A full suite of numismatic auctions by Heritage Auction Galleries - U.S. coins, U.S. Currency, ancients & world coins, and tokens & medals - at the Long Beach Coin Expo have produced results of $34.8 million thus far, with Post-Auction sells expected to push the total well above $35 million. U.S. coins realized $16.5 million, U.S. Currency added $12.9 million, ancients & world coins are nearing $5 million, and tokens & medals contributed another half million dollars. Heritage’s Long Beach Signature® Auctions were held September 17-21, 2008. Complete auction results are now posted on Heritage’s HA.com website, including full-color images, descriptions, and prices realized for all of the Long Beach lots.

“Among the gold rarities included in the Long Beach auction,” commented Heritage President Greg Rohan, “we were especially pleased with the performance of Lot 3571, an 1879 $4 stella (Judd-1635, Pollock-1833) with Flowing Hair, certified by NGC as PR65 Cameo, which realized $204,125, a 1929 $20 certified by PCGS as MS66, with CAC approval, which realized $184,000, and a 1927-S $20, certified PCGS MS65, which realized $161,000. The pair of 1839-O Capped Bust, Reeded Edge Proof half dollars also excited bidders; Lot 2164: PR63 NGC, realized $149,500, and Lot 2163: PR62 NGC, brought $63,250. In spite of the turbulent week on Wall Street, the results of the Long Beach auction demonstrates that collectors are still very excited about numismatic items!”

“One of the most fascinating rarities in the auction,” concluded Rohan, “the newly discovered error 1831 quarter eagle struck on a dime planchet (Lot 3227) realized $46,000. Not a bad return for an item purchased as junk silver! Incidentally, our pre-auction publicity resulted in another well-circulated quarter eagle struck on a dime planchet coming into our offices — and of another date! We are in the process of authentication research, but we certainly expect numismatists to be more carefully examining their worn early dimes in the future!”

The anchor consignments in the U.S. coin catalog were: The Nora Bailey Collection; The Bell Collection; The Davis Conway Collection; The Morton J. Greene Collection; The Hamous Collection of California Gold; The Laredo Collection; The Malibu Collection; The Mississippi Collection; The Menlo Park Collection; The Nevada Collection of Seated Quarters; and The Sundance Collection. (more…)

In the upcoming September Long Beach auction, Heritage Currency will be offering a complete paper money proof design collection for both the Kingdom and the Republic of Hawaii.

This is the largest offering of Hawaii proofs since the 1990 auction of the ABNCo archives. Proofs are the only realistic way to collect notes from this exotic locale as issued notes are unpriced in the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money.

These proofs were originally housed in the same printer’s binder and thus they share many characteristics. They have been printed on India paper, cut down to the size of the design, and mounted on a 9 by 11 inch card stock-like, type-written dated binder page. In all but a couple of cases, the issued stub is present. The face and back proofs are mounted on the same binder page except in two instances. The binder page also has behind it an interleaved page that was manufactured at the Crane & Co. paper mill in Dalton, Massachusetts.

The face vignettes are for the most part ranching, commercial sailing, and railroading with the occasional Hawaii specific vignette. Each face proof has from two to four punch cancels as is normal for proof notes. The punch cancels are only through the India paper and not the card stock. Also, the faces have the denomination in both English and Hawaiian.

Each back proof carries the Hawaiian Coat of Arms which includes two men in feathered cloaks and helmets flanking the shield. They are said to be the twins Kameeiamoku and Kamanawa, who helped Kamehameha I unify the islands in 1810. The motto “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono” (”The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”) is written on a sash under the scene. Two slightly different versions of the Coat of Arms are depicted depending if the note was printed during the monarchy or later during the republic era.

All in all, these are historical and important notes that exhibit some of the finest of the engraver’s art. Also, do not let the abundance of Hawaiian riches in this auction fool you in to believing that these notes are commonly available. These notes have been off the market for over a generation and it might be that long again before another opportunity arises.

The 1872-S ranks among the most challenging Motto Seated quarters.

Larry Briggs, in The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Quarters, offers brief comments on the issue: “Rarest ‘S’ mint. Rare and very hard to locate in any condition. Most probably melted in 1873 creating a far greater demand than supply.”

The original production of 83,000 pieces is consistent with the yearly nominal mintages for quarters at San Francisco between 1866 and 1872, the first years for the Motto Above Eagle, No Arrows design variant. Passage of the Act of February 12, 1873, resulted in numerous changes to American coinage, one of which was a slight increase in the weights of the dime, quarter, and half dollar. San Francisco did not issue any old-tenor quarters in that year; in addition, any quarters of previous years still on hand were likely melted and recoined to the new standard. Such melting could explain why the 1872-S is less available today than other issues with lower published mintages.

When this coin sold as part of the second sale of the Norweb Collection in March 1988, the cataloging staff described it as ” … unsurpassed by any other example we have ever seen or heard of.”

Three years later, Larry Briggs specifically referred to this remarkable coin as the finest known survivor in his Comprehensive Encyclopedia. Just 40 examples of the 1872-S quarter appear in the combined certified populations of NGC and PCGS, with 18 coins graded by the former firm and 22 by the latter. These figures likely include resubmissions and crossovers, further narrowing the pool of unimpaired survivors. (more…)

Heritage Auction Galleries, the world’s third largest auction, has announced that their count of registered bidder-members in their online community at HA.com has now reached and surpassed 400,000 collectors.”Heritage first began registering bidder-members in February of 1999,” calculated Heritage Co-Chairman Jim Halperin. “Some five years later, at the end of 2003, we were thrilled to have reached the level of 100,000 registered bidder-members. Two years later, at the end of 2005, we reached the 200,000 registered bidder-members mark. A little more than a year later, we passed 300,000 registered bidder-members, and now, after a similar short period, our HA.com collector community has more than 400,000 members. This is an incredibly exciting time for the auction business, and the wide array of material we bring to our bidders makes the entire market more vibrant.”

“We attribute our steady, impressive growth to both the services and items we offer on the HA.com website,” added Michael Weems, Heritage’s Vice President of eCommerce. “Our accelerated growth can be attributed to the high quality items we offer, a wide range of free valuation information with every lot (including over 2 million previous prices realized records in our Permanent Auction Archives), a commitment to technological innovation, and our reputation for dealing with integrity. Applying these principles to new areas of collectibles and art has fueled our growth over the past decade, as well as creating many new opportunities and collecting interests for our clients.”