Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC announced this week that their seventh Treasure Auction on April 7-9 realized $1.37 million (including buyer’s fees, same for all prices quoted here) and over 94% of the 2160 lots sold, well exceeding the pre-auction estimate.

“Our latest auction proves that world coins and treasure items are still strong,” said Daniel Sedwick, company principal and founder, “and that we achieve consistent results. This is our second auction in a row that reached over $1 million with a 94% sell-through rate, which is remarkable and a testament to the hard work we put in, both to get great consignments and to do what it takes to sell them all.”

Sedwick also pointed out that many sections like shipwreck coins were complete sell outs and brought record prices, particularly the Karl Goodpaster estate of 1715 Fleet silver coins. Gold cobs, as always, fetched strong prices, with the two featured Peruvian specimens from the Frank Sedwick estate realizing $19,550 (8 escudos 1712) and $18,400 (4 escudos 1711, finest known). Perhaps the most interesting coin in the sale was a Mexican cob 1 escudo from the 1715 Fleet that was flown to the moon aboard Apollo 14, and that coin brought $8,625. Most of the money, however, was in gold and silver ingots, including the highest priced lot in the whole auction, a naturally coral-encrusted “clump” of two complete gold bars from a mid-1500s Spanish wreck that brought $112,125. Many museum-quality artifacts sold for up to 5 times the high estimates.

Sedwick’s assistant Augi Garcia pointed to several unique factors for the success of their auction, including video lot viewing and illustration of all lots, but particularly the concept of live bidding via the Internet:

“People love bidding online, at their computer, in the comfort of their own home or office, even from their iPhone. At times we had more people actively bidding online than you see on the floor of a typical world-coins auction at a major coin show.”

A very strong online thrust via the Sedwick website as well as the bidding platform iCollector attracted over 25% new bidders from around the world. Also of benefit was lot viewing at the Baltimore show in March.

Consignments pledged or already received for Sedwick’s Treasure Auction #8 in October (consignment deadline July 31) indicate that it will be another big event, with still more improvements and innovations in store.

“Our goal is constant improvement through technological innovation, while retaining good old-fashioned personal service,” says Sedwick, “and that formula is hard to beat.” (more…)

A decade after its first appearance, the precedent-setting “Ship of Gold” display showcasing California Gold Rush-era sunken treasure recovered from the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America was again docked in Long Beach, California.

The $10 million exhibit was publicly displayed during the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo in February, marking its 10th anniversary.

“The ‘Ship of Gold’ exhibit is out of dry dock” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman. “The eye-opening display on the convention center floor is housed in a specially-constructed 40-foot long representation of the famous ship’s hull. This will be the first public appearance of the ‘Ship of Gold’ exhibit anywhere in the country in six years.”

The exhibit is courtesy of Monaco Rare Coins of Newport Beach and involved months of work to coordinate the display with collectors who privately own and now have generously loaned many of the items for the exhibit, according to Adam Crum, Monaco Vice President.
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In three sessions, Wednesday-Friday, April 7-9, 2010

As usual our latest Treasure Auction is full of surprises, but this time we feel it is also very well balanced across many fields, with more general world coins than ever before. Here are some highlights:

In great deference to the Sedwick patriarch, for the first time ever we are offering selections from the Frank Sedwick study collection of 1715-Fleet gold cobs, including plate coins from past editions of the Practical Book of Cobs and other pieces never seen or offered for sale, coins that the pioneering “Dr. Cobs” kept as the best examples among thousands that passed through his hands.

The unique opportunity to own a “Frank Sedwick” specimen will start in this auction with just two 1715-Fleet masterpieces: The finest-known Lima 4 escudos 1711 and one of the best Lima 8 escudos 1712 ever offered.

In the same category of quality as Frank Sedwick’s 1715-Fleet gold cobs is a choice Cuzco cob 2 escudos 1698, a plate coin in Marty Meylach’s classic book Diving to a Flash of Gold.

But perhaps most intriguing in the gold cobs this time is a 1715-Fleet Mexican 1 escudo that was flown aboard Apollo 14 in 1971, the only one of its kind. Before this specially engraved coin came to us, we had no idea that the Apollo astronauts included genuine shipwreck treasure in their “flown” souvenirs on their trips to the moon, but apparently the link between NASA and the Real Eight Co. was more than just geographic. We have come to understand that medallions made of 1715-Fleet silver flown to the moon are very hot with space collectors, who will no doubt go crazy for this genuine coin as well, but perhaps the treasure collectors will win out in the end.

Highlights in shipwreck silver coins include large offerings of lion daalders from the Campen (1627), Potosí cobs from the Consolación (1681) and the Boticaria site of the 1681 Fleet off Panama (first-ever offering, also with some artifacts, with updated history), and hundreds of choice (and some interestingly shaped) 1715-Fleet Mexican cobs from the estate of Karl H. Goodpaster (Real Eight Co. conservator), as well as hundreds of Mexican cobs from the Rooswijk (1739). The Goodpaster collection in particular will be fun to watch, as nothing is hotter today than Fleet silver cobs! (more…)