Coin Rarities & Related Topics #2 – News and Analysis regarding scarce coins, coin markets, and the coin collecting community

A Weekly Column by Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

I. Today’s Theme

Welcome to the second installment of my column. Today’s primary topic is upcoming auctions. A secondary topic is the new policies of the PCGS and the NGC, which I will discuss often in the future. Below, I will put forth a proposal regarding the NGC’s new metallurgic testing program. For an explanation of the purpose and scope of my weekly column, please see last week’s installment.

Yes, I said last week that this year’s Spring auction offerings, in total, pale in contrast to those in the Springs of 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 or 2009. Even so, there are some noteworthy coins being auctioned. Besides, most collector-buyers will hone in on coins of interest to them, without considering market phenomena as a whole. Additionally, prices realized will shed light upon market conditions. I will focus here on the upcoming auctions in Southern California.

At the Beverly Hills Crowne Plaza hotel, in late May and early June, the Goldbergs will auction the Daniel Holmes collection of Middle Date large cents, plus assorted U.S. and World rarities. On May 30, the firm of Bonhams will conduct a coin auction in Los Angeles. The star of the Bonhams event is a 1795 Eagle ($10 gold coin) of the very rare variety with just nine leaves on the branch. (For some explanation, please see my Feb. 2007 article on 1795 Eagles.) In conjunction with the Long Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectible Expo, Heritage will auction a wide variety of numismatic items.

II. Dan Holmes’ Middle Dates

On May 30, the firm of Ira & Larry Goldberg will auction the Dan Holmes collection of U.S. cents that date from 1816 to 1839. The specialty firm of McCawley & Grellman handled the cataloguing. Previously, I reported on Holmes’ Early Date cents, which were auctioned in Sept. 2009. Furthermore, I wrote a series articles about the sale of the late Ted Naftzger’s Middle Dates on Feb. 1, 2009 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). Naftzger’s collection of large cents, early dates, middle dates and late dates, is the best of all-time, in almost all categories. No one is expecting Holmes or anyone else to come close to equaling Naftzger’s collecting achievements, which required many decades, intense concentration and some luck.

Holmes’ Middle Date collection includes some exceptional representatives of ‘better dates’ and relatively rarer varieties. In my view, it is a little disappointing. I was expecting it to be of higher quality overall, or, at least, contain better representatives of some of the scarcer dates. Further, I was hoping for some more and better quality Proofs. Indisputably, however, Holmes has one of the five best, currently intact collections of Middle Date large cents, maybe one of the top three. I predict intense bidding competition for the rarer varieties.

Curiously, there are more than a thousand large cent collectors who focus upon die varieties. There are more than twenty-five thousand, though, who collect ‘by date,’ including readily apparent varieties that are collected ‘as if’ these are separate and distinct dates. Holmes has impressive representatives of some of the scarcest dates of the Middle Date type. The 1823, 1823/2 and 1839/6 are probably the only Middle ‘dates’ that are rare, or almost so, though not one of these ‘dates’ is extremely rare. While the “1826/5” may possibly be rare, it is debatable as to whether it is really an overdate. Even if it is so, the difference in the date, versus an 1826 Normal Date issue, is just too subtle to be collected as if it is a distinct date. In my view, even if the 1826/5 is a true overdate, it is just a die variety.

The 1821 large cent issue is very rare in grades of AU-50 or higher. Holmes has five 1821s. The finest he has of the first die variety is PCGS graded AU-58, and is graded AU-50 by Chris McCawley & Bob Grellman, the cataloguers. Holmes’ best representative of the second die variety of this year in large cents is PCGS graded MS-63. McCawley & Grellman grade it as “MS-60+,” which means MS-61 or -62 in standard terms. This 1821 cent was earlier in the Wes Rasmussen collection that Heritage auctioned in Fort Lauderdale in Jan. 2005. (more…)

A dazzling array of Buffalo nickels and Lincoln cents from The Brenda John Collection anchor the upcoming Heritage Auctions U.S. Coin Auction, with floor sessions held June 3-4 in conjunction with the Long Beach Coin Expo in Long Beach, CA. With incredible rarities in incredible grades, no Buffalo nickel or Lincoln cent collector will want to miss this auction.

Many famous varieties are represented in The Brenda John Collection. Among the Buffalo nickels is the dramatic 1916 Doubled Die Obverse graded an astounding MS64 by NGC. On this coin, the date is boldly doubled, so much so that many early descriptions called it the 1916/1916. But the variety was not discovered until well after its release, and the survival of Mint State coins is a matter of chance. This MS64 example is one of the ‘best of the best.’

Similarly important is a 1918/7-D nickel graded MS65 by NGC. Gem examples of this bold and popular overdate are extremely rare, and there are none in higher grades.

Among the very popular Lincoln cents is an off-metal error, a 1944-D cent struck on a steel planchet from 1943 graded AU55 by NGC, with another rare and impressive selection being a 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse cent graded MS64 Red and Brown by PCGS.

Important condition rarities in the collection include a 1909 VDB cent graded PR65 Red by PCGS, a 1917-S nickel graded MS67 by NGC, the sole finest coin known to NGC or PCGS, and Lot 420, a 1926-S nickel graded an astounding MS66 by NGC.

Silver and gold collectors will find plenty of desirable coins to bid on as well. High on the list is a trio of Morgan dollars that traveled as part of the legendary PCGS Tour: an 1891-O dollar graded MS65 Deep Mirror Prooflike by PCGS with CAC attestation, an 1892-O dollar graded MS65 Deep Mirror Prooflike by PCGS, and an 1894 dollar graded MS65 by PCGS with CAC attestation. The PCGS Tour brought together some of the most amazing Morgan dollars known at the time. While nearly two decades have passed since then, some of these Morgan dollars remain the best of their kind. The New Orleans Morgan dollars, in particular, are nearly unknown in Deep Mirror Prooflike.

Collectors of earlier U.S. silver are sure to be delighted a legendary Judd-7 1792 half disme graded Good 6 by PCGS. The 1792 half dismes appear on the borderlands between patterns and money. They were struck late in the year, after the Mint Act was passed but before the Philadelphia Mint building was in operation. While they have been collected as patterns in the past, the wear on many pieces like this lot would indicate that they served as money.

Among the gold coin highlights a 1908 Indian quarter eagle graded MS67 by PCGS. It is one of just two 1908 Indian quarter eagles so graded by PCGS, and one of just four MS67 coins certified by that firm in the entire series. (more…)

In a March 15, 2005, Numismatic News column, Paul M. Green described the 1916 Doubled Die nickel “as perhaps the greatest and least known rarity of the 20th century. It is ironic, because the logical assumption would be that any coin of the 20th century is well known and appreciated.”

Knowledge of the variety became widespread only in 1976; even today, many otherwise knowledgeable numismatists fail to realize how rare the issue is–in all grades, but particularly in Mint State.

Although some regular 1916 Buffalo nickels are known to show strike doubling on the date, they are easily distinguished from the unusual Doubled Die coins, which show prominent but incomplete (at the bottom) digits from a first strike of a working hub, well southeast of the subsequent strike. Other obverse features are doubled–the chin, throat, and lips.

The feathers at the back of the head are plainly doubled at their bottoms, including the tiny partial feather closest to the neck. The butterfly-shaped attachment of the feather quills to the hair is plainly doubled on both sides. Traces of doubling are visible as well along the forward edge of the profile.

The finest certified are a number of near-Gems at both services, including two MS64 PCGS pieces that Heritage has handled in the last few years. (PCGS has certified only those two pieces in MS64.)

The 1916 Doubled Die invites a comparison with another popular Buffalo nickel variety, the 1918/7-D. NGC has certified three Gems of the 1918/7-D Buffalo, and 22 examples of that variety in MS64. Even if one deletes one-third of those coins as duplicates, it still leaves almost four times as many 1918/7-D Buffalos at the near-Gem level compared to the 1916 Doubled Die.

The obverse of this impressively lustrous near-Gem has gold-orange peripheral toning that yields to light nickel-gray in the centers. The reverse is more richly patinated in stark blue and green-gold hues. Both sides show a slight degree of central striking softness, but the crucial date area is crisp with strong impressions from both date hubs. Wispy abrasions on the major devices and in the fields account for the technical grade, though the eye appeal is more evocative of an even finer designation. Census: 6 in 64, 0 finer (4/10).

From The Brenda John Collection. Lot 391 of the Long Beach Signature Sale