Dallas, TX: An extremely rare medal minted circa 1801 will be sold in Heritage’s 61st Official September Long Beach Signature Auction. The special Tokens and Medals auction will be held September 28-29 at the Long Beach Convention Center.

“Heritage is especially excited about this important discovery,” noted Heritage President Greg Rohan. “The 1801 Emancipator of America medal, Baker-83, is rarity-ranked as a low R.8. For decades, numismatic researchers have known of only two examples of the medal, which was struck circa 1801. The first of those resides permanently in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the second was sold in 2004 in the John J. Ford, Jr. sale. This previously unreported third piece was purchased through a private transaction with a numismatic firm in London, and has been impounded in the same collection since 1957. Once the Ford example was sold, collectors had virtually no hopes of obtaining one.”

Russell Rulau and George Fuld described this issue in their Medallic Portraits of Washington (1999); their illustration, the holed and gilt example from the John J. Ford Collection, still realized $11,500 in 2004. The obverse features a right-facing bust of GEORGE WASHINGTON, while on the reverse the Angel of Fame, blowing her trumpet, flies above an olive and oak wreath containing EMANCIPATOR OF AMERICA. (more…)

Jack Suneson bought a downtown property on Commerce Street thinking it was a good spot for tourists to part with their money. But someone had already parted with a stockpile of coins at the site — nearly 130 years ago. Suneson is a businessman from Nuevo Laredo who owns Marti’s, a Mexican arts and crafts store. On Monday, a construction crew was digging up dirt to lay a foundation for Suneson’s new store at 310 W. Commerce St. A backhoe uncovered about 200 U.S. quarters, half dollars and silver dollars dating between 1852 and 1880. The crew also found a gold coin from that era

The United States Mint displayed for the first time 12 gold proof Sacagawea Golden Dollars that flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in July 1999. United States Mint Director Ed Moy unveiled the coins at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money® in Milwaukee, Wisconsin today. The coins traveled nearly two million miles as the shuttle orbited the Earth. They will remain on display at the United States Mint booth # 1201 through Sunday, August 12.