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Million dollar large cent
DonWillis
Posts: 961 ✭✭✭
For the first time a large cent has sold in auction for over a million dollars.
Lot 128 of the Dan Holmes collection was a 1795 Reeded Edge S-79 certified by PCGS as VG-10. It hammered for $1.1 million after spirited bidding.
Later lot 352, the finest known 1799 certified by PCGS as MS61, was hammered at $850,000.
There were over 125 attendees plus phone bidders, the Internet and mail bids. The Goldbergs did a great job of auctioning part one of this amazing collection.
Lot 128 of the Dan Holmes collection was a 1795 Reeded Edge S-79 certified by PCGS as VG-10. It hammered for $1.1 million after spirited bidding.
Later lot 352, the finest known 1799 certified by PCGS as MS61, was hammered at $850,000.
There were over 125 attendees plus phone bidders, the Internet and mail bids. The Goldbergs did a great job of auctioning part one of this amazing collection.
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Also, it's late, do you know what time it is?
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
I gotta figure out a way to get more than a million dollars, and fast!
Lot 128 1795 S-79 R7+ Reeded Edge. PCGS graded VG-10. Plated in Early American Cents, Penny Whimsy, the Noyes book, Breen, Judd, and Wayte Raymond’s Standard Catalog of United States Coins. Glossy medium brown. Covered with many small, light nicks, but none of these marks is significant or distracting. The best identifying marks are a dull rim nick under the 7, a tiny rim nick opposite the upper lip, and a very light rim bruise at F in OF. The date and legends are strong and clear, except for OF, which is not as strongly struck as the other details. Struck very slightly off center to K-3, but the beaded border device remains comfortably on the planchet on both sides. The reverse is rotated about 25 degrees CCW from normal head-to-foot orientation. The edge reeding is clear and relatively strong except for the area over S-OF-A, where it is weak or missing. The reason for the reeded edge is a matter of speculation. Walter Breen called the reeding "an experiment which proved to be a needless frill, adding to the cost of manufacture without compensatory advantage." Whatever the actual reason, the S-79 die variety is undoubtedly an official mint product since the reverse die was used to produce 6 different 1796 Draped Bust varieties (Sheldon numbers 106 through 111). The obverse die, however, was used only in this short-lived S-79 marriage. Arguably the most famous and eagerly sought variety in the entire series of US large cents and the undisputed "key" to completing a collection of the numbered Sheldon die varieties of early large cents, 1793-1814. Finest of 7 known with 2 additional examples rumored to exist but highly doubtful. Called VG8 and finest known in both census lists, Noyes photo #21005. Our grade is VG8. The currently accepted condition census for these 7 examples is 8-7-6-5-4-1-X (the Basal State-1 is a heavily corroded piece discovered in 2009 and the "X" represents a holed obverse brockage strike that is confirmed but its current location is unknown). The VG7 in this census is impounded in the ANS Museum, so the next best available to collectors is the corroded and rather ugly G6. The G4 example brought $402,500.00 as lot #1143 in the 11/20/2008 auction conducted by Bowers & Merena in Baltimore, and portions of the legend on that example were missing due to extremely heavy wear. The obverse of the example offered here is plated in Early American Cents, and both sides are illustrated in Penny Whimsy and in the Noyes book. Also plated in the 18th edition of Wayte Raymond's Standard Catalog of United States Coins, the Judd book on U.S. pattern coinage, and in Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins. Weight 153.4 grains. PCGS Population 1; The only one graded at PCGS for the variety. DWH #1748.
Estimated Value $250,000-UP.
Provenance: Ex Dr. S. T. Millard-B. Max Mehl #34, 3/1915:75-G. Kraft-Robert D. Book 5/1930-George H. Clapp-Howard R. Newcomb, J. C. Morgenthau & Co. #458, 2/45:76-James Kelly FPL #21, Fall 1945 to #23, Spring 1947-Celina Coin Co. #21, 3/47:2037-James Kelly 11/47:927-James Kelly 4/48:1327-Christian M. Petersen-Hollinbeck Coin Co. #166, 10/53:278-Dr. William H. Sheldon 4/19/72-R. E. Naftzger, Jr., 2/23/92-Eric Streiner-Tony Terranova 12/20/93.
Realized $1,100,000
Lot 352 1799 S-189 R2+ Normal Date. NGC graded MS-62 Brown. Plated in Penny Whimsy and Noyes. Very attractive lustrous chocolate and medium brown. The fields and protected areas are covered with satiny mint frost and the eye appeal of this cent is outstanding. There is a touch of very light friction on the highest points of the design and only a few trivial contact marks. These include a thin and very light diagonal nick on the left edge of the cheek and a small, barely visible contact mark on the throat, plus a pinpric* on the berry right of the T in CENT. A small arc-shaped planchet void also shows near the dentils left of the first S in STATES, as struck. E-MDS, Breen die state II. The die clashmarks and dull lump over the T in CENT are all clear. There is some weakness in the strike on the lower third of the date and upper third of the reverse, as usual. A fantastic 1799 cent, finest known by a very wide margin. The second best is a VF30 impounded in the ANS Museum, and the next best grades VF25 or VF30 depending on the census list being used. This is the only example of the year, regardless of the die variety, ever assigned a mint state grade by a major grading service. Called AU50 choice and finest known by Noyes and Bland, and those grades were assigned before a layer of wax was removed to expose the underlying frosty mint luster. Noyes photo #20099. Our grade is AU55. Plated to represent the variety in Penny Whimsy and the Noyes book. A highlight of this superb collection and the undisputed key to any "registry" set of mint state large cents. This coin is now in a PCGS graded MS61 Brown. PCGS population 1; Finest graded at PCGS. DWH #2825.
Estimated Value $250,000-UP.
Provenance: Ex England-A. H. Baldwin (A. H. Baldwin & Sons, Ltd., London)-brought to the United States in the late 1920’s, and traded to Frank H. Shumway-Elmer S. Sears-Wayte Raymond 10/28-Henry C. Hines-Dr. William H. Sheldon 1945-Harold E. Whiteneck (Sheraton Coin Co.)-1947 ANA (Numismatic Gallery #40), lot 851-Harold E. Whiteneck (Sheraton Coin Co.)-Dr. James O. Sloss 9/58-R. E. Naftzger, Jr. 2/23/92-Eric Streiner-Jay Parrino (The Mint) 4/16/96-Jack Wadlington (via Bob Grellman & Chris McCawley) 11/7/05.
Realized $850,000
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
"You'd think they'd show a pic of the reeding."
-----
Yeah, just think of all the money they missed out on by
not showing it!!
(Actually, they did show the reeding in the catalog.)
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
–John Adams, 1826
Sunnywood's Rainbow-Toned Morgans (Retired)
Sunnywood's Barber Quarters (Retired)
1/2 Cents
U.S. Revenue Stamps
<< <i>Interesting. Without knowing the context of the coin, upon seeing the 1795 my first thought was "this got holdered"? I would have expected a bodybag. I guess the importance of a coin trumps technical merits, but that's just my opinion. >>
Special coins have always been graded using special standards.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
The catalogue did have an enlarged photo of the edge reeding.
The coin is graded VG08 in the EAC census, so to suggest PCGS' grade of VG10 was "a special standard" is just plain ignorant.
My favorite coins of the sale were the chain cents. I think they could have sold for more.
What's latin for "great copper king"?
Magnum Cuprus Rex?
<< <i>LeeG, those prices, $1.1MM and $850K, were hammer prices. So the coins actually realized $1,265,000 and $977,500 respectively !! >>
Thanks Sunnywood for the clarification.
<< <i>Is it now the most valuable US coin on a dollars per grading point basis? >>
I think so, as well as Dollars per Fave Value!
<< <i>Is it now the most valuable US coin on a dollars per grading point basis? >>
No. Any coin worth 7 times as much [and there are a few] would beat it.
<< <i>I think so, as well as Dollars per Fave Value! >>
Again, no - there are several cents and half cents worth more.
<< <i>
<< <i>I think so, as well as Dollars per Fave Value! >>
Again, no - there are several cents and half cents worth more. >>
But I think this one sets the record at auction... have any half cents sold for more than $600k???
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 700
<< <i>Who really cares about auction records - that's just a function of what comes up for sale when. There's no doubt what the most expensive copper coins are: the Eliasberg No Pole half cent and the Stellar specimen Chain Cent. Either of those two would break this coin's price - I would pay that sum sight unseen for either. >>
I wonder what happened to the Eliasberg no pole-- bought by Spectrum for $506K in 1996 (a record price for an early American copper, it is my understanding that was the first time a US copper coin sold publicly for more than $100K). I haven't seen it since.
<< <i>Eliasberg No Pole half cent and the Stellar specimen Chain Cent >>
I think I've seen pictures of these coins, but I don't remember them. Does anyone have pics?
<< <i>Who really cares about auction records - that's just a function of what comes up for sale when. There's no doubt what the most expensive copper coins are: the Eliasberg No Pole half cent and the Stellar specimen Chain Cent. Either of those two would break this coin's price - I would pay that sum sight unseen for either. >>
You might round those out with that PCGS MS68RD Wreath.
<< <i>
<< <i>Eliasberg No Pole half cent and the Stellar specimen Chain Cent >>
I think I've seen pictures of these coins, but I don't remember them. Does anyone have pics? >>
Here's a little pic of the no pole
In person it has mint color.
Who is John Galt?
You can see Ira Goldberg calling the auction. Later when the camera pans, you can see John Wright and Jim McGuiggan.. The buyer is hidden by Lou Russera.
<< <i>This one would go for an ungodly price. >>
I have never seen this coin before, Wow, is all I can say.
roadrunner
<< <i>Was this the case of 2 collectors who just had to have it? For $1 MILL+ my shopping list for large cents would not include a VG variety regardless of how rare. But I can surmise that such a coin would mean a lot to very deep pocketed Sheldon collectors where completing a set means the world.
roadrunner >>
You have to play around with large cent varieties for a while before you become captured in their gravitational well. --Jerry
Hmmmm - you're not in the marketing department, are you ........
Sugar magnolia blossoms blooming, heads all empty and I don't care ...
<< <i>Just curious. I have a low grade star reverse. Is there a halo effect from this particular auction that is rising all ships of large cent copper? >>
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