The Vegas Collection Featured at Heritage’s Long Beach Auction
Filed Under: Auction News, Classic Rarities, Heritage Auction Galleries, US Coins
The collecting history behind the Vegas Collection starts out like many others, but then takes decidedly interesting twists! The consignor became interested in collecting coins at the age of eight, while living in Southern California. His mother supported his efforts, but the single-parent household had no extra funds for indulgences. His low-key collecting continued through high school, where working at the student store promised a continual flow of interesting coins to swap out. In his early adulthood, he moved to Las Vegas, and continued his searching through all of the silver dollars swirling around him. His finished his Morgan series and began to increase his sophistication in collecting.
Fueled by the explosive growth of Vegas, the commercial success of his business allowed for increased buying of rarities and the upgrading of his Morgans and other series. He might buy entire collections from other collectors, but when buying at auction would be more inclined to pursue rarities and more expensive coins, and he began to focus on the eagle and double eagle series. Over the years, as he explains it, “the collector became an investor.”
One of the prime highlights in the collection is a 1920-S $20 MS64 PCGS. In 1920, the mints in both Philadelphia and San Francisco struck double eagles, the first since the production of the 1916-S coins. Philadelphia produced roughly a quarter-million coins, while San Francisco made more than a half-million. But while the 1920-P is common up to the MS64 level, the 1920-S is rare in all grades. Today, it is considered a classic rarity in a series that abounds with them. Unlike some later dates where repatriations from overseas have replenished the supplies of once-rare issues, no hordes of 1920-S coins have ever been discovered in international holdings. One of the latest references on the Saint-Gaudens series, David Akers’ Handbook of 20th Century United States Gold Coins, proposes:
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“We’ve put together a very strong, marvelously focused auction,” said Warren Tucker, Director of World Coins at Heritage Auction Galleries. “After spending a great amount of time gathering and cataloging these coins it’s very gratifying to see the great auction quality we’ve produced for this event. Even better, there are coins in here for collectors of all types and all levels.”
“We have four fine collections anchoring this auction,” said Dustin Johnston, Currency Consignment Director at Heritage, “all of which, taken together, offer an excellent survey of American Currency from the Colonial era through current Federal Issues. We’re quite excited to offer these great examples.”












