The North Georgia Collection and my newp

RYK · January 28, 2011 8:30AM

I recently had the opportunity to purchase a Charlotte $5 from the North Georgia Collection. It is the second coin that I own from this collection, and I have (knowingly) owned one other in the past. This specialty collection of both Dahlonega and Charlotte gold was put together by a North Georgia businessman in the 1990's and included over 200 coins. Most were sold in the 1999 Heritage FUN sale, but some of the Charlotte coins were pedigreed on the PCGS holder and sold outside the sale by private treaty, including the one pictured below. Since I was not collecting gold coins at that time, I was not present at the lot viewing or the sale. Certainly if there were such an event today, I would be there.

While every coin was not a masterpiece, many of the coins were very original and high-end. These were graded in 1998 and earlier, so coins in the original holders should be stable in appearance and may have been graded by a different standard than that of today.

Over the years, I have come across a couple dozen coins from the collection and have generally been impressed by both the quality and eye appeal such that just knowing a coin is from that collection immediately gets my attention.

Here's a photo of the newp:

Tdec1000 · January 28, 2011 8:33AM

Gorgeous ODG! I love it!

relicsncoins · January 28, 2011 8:35AM

That's a looker!!!

Lakesammman · January 28, 2011 8:48AM

Very attractive looking coin - congrats!

TomB · January 28, 2011 8:50AM

Looks like a heck of a coin!

MidLifeCrisis · January 28, 2011 9:01AM

Nice looking coin. Congrats!

Here's a write-up about the North Georgia Collection from Doug Winter's article Ten Great U.S. Coin Auctions and Some Reminiscences

North Georgia Collection, Heritage 1999

With a value well north of $3 million, the North Georgia Collection of Charlotte, Dahlonega and Bechtler coinage is still the largest single deal I have ever been involved with. Along with my partners Han**ck and Harwell of Atlanta, we had numerous difficult decisions to face in the marketing of this collection. Which coins should be sold privately and which should be sold at auction (in a deal which contained over a dozen 1838-D half eagles, this was no easy decision!). Which firm would auction the coins and when? Would the coins be regraded or kept in the original holders?

After a numbers of strategy sessions, we decided to put the coins in the Heritage 1999 FUN auction. This was not an easy decision to make as we were paying interest on a sizable amount of money and had to wait six months for the auction to take place. But in the long run we were happy with our decision.

Looking back at the prices realized in this sale, one can see that in many ways the 1999 FUN sale was the all-time height of the market for most Charlotte and Dahlonega issues, especially high grade pieces. Even factoring in the upgrades that many of the coins in this collection saw in later years, it is still pretty remarkable to look at the levels which they sold for.

When I look back at this sale my memories are bittersweet. The owner of the collection, a truly nice guy named Leon Farmer, passed away soon afterwards and my close friend and business associate Jack Han**ck is dead as well. Every time I pull a Heritage North Georgia catalog down off the library shelf to research a coin, I think of these two wonderful men.
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Lakesammman · January 28, 2011 9:09AM

Midlife:

Thanks for posting that.

fc · January 28, 2011 9:17AM

it is definitely a nice coin. i just wonder if the coin is really as orange as the pics
look? they look like DW pics and almost everything on his site looks more orange
then it should be. i always wondered idly about that...

gold is mostly yellow after all.

here are a couple pics of the same date/mint...

AuroraBorealis · January 28, 2011 9:18AM

Congrats! Looks very eye appealing and original...Not that i know anything about gold but looks like a gorgeous one...

AB

DaveG · January 28, 2011 9:24AM

WOW!

CharlotteDude · January 28, 2011 9:30AM

Nice coin Robert. I was very close to making a call to Doug the day he posted it onto his website, but I have other things in my sights at the moment.

'dude

RYK · January 28, 2011 9:38AM

Here's my other coin from the North Georgia Collection:

i just wonder if the coin is really as orange as the pics
look? they look like DW pics and almost everything on his site looks more orange
then it should be. i always wondered idly about that...

It really depends on the lighting, but the coin has reddish and purplish tints, perhaps not as deep as the photo.

dipped gold is mostly yellow after all.

I agree.