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Will the 1856-O Double Eagle in the upcoming B&M auction result in intense bidding?
Longacre
Posts: 16,717 ✭✭✭
I got the following email from B&M regarding the auction of the ultra rare 1856-O double eagle in the upcoming Baltimore auction. The coin is excessively rare, but I am not sure how big the market is for New Orleans double eagles. Also, does anyone know why they are quoting a 1992 Doug Winter book when the 2006 version is available? What do you think the final price on this coin will be?
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It would be a massive understatement to call the 2,250 piece delivery of 1856-O Type I Liberty Double Eagle rare, as every author who has written a major reference on the series has labeled this issue as something extraordinarily noteworthy. Indeed, we shall further heap our accolades upon the present AU specimen as a member of an elite family, with just 15-20 examples of this production known in all grades.
Let's begin with the perhaps the most renowned expert on branch mint gold, Douglas Winter, who in 1992 claimed the ‘56-O to be “a classic rarity in the truest sense and an issue which appears on more want lists than nearly any other gold coin struck at a branch mint.” Our esteemed author also notes this date and mintmark combination to be “the rarest gold coin struck at the New Orleans Mint," and he assigned a High R-7/8 rarity factor to AU pieces.
David Akers (1982) asserts the 1856-O to be "the rarest O-mint $20 and, except for the 1861 Paquet and 1882 business strike, the rarest regular issue Liberty Head Double Eagle.”
In the Insider's Guide to Collecting Type I Double Eagles,“ Crum and Winter speak to the elusiveness of this issue in mentioning that one "can be finicky when selecting an 1856 Philadelphia of San Francisco Double Eagle (of this date). [One] cannot be finicky when selecting an 1856-O. Consider any chance to purchase an 1856-O Double Eagle a special opportunity.”
Most recently Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth (2006) write that “most collectors of Double Eagles have given up on this date, as the starting price for an attractive example begin in the six figures, “and they attribute the rarity of the issue to be, in part, due to the fact that “collecting of gold coins by mintmark did not begin in earnest until decades after the 1856-O Double Eagles were struck.”
A more interesting feature of the twain's book entitled Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins 1795-1933 offers the following information: from 1991-2005, a mere 17 examples (including duplicates) of this issue have appeared for sale, and the average grade of these examples was 47.2 on the standard Sheldon scale 1-70.
An examination of the PCGS Population Report reveals a mere 6 representatives of the issue to have been certified finer than the present example through AU-58, while the NGC Census has seen a mere 6 examples, none at AU-53, and just 2 finer through AU-58.
Thus we offer the present AU-53 survivor, a conditionally rare example of an absolutely rare issue—a coin that has captured the imaginations of generations of collectors, and a delivery that none but the most well-heeled of specialists can ever hope to afford.
At this level of preservation, we find an abundance of satiny mint luster, especially on the reverse where the more plentiful designs have protected the surface area, resulting in a moderate cartwheel effect. The crisply impressed devices and legends have managed to bear the moderate rub that has manifested itself over the highpoints quite well, and one will find plenty of crisp delineation through Liberty's hair and the reverse eagle. Scattered abrasions appear over both sides, the most important immediately before the portrait, however, if one takes the time to peruse the previous auction records of known representatives of the delivery, one will find that almost every AU example appears with these sorts of blemishes, and thus none require further elucidation. Indeed, we sound the clarion call for all interested parties to prepare for intense bidding competition when this piece crosses the auction block, for every expert in the field will have heard of ! this coin's sale.
**************
It would be a massive understatement to call the 2,250 piece delivery of 1856-O Type I Liberty Double Eagle rare, as every author who has written a major reference on the series has labeled this issue as something extraordinarily noteworthy. Indeed, we shall further heap our accolades upon the present AU specimen as a member of an elite family, with just 15-20 examples of this production known in all grades.
Let's begin with the perhaps the most renowned expert on branch mint gold, Douglas Winter, who in 1992 claimed the ‘56-O to be “a classic rarity in the truest sense and an issue which appears on more want lists than nearly any other gold coin struck at a branch mint.” Our esteemed author also notes this date and mintmark combination to be “the rarest gold coin struck at the New Orleans Mint," and he assigned a High R-7/8 rarity factor to AU pieces.
David Akers (1982) asserts the 1856-O to be "the rarest O-mint $20 and, except for the 1861 Paquet and 1882 business strike, the rarest regular issue Liberty Head Double Eagle.”
In the Insider's Guide to Collecting Type I Double Eagles,“ Crum and Winter speak to the elusiveness of this issue in mentioning that one "can be finicky when selecting an 1856 Philadelphia of San Francisco Double Eagle (of this date). [One] cannot be finicky when selecting an 1856-O. Consider any chance to purchase an 1856-O Double Eagle a special opportunity.”
Most recently Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth (2006) write that “most collectors of Double Eagles have given up on this date, as the starting price for an attractive example begin in the six figures, “and they attribute the rarity of the issue to be, in part, due to the fact that “collecting of gold coins by mintmark did not begin in earnest until decades after the 1856-O Double Eagles were struck.”
A more interesting feature of the twain's book entitled Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins 1795-1933 offers the following information: from 1991-2005, a mere 17 examples (including duplicates) of this issue have appeared for sale, and the average grade of these examples was 47.2 on the standard Sheldon scale 1-70.
An examination of the PCGS Population Report reveals a mere 6 representatives of the issue to have been certified finer than the present example through AU-58, while the NGC Census has seen a mere 6 examples, none at AU-53, and just 2 finer through AU-58.
Thus we offer the present AU-53 survivor, a conditionally rare example of an absolutely rare issue—a coin that has captured the imaginations of generations of collectors, and a delivery that none but the most well-heeled of specialists can ever hope to afford.
At this level of preservation, we find an abundance of satiny mint luster, especially on the reverse where the more plentiful designs have protected the surface area, resulting in a moderate cartwheel effect. The crisply impressed devices and legends have managed to bear the moderate rub that has manifested itself over the highpoints quite well, and one will find plenty of crisp delineation through Liberty's hair and the reverse eagle. Scattered abrasions appear over both sides, the most important immediately before the portrait, however, if one takes the time to peruse the previous auction records of known representatives of the delivery, one will find that almost every AU example appears with these sorts of blemishes, and thus none require further elucidation. Indeed, we sound the clarion call for all interested parties to prepare for intense bidding competition when this piece crosses the auction block, for every expert in the field will have heard of ! this coin's sale.
Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
0
Comments
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
I wrote an article about the one that is the topic of this thread:
PCGS graded 1856-O DE in March 2007 B&M Auction
Last September, I wrote about the Rubic 1856-O that HA sold in October 2011:
The PCGS graded, Rubic 1856-O that Heritage auctioned in October 2011
Let us not forget the newly discovered 1856-O that sold in Sept. 2010:
Coin Rarities & Related Topics: 1856-O Double Eagles and other Great Rarities that I have seen
Less than ten days ago, a fresh 1856-O DE was auctioned in San Francisco:
Major Gold Rarities in Auction by Stamp Company