Buzz Aldrin's Congressional Gold Medal gets auctioned off, 7/26/22
SkyMan
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Buzz Aldrin just auctioned off a bunch of stuff at Sotheby's today. Aldrin over the decades has been the Pete Rose of the space artifact field, e.g. selling everything, and allegedly claiming items to be flown that allegedly are not. However, just looking at his age, 92, and the contents of the auction, it appears to me that the items that were just auctioned off were the most important remaining parts of his collection.
Amongst the items auctioned off today were Aldrin's New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal, one of four in existence. The other three were given to Apollo 11 crewmates Armstrong and Collins, and the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn. The estimate was $20,000 - $30,000. With commission it went for $226,800. Here's the link to the Lot, with assorted pictures:
Comments
Impressive!
Didn’t he have a jacket in the auction as well, or something like that? My local news mentioned it recently. Edit: Wow, that medal went just a bit above the estimate. Lol
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WOW, Impressive price for lots of lots. I have one gold medal from him. I bet it is unique since it has his name on it from POPE Paul VI. I wonder if I cosign it to that auction how much would it go?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
That is an extremely high price for the gold medal.... Must have been two well heeled bidders who really wanted it... Testosterone takes over.... Cheers, RickO
appears Southebys needs to hire a better estimator.
Extremely high price compared to what? The auction estimate was essentially melt value and likely not what they thought it was actually going to sell for. Very few Congressional Gold Medals struck in gold exist in collector hands. Considering the provenance, theme of the medal (and cross over appeal) and rarity of this US Mint Medal, I’m curious how this conclusion was reached. Granted, my guess is that it was not won by an exonumia collector.
@GoldenEgg .... I made that statement as a comparison to the estimate, which, coming from the auction house, I thought was based on some form of professional market analysis. Excuse me if my statement upset you. Cheers, RickO
amazing