Spanish Coins Face Stealth Sale by Secret Museum, Frank Lorenzo Is Said to Change Hispanic Society of America

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, in NYC: News Analysis

NEW YORK, August 6 — Under a leaking ceiling on 155th Street in West Harlem, paintings by Goya and Velasquez hang in near obscurity in the Hispanic Society of America. Surrounded by the vacant shells left by museums which have decamped to lower Manhattan, and with controversial airline investor Frank Lorenzo now taking a leading role on the board of trustees, the Hispanic Society has taken to selling off the treasures collected by its founder, Archer Milton Huntington. Last year a 13th century Koran was sold in London.

On August 6, Sotheby’s began cataloguing for immanent auction a collection of 38,000 coins which Huntington lent to the American Numismatic Society. The HSA’s board of trustees have assumed unfettered discretion to under-promote, under-protect and ultimately sell off Huntington’s collection, in a process some analogize to Lorenzo’s treatment of airlines during his heyday.

“This is to cry,” a Spanish art lover sighed during a recent visit. It didn’t have to be this way — and the coin sale could still be stopped. Potential bidders should be aware of the history, particularly how the sale may run counter to not only the spirit but also the letter of Huntington’s intent.

Despite Huntington’s transfer of the coins to the American Numismatic Society being described as a “permanent” loan, the HSA has fought and litigated to regain the coins, but only for the purpose of selling them, not for display. In early 2007, the HSA drafted a Loan Agreement which gave it the right to cancel Huntington’s transfer. In response to persistent questions from the New York correspondent of the Madrid newspaper La Razon, HSA management denied the intent to sell the coins. But in a contemporaneous series of court filings and letters to the New York State Attorney General viewed by Inner City Press, the HSA refers to its board of trustee’s January 23, 2008 resolution to “deaccession” the collection — museum terminology for selling off. Then Sotheby’s today began cataloguing the coins for sale.

During an August 6 visit to the American Numismatic Society’s new location at 75 Varrick Street, Inner City Press observed a team from Sotheby’s and a spin-off company specializing in coin sales, Morton & Eden, preparing to catalogue the coins, which number 38,000. A sworn affidavit by Sotheby’s David Redden spells out the auction house’s demands during the cataloguing process: a separate, carpeted room to which they will have their own key, Internet access and, strangely, the right to bring in their own food. Once catalogued, the coins will be sold the highest bidders. Pending a legislative proposal in New York State, A995A, which would limit the uses of “deaccession” profits, the Lorenzo-led Hispanic Society of America could put the proceeds to any use whatsoever. (more…)

By Doug Winter - RareGoldCoins.com

Being an eternal realist when it comes to the coin market, I wasn’t expecting this year’s ANA show to be a good one; let alone a great one. With the unrelentingly bad economic news in the United States (let alone the world) it seemed inevitable to me that most collectors would be slowing down. As usual, I was wrong. This year’s ANA was outstanding for me and many of the dealers that I spoke to (and who I trust) told me that it was a great show for them as well.

The show began for me with the Stack’s sale of the S.S. New York shipwreck on Sunday. I had a feeling these coins would go strong, given the fact that the quality was far nicer than other shipwreck coins and the quantity was smaller. I expected that the typical “shipwreck premium” would be about 15-25%. In some cases this was true but in most, the premium was substantially higher; especially in the case of lower value coins that were being bought for their “knick-knack” appeal.

There were a few very important coins in the hoard and certainly among the best was the highest graded 1845-D quarter eagle, an NGC MS64. It sold to a very knowledgeable dealer for $63,250 which I thought was quite strong. Other Dahlonega coins in the sale went very strongly as well. Notable prices included $18,400 for an 1839-D half eagle in NGC AU58, $31,050 for an 1840-D half eagle in NGC MS62 and $51,750 for an 1842-D Large Date half eagle in NGC MS61.

Some outstanding New Orleans gold was featured and it brought remarkable prices. An NGC MS64 1844-O half eagle sold for $28,750, an NGC MS63* 1845-O half eagle brought $43,125, an impressive 1844-O eagle in NGC MS63 sold for a record $63,250 and an NGC MS62 1845-O eagle was bid to $54,625. (more…)

Market Report by Laura Sperber - Legend Numismatics

This is a very difficult market report to write. We know what we did, what kind of business others did, we participated in all the auctions, yet we can not pinpoint exactly what is happening or where the market is headed. We also do NOT want people to think we are presenting hype.

From what we see, this may very well have been the BEST ANA Show ever in terms of business transacted overall, the strongest prices realized at the auctions, incredible displays, and from what we can see, strong attendance. All that created what we felt was a tremendous “buzz’ and nothing but positive attitudes. None of the dealers we spoke to had a bad show. All the tables seemed very busy most of the time the show was open. We know from start to finish we did an awful lot of business.

We arrived late to show. This year, we skipped all PRE ANA activities and only was at PNG day for an hour or two. Of course we were itching to make some sales. The first dealer we saw not only spent six figures with us, but bought a six figure coin without any chisel other than some terms. Not totally unusual, but its the kind of thing that when you have that happen at the very start, the rest of your show is usually kaput. Fortunately, we sold a lot to the next dealer we saw that day as well. From that point on, we never stopped selling.

The one thing we absolutely could not do-buy. Our purchases at this show are the lowest EVER for an ANA and possibly the smallest EVER for ANY major show. As of 5 PM Thursday afternoon, we had spent LESS than $100,000.00 on the bourse floor. Our buying at the auctions was substantial-but still below the levels we wanted to be at.

It has finally happened, the market is out of coins-sort of! If you wanted a junky widget-they were still around. You could not go out on the floor and buy a GEM Bust Half, a GEM early gold piece, an MS65 28S Peace Dollar, a GEM 1877 MS Indian, or that long sought after non 1926/1932 $10 Indian we still need in GEM. All the good stuff now either gets put in the back of dealers cases or gets thrown in the auction. We put out a $20 1870CC PCGS XF40 CAC piece late morning Thursday. An hour or so later, not only did we have it sold to a collector (it worth in excess of $300,000.00), we had THREE other people who were willing to commit to buy it (with two of them actually hovering behind the collector) as he was buying it. We sold several six figure coins Thursday (including a $1 1863 PCGS MS66 and monster 1891 PR set in which all the coins we PR68’s). (more…)

By Kathleen Duncan for Pinnacle-Rarities

That is the question. The Collector’s Acceptance Corporation was founded by John Albanese, one of the industry’s top experts. His goal is to address the problem of low-end certified coins dragging down the bid levels. While PCGS and NGC do an excellent job, both have been grading coins for over 20 years. Inconsistencies are inevitable, resulting in coins that probably shouldn’t be in their stated holder. These problem coins are difficult to sell, becoming a large percentage of the available product on the market and suppressing bid levels. For example, if a Barber 50c in PCGS PR67 sells in auction for $5000, it probably is not a particularly pleasing coin, but CCDN (AKA the Bluesheet) picks up this bid. We would probably charge over $7500 for an attractive and properly graded PR67.

Are some coins worth 50% more than others in the same holder?
Yes. One of CAC’s goals is to establish a market for those premium quality coins and post bids for coins with their sticker of approval. PCGS and NGC are of equal value, if CAC approved.

Should you purchase CAC coins exclusively?
No. This would unnecessarily limit your buying options, as only a small percentage of the coins graded by PCGS and NGC (the two services CAC recognizes) have been submitted. Also consider CAC is offering an opinion, just like PCGS and NGC have done. If you had different numismatic experts grading at CAC, would different coins get approved? Absolutely. A particular mark or variety of toning may disturb some numismatic experts and not others. Grading is exceptionally subjective, and collecting is a highly personal experience. There is simply no substitute for viewing the coin in hand.

Should you send your coins to CAC?
Maybe. If you are planning on selling them at auction, it’s not a bad idea. Due to the number of online and phone bidders, a CAC approved coin may realize a higher price than an equally nice non-CAC one. This seems especially true of NGC material. If you are planning on selling them privately, not unless the dealer you work with will pay more for CAC approved coins. For most dealers this is not the case. If selling is not in your immediate plans, reassess the market in the future. If CAC is a dominant market factor, their policies or stickers or any number of factors may have changed. (more…)

I had an interesting conversation with another coin dealer the other day. We were discussing what we are buying (and not buying) right now and he mentioned to me that, for the last few years, he has been primarily focused on buying only the key date coins in all series, even in such esoteric areas as Charlotte and Dahlonega gold.

Focusing on keys has been a great strategy in mainstream series such as Barber coins or Morgan dollars. Issues like the 1901-S quarter and the 1893-S dollar have clearly outperformed the rest of the market during the last six to nine years. This got me to thinking: is this performance also the same in the market areas in which I specialize? To determine this I decided to select a small group of key dates from each series and to then compare them with a “generic” date as a baseline. The results are interesting.

The first item I chose was the ever-popular 1861-D gold dollar. As a generic comparison, I selected an 1859-D gold dollar. The former is the key Type Three issue from this mint while the latter is one of the more common dates.

In June 2000 Heritage auctioned a PCGS AU55 example of the 1861-D gold dollar for $12,075. Today, a similarly graded 1861-D would probably fetch over $30,000. I think it’s a safe bet to say that this issue has at least doubled—if not tripled—in value since the beginning of the decade.

In comparison, an AU55 example of the 1859-D gold dollar in AU55 would bring around $3,750-4,000 at auction today. In looking back at auction records from the 2000-2002 era, I noted at least three AU55 coins selling for $3,000-3,300. The price growth of the 1859-D gold dollar has been marginal at best. This does not totally surprise me, given that the Dahlonega market is very collector-oriented and that this sort of market is generally skewed towards rare dates or “neat” specific coins.

(NOTE: An important factor that I am not going to delve deeply into here is gradeflation. Even though the 1859-D gold dollar in AU55 appears to have experienced little price growth in the last decade, it is likely that coins sold as AU55 in 2002 are, by today’s standards, at least AU58; if not better. Gradeflation is, for many more common coins, what has caused the greatest amount of price increases). (more…)