Stack's Ford Auction Part V: Big fat Indian steals show.
ColonialCoinUnion
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Actually, he was a 'Stout Indian':
1788 Massachusetts Cent. R.14-J. Stout Indian. Choice Very Fine.
High Rarity-7. 156.8 gns. One of the finest known. The obverse and reverse are both light brown in color. The fields are porous in places but not really disturbingly so. Obverse flawed from rim down through the front of 'C', on the opposite side lightly laminated from rim down through 'T' to arrow shaft, rim at the top shows traces of light laminations and linear marks. Reverse with a couple of minor rim tics, none really important. Fairly decent central sharpness, most of the horizontal folds in the tunic can be seen and CENT is almost entirely legible. Full date, first numeral soft at the bottom but legible.
Extremely rare: rated by Packard R-8 in 1997 with only two known and one other reported, R-8- in 2004. The Ryder Plate Coin. The cataloguer can now list six specimens: Unc. ex Picker-Vlack, reported by Bill Anton; this coin; one reported from Rhode Island as also grading Very Fine; next lot; the Greco Plate-ANS coin; and a rough piece graded by the cataloguer "Overall Fine" and sold for $4,180 in our September, 1993 sale (lot 1116). A contemporary counterfeit of the period.
Ex Henry C. Miller, Hillyer-Ryder, F.C.C. Boyd; Ryder's ticket annotated "Exchanged with Henry C. Miller Dec. 20 1918."
The coin sold for $65,000 big ones, which I thought rather impressive for a VF Mass cent.
The Transposed Arrows version, lot 85, brought $299,000 to a bidder who already had one. And thats kind of how things went all night, as that same guy bought about half of all of the coins offered. I imagine he calls up his old college roommates whenever he needs to move his collection as it must weigh more than even a medium-sized piano.
More later.
1788 Massachusetts Cent. R.14-J. Stout Indian. Choice Very Fine.
High Rarity-7. 156.8 gns. One of the finest known. The obverse and reverse are both light brown in color. The fields are porous in places but not really disturbingly so. Obverse flawed from rim down through the front of 'C', on the opposite side lightly laminated from rim down through 'T' to arrow shaft, rim at the top shows traces of light laminations and linear marks. Reverse with a couple of minor rim tics, none really important. Fairly decent central sharpness, most of the horizontal folds in the tunic can be seen and CENT is almost entirely legible. Full date, first numeral soft at the bottom but legible.
Extremely rare: rated by Packard R-8 in 1997 with only two known and one other reported, R-8- in 2004. The Ryder Plate Coin. The cataloguer can now list six specimens: Unc. ex Picker-Vlack, reported by Bill Anton; this coin; one reported from Rhode Island as also grading Very Fine; next lot; the Greco Plate-ANS coin; and a rough piece graded by the cataloguer "Overall Fine" and sold for $4,180 in our September, 1993 sale (lot 1116). A contemporary counterfeit of the period.
Ex Henry C. Miller, Hillyer-Ryder, F.C.C. Boyd; Ryder's ticket annotated "Exchanged with Henry C. Miller Dec. 20 1918."
The coin sold for $65,000 big ones, which I thought rather impressive for a VF Mass cent.
The Transposed Arrows version, lot 85, brought $299,000 to a bidder who already had one. And thats kind of how things went all night, as that same guy bought about half of all of the coins offered. I imagine he calls up his old college roommates whenever he needs to move his collection as it must weigh more than even a medium-sized piano.
More later.
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Comments
So, here's my recap:
Pretty good crowd overall, which I found very surprising. I thought the last Ford sale in July (?) had much sexier coins which I would have assumed would generate more interest, but what do I know.
This sale contained 4 colonial series: Voce Populis, Auctori Plebis, Nova Constellatio and Massachusetts coppers. Plus a bunch of medals I know nothing about and so won't comment on.
Attendees included every noteable colonial dealer (either in person or via a surrogate), the well-known colonial collectors (3 big boys who have wild collections) the C4 contingent (colonial coin collectors club) plus a few crossover dealers like Don Kagin. Plus me.
This sale was sort of a lull in my opinion. Very few big ticket items, very few deluxe coins. A great many nice but not sepctacular coins. And some dogs.
The Voce Populis were nice and contained a nearly complete run with some duplication, but contained only one or two primo condition census pieces and mostly just nice collectable stuff. Unfortunately, and as we've seen with some of the other Ford coins, it appears they hadn't been stored particularly well through the years as many exhibited indications of mild or bad verdigris and, as a result of sitting for years in one place, darker reverses than obverses. I hate that. Prices were unspectacular and downright weak in the average circulated common dupes.
The Auctori Plebis sold en masse to one dealer for very fair prices. Probably good buys, but not the most interesting series.
The Nova Constellatios brought some quite strong bidding interest for some of the rarer varieties (minisculely different die varieities mind you, not merely easily distinguishable Redbook varieties) all purchased by serious collectors who know exactly how rare some of these coins are. The average Novas - the kind you see in most every sale - sold almost entirely to dealers and I suspect we'll see a lot of the XFs and AUs from this sale on the secondary market in shiny new unc. holders soon. Lot 34, a very high end unc., sold for $10,000 hammer 'to the book'. I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool, sort of like 'pass me the shoe'. I didn't love that coin in person - if I did, I'd have bought it.
The Mass copper went nutso. It really surprised me, as I am not an afficianado of this series and really don't pay much attention to it, but several worn and tired coins brough huge dough (see above) to a small group of hardcore fanatics. And when I say fanatics, of course I mean 'specialists'.
Me? I didn't buy anything at all at Ford. There was just one coin of interest to me, but it was a moderate interest and I was the underbidder by one increment. So I still slept well that night.
Pistareen was there as well and perhaps he can comment on the medals. Also, at one point during the evening, he elbowed me in the ribs in a sort of 'you and your slabs' gesture. I'll get him for that.
Great update! Thank you for taking the time.
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<< <i>I took a shot at a Voce Populi via ANR and missed.
The coin you wanted (based on your C4 post) was a nice piece and sold at a very reasonable price to a dealer. I'm sure you'll see it again soon, in a slab, for a bit higher number.
These things are dripping with US history, but get very litle attention here.
The Ford sale was a hoot, as always, with a spectacular bunch of pre-Federal coins, Naval and other medals, and the biggest group of colonial currency sheets ever sold in one place. The prices of the coins were generally strong, though many of the more common pieces in normal collector grade sold at buyable prices. The unc Mass pieces all went strong and I got shut out trying to bid for a customer. I did get one nice Unc. Nova Constellatio for a customer at a very reasonable price, I thought.
The medals were fantastic -- for many of the silver Naval medals from the War of 1812, only 1 or 2 are known. These were generally given to the officers aboard the vessel, though the one gold piece included was awarded to the actual fellow depicted on the medal. That piece sold for $90K and could have brought more. The silvers were generally in the $15-20K range, not bad for something with such great eye appeal, history, and rarity. The 1804 Edward Preble was a steal at $12K -- there are 2 known in silver, the one that sold and Thomas Jefferson's personal specimen which is still at Monticello. The one that sold is the prettier one by far. A group of soft medal test pieces for the 1790 Diplomatic Medal was an incredible offering of stuff that was once in the hands of Augustin Dupre (who designed the Libertas Americana medal on my icon) and perhaps even Jefferson, who spearheaded the production of the Diplomatic Medal. I bought 2 of the test pieces for a customer/friend. The struck piece in copper, one of only 2 or 3 known, brought $32.5K, too cheap in my opinion.
The sheets were generally sold at fair prices, some too cheap (like $3K for a common Delaware sheet) and some for all the money (like $37.5K for a double sheet of Fugio Feb 1776 fractionals). I don't know enough about bond proofs or Mormon currency to knowledgeably comment, beyond saying prices seemed strong and most of the important buyer's were represented.
It was nice seeing everyone at the auction. CCU -- I may ship you a new sherd from a broken slab every week until you get the point. Just don't store your pieces like Ford did!
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
I looked at the Ford sale and was in awe.
I was not able to attend, but was represented. I had one bid only in the Colonial section. And I won. Any idea what lot it might have been?
Also, could you let me know what some of the medals sold for? If so, I'll pm you with the lot numbers.
njcc
Did you snag yourself a Voce by chance? If memory serves you have a nice one already.
I have all the medals prices marked in my catalogue, so feel free to PM or give me a call. By the way: the finer of the Nevada so-called dollars had "Eva" carefully graffitied in the obverse field, so hopefully you didn't add that to your so-called dollar collection! Their presence was a bit incongruous in this sale, to say the least.
The January Ford event includes his military medal, both U.S. Mint things and wackier things like engraved Civil War corps badges. I'm already looking forward to it.
There are some nifty medals in the next ANR sale, by the way. Plan to play.
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
Those Mass copper specialists acted a little like I imagine Indiana Jones felt when he discovered the Holy Grail being guarded by that extremely old knight, while others, myself included, thought they were nuts (I mean this in the most respectful way, as always). Conversely, I'm sure when my hand went up there were plenty of people thinking 'that frickin' colonialcoinunion, I'd like to elbow him in the ribcage'.
I agree that the crowd is usually the most interesting part of the spectacle, with a certain NY collector always facing the crowd and another NJ collector always holding down the front row. Of course, then there is murderer's row in the back, but most of the regular old collector folk somewhere in the middle.
Each Ford sale, as an historic document of the occasion, I've made a seating chart inside the last page of the catalogue. So be aware, who you choose to sit next to is being recorded for history! Luckily, most of your next-seat-over compatriots tend to be pretty good folks.
Was my elbow too sharp? That's the Italian in me -- we can't say anything without gesticulating wildly. Of course, my gesticulations will never match the phone bidder who looked like he was doing half of the Funky Chicken every time he bid.
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana