Welcome to Rarities Night 2019! What a great event to put the frosting on the cake for our series of auctions at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money. The eyes of the numismatic world will join you as you contemplate our Rarities Night presentation. Since our first Rarities Night years ago, a parade of the finest of the fine, the rarest of the rare coins has created a lot of excitement. This event opens after the Anthony J. Taraszka Collection of Early Eagles crosses the block—one of the most significant offerings of the present century.
One special characteristic of Stack’s Bowers Galleries sales over the years is that consignors with extensive holdings have been so delighted with our presentations that they have kept coming back with more consignments—a rare situation in the auction world. The Norweb family, the Eliasberg family, the Bass family, D. Brent Pogue, and Joel Anderson are part of a long list. I like to think this is because while we expend effort to acquire consignments, that is just the beginning of what we do. Much more time is spent on showcasing what is entrusted to us for sale. In recent months I have enjoyed working with what I call the Dream Team, a staff including some of the leading experts in numismatics.
In this vein now comes another “encore” consignment, more from the Collection of Samuel Berngard. This includes an impressive selection of private and territorial gold coins and patterns – over 30 different specimens across 12 different issuers, including the most prominent names of the Gold Rush era as well as the most elusive. Additionally, most of the rarities presented rank among the finest known for the varieties.
The E. Horatio Morgan Collection holds many treasures, including in this sale a 1792 disme pattern, the famous 1894-S dime rarity (one of the greatest American classics), the similarly spectacular 1876-CC twenty-cent piece, a beautiful 1879 Flowing Hair $4 gold Stella and, would you believe it?—over 100 patterns.
More Rarities Sale Highlights
We could call this “Gold Night” for there are many other gold treasures as well. The A & A Saints Collection of Saint-Gaudens design double eagles from 1907 onward includes landmark rarities in ultra-grades, some hard to believe, such as MS-66+ specimens of 1908-S, 1922-S, and 1930-S. This collection ranks as No. 5 All-Time Finest in the PCGS registry! The E.S.S. Collection follows the golden path with such highlights as an 1839 half eagle in Proof format, the rare 1929 half eagle, a certified Proof MCMVII (1907) double eagle, and more.
The Maurice Snow Collection was formed starting in the 1950s and includes many fresh-to-market gold coins including the historical 1848 CAL. and Proof-only 1863 quarter eagles among other highlights. The Dr. Andrew Mitchell Collection is also rich with federal and territorial gold. The Rosie Collection of high-grade type coins necessarily includes key gold issues.
We honor the memory of our fine dealer friend Jay Cline, specialist in Standing Liberty quarters, with a biographical sketch and by featuring some of his treasures in Rarities Night and also our regular catalog. Among the featured pieces, his 1916 Standing Liberty quarter, mounted in a frame with presentation letter dated January 11, 1917 from the designer Hermon A. MacNeil, to his uncle, Walter Pratt will cross the block. Here is something that no amount of money could buy once it is sold, unless the new owner wants to take a profit.
What else to mention? As you are holding the catalog in your hands or viewing it on screen you know that to give a sentence or two about the highlights would take a half hour or more to read! I will touch upon a selection:
The ESM Collection is a complete presentation of Proof Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents—with Gems of the landmark 1856 and 1864 With L. If you want to add to a great collection or start one, be on your toes for this! The Hawks Hill Collection offers Morgan silver dollars—the most numismatically popular 19th century series.
Specialists in series from colonial and early American coins through key series of the 20th century will find a lot to like, starting with two Sommer Islands coins, continuing into the federal series and more. From this smorgasbord I mention a superb Gem Proof 1867 With Rays nickel, a Specimen-68 1964 Kennedy half dollar, a 1794 silver dollar, later dollars including an 1836 Gobrecht and a 1921 Satin Proof Peace, rare $3 dates, and more. I must not forget to mention the Harris & Marchand gold ingot from the 2014 find of S.S. Central America gold coins and ingots. I had the first choice of the ingots and picked this prize. If I were not 80 years old I would buy more from the greatest American gold treasure ever found.
Plan to Participate!
If you plan to come to attend the World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, the red carpet will be rolled out for you! Welcome to lot viewing, our Rarities Night and other sales, and to the coin convention of the year. It was back in 1935 that we (Stack’s) had our first public auction and it was in 1939 that we had our first ANA sale—followed by a long line of others. At the 1939 event many of our friends and clients also visited the New York World’s Fair. We struck a special store card for the event.
If you are staying at home—good news for you. Using our dynamic Internet site you can participate in virtual reality on your computer or even on your phone or tablet. In real time you can watch our auctioneer at the podium, see the item being offered, and use the enticing “Bid!” button! With advance preparation with us you can also arrange to bid by telephone on important lots. Whether you live in San Diego, Old Orchard Beach, Ste. Croix, Moscow, or Le Havre, you will be “here.” It is amazing how worldwide our auctions have become in recent years. In fact, today in 2019 bidders in real time on the Internet vastly outnumber those attending in person in the gallery. More people worldwide participate in our auctions than ever before.
Thinking of Selling?
There are many fine auction houses in America and elsewhere in the world. Among these I consider Stack’s Bowers Galleries to be particularly distinctive—as our staff spends far more time finessing and showcasing consignments than it does seeking them. This often involves extensive research, bringing to our clients information not readily available in any other single source. The series of 24 John J. Ford, Jr. sales (that realized the precise total of $63,052,197.38) will forever echo in the halls of numismatics, as will our D. Brent Pogue Collection sales that set a world’s record, and by far, when it sold for over $106 million. Behind the scenes I work with the staff, writing many descriptions and editing others. All of us have one common goal: to provide the absolute best presentation for your numismatic items to our worldwide network of proven bidders, in order to bring you the best possible results.
Looking ahead, our staff is busy with forthcoming auctions including at the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Winter Expo in November, as well as events planned for 2020. I invite you to share in our success and consign your coins, paper money, tokens or medals to an upcoming Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction. To do this, contact us at (800) 458-4646 for our West Coast office, (800) 566-2580 for our East Coast office, or email us at info@stacksbowers.com.
Again, welcome to Rarities Night.
Q. David Bowers
Co-founder, Stack’s Bowers Galleries
