by Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

On Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010, Heritage’s long awaited Platinum Night event at the FUN Convention in Orlando will include a marvelous array of choice and rare U.S. coins. It is part of a larger auction extravaganza that is held in conjunction with one of the two most important coin conventions of the year, that of the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) organization.

The famous collector Jay Brahin has consigned a select group of Saint Gaudens Double Eagles ($20 gold coins) to be sold on Platinum Night. The most valuable piece from the Brahin collection is a 1927-S Saint that is graded MS-66 by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).

Brahin’s consignment is of just seven coins, yet these are particularly significant. These seven constitute his entire current collection of Double Eagles and were very carefully selected by him. Jay reveals that he had “no intention of selling is coins, but I [Jay] am selling for personal reasons that are completely unrelated to coins or coin markets. I would have liked to have held these coins for a decade or more. Coins are art to me, and I am proud to have obtained these coins. I love the thrill of the hunt. Finding the coin is more gratifying than selling it.”

Brahin started “collecting coins as a kid.” He “filled coin albums with cents, nickels, dimes and quarters. During vacations, I [Jay] would work $20 in change several times over in one day, by going back and forth to the bank. Over the period of a summer day, I would go to a bank eight or nine times. It was fun. I loved it. I fell off the collecting wagon, but I never lost my love of coins.”

As a teenager, Brahin had other interests. Later in life, in 2002, Jay returned to coin collecting. He “always wanted to own a Saint when [he] was a kid.” So, he “turned to Saints.” Jay saw “Dr. Duckor’s Saint set on the PCGS registry, which was then blocked from view, but his e-mail address was briefly posted. I wrote to him and said I was an admirer of his Barber Half set; I inquired about his Saints. Later, we talked about the philosophy of collecting.” (more…)

Exactly five Indian cents are known on gold planchets, according to information available. Among them are three dated 1900, this piece dated 1905, and an example dated 1906.

The Judd pattern reference lists 1900 and 1907 gold cents in the section on mint errors. However, Andrew W. Pollock, III listed the 1900 gold Indian cents as P-1990 in the regular pattern section of his reference.

Pollock writes: “Listed in Judd as a mint error, but it is difficult to imagine that a Mint employee would be so careless as to feed gold planchets into a coinage press fitted with one-cent piece dies.” Pollock suggests that these pieces may have been deliberately struck for one or more collectors.

One example dated 1900 is also known in silver, from the identical dies as the 1900 gold Indian cents, suggesting they were all made at or near the same time. Rick Snow writes in A Guide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian Head Cents that “both the silver and gold examples are struck from the same dies, with light roughness on the reverse die, probably from die rust.” That all three 1900 pieces have higher weights suggests that they were specially made, perhaps without the knowledge of Mint officials.

Fred Weinberg explains that “the weights vary because in all probability, they were on planchets that might not have been filed down to the proper weight spread.” Hand adjusting of individual gold planchets continued in the Mint until circa 1910. Those three pieces are almost certainly fancy pieces made for collectors, while the 1905 and 1906 examples, on correct weight planchets, are more likely pieces truly made in error, and substantially more important as such. (more…)

Heritage to present 2,800-lot survey of global coinage, ancient and antique, Sept. 10-13 in Long beach, CA

An auction event featuring numismatic treasures spanning the four hemispheres of globe is set to take place at Heritage’s Sept. 10-13 Long Beach, CA Signature® World Coin Auction, at the Long Beach Convention Center, 100 S. Pine Avenue, Long Beach, CA.

“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.”

Leading the way for world coin aficionados is a classic and extremely rare Chinese coin, a Mint State Chihli Tael, Year 33 (1907), KM-Y74.1, L&M-438, MS63 NGC. This coin is as sculptural as they come, and carries an appeal equally strong numismatically as it artistically. As a classic and exceedingly uncommon issue of the Chinese late Empire series it is bound to be a hotly contested lot. It carries an estimate of $80,000-$120,000.

“This coin is as attractive as they come,” said Tucker. “It’s fully lustrous with a wonderful gold and gray patina along with superbly defined details on the dragon. There are a lot of collectors bound to be very excited by this coin.”

One of Latin America’s most intriguing coins, the famous Coquimbo Republic Peso 1828-TH, KM88, WR-10, Eliz-98, XF45 NGC, is certain to generate some serious bidding along with equally serious discussion as the coin presented here is an unquestionably authentic type “A” of this issue, and if you know your world coinage then you know there has long been debate over the authenticity of several examples. It carries an estimate of $30,000-$40,000.
(more…)