Author: Stack's Bowers Galleries / March 18, 2020
Santa Ana, CA (March 18, 2020) - Session One of the Stack’s Bowers Galleries March 2020 Auction, showcasing exonumia through colonials, realized $650,622 on Wednesday, March 18 in California. The sell through rate based on the quantity of lots was 91%, with the sold lots achieving 104% of their total estimates which we set prior to the catalog going to print. Internet bidding was robust and, as expected, the volume was handled flawlessly by the firm’s online bidding technology, which has been recognized as best in class by the Numismatic Literary Guild.
“We were quite pleased with today’s results and appreciative of the support of collectors and dealers from around the world,” stated Brian Kendrella, company president.
Highlights were numerous starting with a stunning “1779” (Post 1887) General Anthony Wayne at Stony Point medal in copper in lot 10. Graded MS-66 BN (NGC) it brought $11,400. Lot 25 offered a beautiful middle-size George III Indian Peace medal in silver (ca. 1776-1812), graded Choice Extremely Fine that realized $7,800.
A Mint State 1889 Inaugural Centennial cast bronze medal by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Philip Martiny, pedigreed to the Richard Jewell Collection, garnered $3,840 in lot 63. An old friend crossed the block in lot 71,when an 1840 William Henry Harrison Campaign medal from the Garrett Collection brought $6,900. Also from the Richard Jewell Collection, lot 79 offered a 1909 Theodore Roosevelt Portrait autographed by Charles Doolittle Walcott and the Charles Doolittle Walcott Prize medal and realized $3,840. A spectacular two-sided decorative plaque with the Signing of the Declaration of Independence on one side and the text of the Declaration on the other went to a new home at $5,040 (lot 161).
Among United States Assay Commission medals from the Richard Jewell Collection, a 1916 silver medal by George T. Morgan with the edge incuse WOODROW WILSON realized $9,600 in lot 219 while the 1932/31 bronze medal by John R. Sinnock and Adam Pietz in MS-69 (NGC) sold for $4,560 (lot 236). The magnificent 1976 National Bicentennial large-format Gold medal graded MS-69 (NGC) in lot 280 went to a very happy collector at $28,800. The gold 1898 City of Albany Medal in Recognition of Service in the Spanish-American War, graded SP-64 (PCGS), brought $7,800 (lot 306).
Among other important numismatic Americana was a ca. 1811-1815 Planter’s Bank counterstamp on a cut down ¼ section of a Spanish American 8 Reales found in lot 344. This AU-55 example, pedigreed to the collections of Colonel James W. Ellsworth and John Work Garrett, sold for $15,600. The Garrett Collection was also featured in the pedigree of lot 354, an 1863 New York, New York silver token of J.L. Bode Birdstuffer (Fuld-630H-1fo) that realized $7,800.
As the sale moved into colonial coins, state coppers came to the fore as a 1786 Connecticut copper, Miller 2.2-D.2, graded Fine-15 (PCGS) and pedigreed to the Robert M. Martin Collection brought $9,000 in lot 404. Lot 410, also from the Martin Collection, offered a 1787 Connecticut copper. Miller 1.1-VV graded Fine-12 (PCGS) that realized $9,000. In lot 436, a Rarity-7+ 1786 New Jersey copper, Maris 24-M, Wide Shield, was bid all the way to $45,600.
The Stack’s Bowers Galleries March 2020 Auction will continue with live auction sessions featuring United States coins and currency March 19 and 20, as well as Internet-Only sessions of exonumia, colonial and U.S. coins and paper money March 23-25. For more information visit StacksBowers.com or contact the firm at 800-566-2580 or Info@StacksBowers.com.
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.
