The world’s largest private transaction involving a rare coin collection has been brokered by Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey on behalf of a Western states collector who purchased an extensive collection of United States pattern coins.

“The collection contains more than 1,000 pattern coins including the unique 1872 Amazonian gold set. The total purchase price for the collection was in excess of $30 million. That shatters the record for the largest private sale of one person’s collection ever reported in numismatic history,” said Laura Sperber, a partner in Legend.

The seller wants to remain anonymous. The buyer, who is only identified as “Mr. Simpson,” will merge his current pattern collection with the new purchase and rename it the “Simpson Pattern Collection.”

“Mr. Simpson has been quietly building collections of the finest and prettiest coins through Legend for the past five years. He’s a connoisseur for coins with eye-appeal, and he’s become one of the greatest collectors of our generation,” said Sperber.

No specific venues or dates have been selected yet, but Simpson and Legend Numismatics plan to publicly exhibit some of the pattern pieces at various coin shows around the country.

Simpson now has the only complete collection of Amazonian pattern coins in all metals: gold, copper, aluminum and gilt. The impressive pedigree of the six gold coins includes former U.S. Treasury Secretary William Woodin; news media executive F.C.C. Boyd; Egyptian King Farouk; numismatic researcher and patterns reference book author Dr. J. Hewitt Judd; noted patterns collector Dr. John E. Wilkison; and industrialist Ed Trompeter. The denominations of the unique gold coins are $1; $2.50 (Quarter Eagle); $3; $5 (Half Eagle); $10 (Eagle); and $20 (Double Eagle). (more…)

A unique sample book of Russian bank note proofs grabbed the top honors in the H.R. Harmer Inc. Oct. 17 to 19 auction of material originally from the American Bank Note Co. archives.

The album sold for $70,000 including the 15 percent buyer’s fee. The bid helped hoist the total auction prices realized over the million dollar mark at $1,103,683.70, according to Dr. Robert Schwartz, a New York City dentist who has been in the paper money, stamps and scrip-ophily (the study and collecting of canceled stocks and bonds) businesses for 20 years, and who wrote the catalog for this auction.

The sample album, circa 1910 to 1920, includes rare bank notes on the first seven pages and additional loose bank note back proofs and vignettes mounted on card. The overall condition of the book and its contents ranges from About Uncirculated to Uncirculated with minor edge faults on one or two items, according to the catalog. [Full Article] (more…)

The ever-popular penguin is popping up in movies and even on coins, but alas the tuxedoed birds never naturally venture beyond the Southern Hemisphere.

For the collector who has enjoyed penguin-themed movies like The March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, or Berke Breathed’s comic strip Opus, a variety of penguin designs can be found on coinage issues from several countries including Austria, the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Gibraltar, South Africa and the Isle of Man. Capturing a penguin for a collection is as doable as an Internet search or thumbing through a recent copy of The Standard Catalog of World Coins by Chester Krause and Clifford Mishler.

Worldwide, 17 species of the flightless bird belong to the Spheniscidae family, according to the Pobjoy Mint, a private mint that has produced penguin coinage for clients. Read Full Story

As a general rule, modern proof error coins are scarce. There are several reasons for this. The requirements of special production hinder the number and types of errors that can occur. For one, during production of proof coinage, dies are frequently replaced and, therefore, many of the errors associated with late-state die failure seldom occur. Also, proof coins are placed into special packaging which means that any aberrantly shaped error coin will likely be discovered at the packaging stage. And last, the Mint employs an exceptionally high level of quality control surrounding the production of proof coinage.

NGC did, however, receive a Proof Presidential $1 error coin almost as soon as we began receiving submissions. Surprisingly, this was a relatively dramatic and scare type of error, a coin struck from nonparallel dies also called horizontally misaligned dies. This type of error occurs when the dies are not level with each other during striking. The result is a “wedge-shaped” coin. The misalignment also creates a gap between the collar and the dies. During striking, metal will flow into that gap forming an enlarged and distorted, raised rim or flange. A handful of similar errors of this type have been seen by NGC. Read Full Story