SANTA ANA, CA. (October 4, 2016) — Stack’s Bowers Galleries is pleased to announce Part V of their series of auctions featuring the D. Brent Pogue Collection—the most valuable rare coin collection ever to cross the auction block, and the collection with the highest overall quality. Gathered over a period of many years, dating back to the 1970s, many if not most of the coins have been off the market for decades. Virtually without exception, each coin is the very finest of its kind or is among the top several.
The D. Brent Pogue Collection Part V sale will be held with Sotheby’s at the Carriage House of the beautiful Evergreen Museum & Library on North Charles Street in Baltimore, Maryland on Friday evening, March 31, 2017. It will again showcase the finest of the fine, the rarest of the rare.
This will be a dynamic part of one of the most important numismatic events of 2017. The Whitman Coins & Collectibles Expo, always one of the top conventions of the year, commences on Thursday and continues through Sunday. The Pogue coins will be on display at this popular event. Come to Baltimore early, enjoy the show, and plan to participate as a buyer or consignor in the Stack’s Bowers suite of auctions held in conjunction with the convention. Consignments to this event are welcome! This is your opportunity to showcase your important holdings alongside the most valuable collection ever assembled.
The venue for the Pogue Collection Part V sale is numismatically meaningful. By arrangement with the Johns Hopkins University, the event will be held where T. Harrison Garrett and his son Ambassador John Work Garrett lived and formed one of the finest collections of coins ever assembled in the United States. Both of Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ predecessor firms, Stack’s and Bowers and Ruddy, sold the United States coins in a series of record-breaking auctions from 1976 to 1981 (with the Pogue family being among the bidders and buyers).
The Evergreen Museum & Library and its collections were willed to the Johns Hopkins University by John Work Garrett in 1942. Among the many treasures of its library are a rare full set of John J. Audubon’s double elephant-folio of The Birds of America, the first four Folios of Shakespeare, and a set of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The art includes works by Picasso and Modigliani, as well as spectacular collections of Japanese and Chinese works of art. It is a rare honor, indeed absolutely unique, to have this portion of the highest-quality collection of American coins sold where one of the greatest collection formed in the 19th and early 20th centuries was assembled.
The auction will commence with half cents, continuing the earlier presentation of this popular series, beginning this time with the year 1800 and continuing into the 1850s. Included is one of the finest 1802/0 rarities known to exist, along with Choice and Gem dates and varieties of the early 19th century. The finest known 1811, an Ultra Gem, is in good company with a Gem Mickley restrike of the same date. Then follow a number of Proof-only rarities from the 1830s onward.
Large copper cents follow, beginning with three 1793 Liberty Caps, each AU. Cents of 1794 are next, with multiple Gem Mint State coins. Incredible! Cents of later years follow, all remarkable, crowned by the finest known example of the rarest date, the famous Henry Hines specimen of the 1799. Into the 19th century there are Gems and more Gems, including the 1817 with 15 stars, a Proof 1821, a Gem Mint State 1823, and a superb Gem 1839/6. No collection of large copper cents with such a high (by far) average quality has ever been sold at auction.
Half dimes follow, continuing an earlier offering, starting now with 1837 Liberty Seated No Star, a pair of MS-67 coins of each date size in company with an Ultra Gem Proof. Early Liberty Seated dimes, quarters, and half dollars are also memorable.
Silver dollars commence with the Draped Bust series and again include marvelous Mint State coins, a Proof 1802 Restrike, and one of the finest of the “King of American Coins,” the famous Dexter 1804 Class I, Proof-65 (PCGS).
The D. Brent Pogue Collection Part V will be presented and memorialized in a superb color-illustrated limited-edition catalog. After the sale a deluxe hardbound catalog with prices realized will be available. For order information stay tuned to the firm’s website stacksbowers.com.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries invites bidders, buyers, or interested observers to be a part of numismatic history as it being made. No collection like this has ever been sold before, and none like it will ever be sold again.
About Stack’s Bowers Galleries
Stack’s Bowers Galleries conducts live, Internet and specialized auctions of rare U.S. and world coins and currency and ancient coins, as well as direct sales through retail and wholesale channels. The company’s 80-year legacy includes the cataloging and sale of many of the most valuable United States coin and currency collections to ever cross an auction block — The D. Brent Pogue Collection, The John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, The Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, The Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection, The Norweb Collection, The Cardinal Collection and The Battle Born Collection — to name just a few. World coin and currency collections include The Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection of World Gold Coins, The Kroisos Collection, The Alicia and Sidney Belzberg Collection, The Wa She Wong Collection, The Guia Collection, The Thos. H. Law Collection, and The Robert O. Ebert Collection.
Topping off this amazing numismatic history is the inclusion of the world record for the highest price ever realized at auction for a rare coin, the 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar graded Specimen-66 (PCGS) that realized over $10 million, part of their sale of the famed Cardinal Collection. The company is headquartered in Santa Ana, California, with offices in New York, Wolfeboro, Hong Kong, and Paris. Stack’s Bowers Galleries is an Official Auctioneer for several important numismatic conventions, including American Numismatic Association events, the New York International Numismatic Convention, the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Spring, Summer and Winter Expos, and its April and August Hong Kong Auctions.
