections/1120/The-Keyman64-Mercury-Dime-Collection/2024-07-07
1766 George III half guinea regulated by Brasher. 4.073g, 21mm.
American Numismatic Society, 1933.49.67
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS).
Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
Good question! Not sure, however. As far as I can tell, this is the only coin we have that he owned.
Jesse C. Kraft, Ph.D.
Resolute Americana Curator of American Numismatics
American Numismatic Society
New York City
Member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), British Numismatic Society (BNS), New York Numismatic Club (NYNC), Early American Copper (EAC), the Colonial Coin Collectors Club (C4), U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association (USMNA), Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC), Token and Medal Society (TAMS), and life member of the Atlantic County Numismatic Society (ACNS).
Become a member of the American Numismatic Society!
Hard to cherrypick anything by Brasher, he seems to like his name in big print.
These seem to have great histories.
The Smithsonian specimen was found by Adam Eckfeldt in a bullion deposit in 1838.
These just weren't seen as special back then!
Your sentiments on the holding period are also evident in other prominent coins. The ones that come to mind first are the 1804 original dollar and 1913 LHN. The holding period for both doesn't seem to be that long either. This as opposed to the 1861 CSA original half dollar and 1792 Getz silver half, even though the latter is proportionately a lot more common.
Is that an Eagle? Man - that’s gotta be the ugliest Eagle I’ve ever seen on a coin. I’ll pass.
In the end, being privately minted is part of what makes this coin so attractive as it was the first gold coin minted in the US, before the US even had a Mint.
Brasher being Washington's neighbor certainly adds to the mystique.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Definitely. Imagine if the unique piece with the EB on the shield was made for Washington?
Washington bought pieces directly from his friend Ephraim Brasher, and Mount Vernon has a few Brasher items in their collection.
--Severian the Lame
One plausible reason that collectors own it for relatively short periods is that they buy it to be part of history. They become one of the few to own it. Once that is accomplished the coin does tie up a significant amount of money and by selling it they free up the cash and become part of the provenance of a famous coin. Maybe even make some money too.