Which auctions or sales of a collection do you wish you could have participated?

OriginalDan

For me it’s the Hal Walls Collection of World Trade Coins, sold by Paul J. Bosco in August of 1997. Coming up on it’s 20th anniversary, Hal’s collection is squarely focused on my areas of interest. These are U.S. Trade Dollars, Mexican Portrait 8 Reales and chopmarked coins of all type. The highlights of this collection to me are the 1799 Dollar with chopmarks, the chopmarked 1878-CC US Trade Dollar in uncirculated condition (finest known, ex Willem), a chopmarked 1733-Mo MF 8 Reales and a chopmarked Lion Dollar. But as I look through the catalog, I would have been interested in almost every lot in the sale (over 1000 lots). What a truly fantastic collection, quite impressive given it was assembled pre-internet. Too bad I was just starting college at the time and focused on completely different things.

So, limiting it to auctions/sales that actually occurred during your lifetime, which ones do you regret missing out on most, and why?

As a follow-up, did anyone attend the sale of the Hal Walls collection, or own any of the coins?

rainbowroosie

Eliasberg

Ronyahski

I didn't really miss out - if there were coins I wanted - I went. But, in hindsight, knowing what I know now, and what my collecting interests are now- take me back to Pittman and Bass for some of that gold.

ebaytrader

I wish I had been a more aggressive Eliasberg bidder at the last sale as the catalog opinions of grade left a lot of upside. If I only could have attended...

I was excited when Ed Milas' southern gold came up for auction, but the bids just totally blew me away. They went way way beyond rational prices for the times. I don't remember who the big buyer was at that auction, but if memory serves me, he lost his shirt over the next few years when many of the pieces were recycled into the market.

CascadeChris

Two words... Sunnywood-Simpson

OriginalDan

@CascadeChris said:
Two words... Sunnywood-Simpson

I'm guessing you could have participated, but financially it wasn't possible? Those were some nice coins, but not cheap!

hutze1nm

Does GSA or just flat out the Morgan treasury bag sales in the 60s count?

TLeverage

@OriginalDan said:
These are U.S. Trade Dollars, Mexican Portrait 8 Reales and chopmarked coins of all type. The highlights of this collection to me are the 1799 Dollar with chopmarks, the chopmarked 1878-CC US Trade Dollar in uncirculated condition (finest known, ex Willem), a chopmarked 1733-Mo MF 8 Reales and a chopmarked Lion Dollar.

Know of the sale, unfortunately never seen the catalog; been looking for a copy online for some time now.

jonruns

North Georgia collection

BillJones

The Ford collection of 19th century presidential campaign medalets. There were one or two pieces in those sales that I have yet to find, and I have purchased three pieces from the Ford sales from those who bought there. I would have saved a lot of money if I had bought them in that sale in the first place.

PQueue

Bass...

OriginalDan

Lots of big names being mentioned, but not much discussion on why you couldn't/didn't participate.

Another one for me is the Frank Rose collection of chopmarked coins. He was the original chopmarked collector and wrote the (first) book on the subject. Sadly his collection was sold through an obscure foreign auction venue, with the large majority going to a single collector for pennies on the dollar.