The coin collecting community was stunned to learn that Dr. Steven Duckor’s Barber Quarters will soon be auctioned. After all, it is not yet complete, and two key dates are missing. The coins are of amazing quality and have been very carefully selected by Dr. Duckor who is an exceptionally dedicated connoisseur of Barber coinage. This auction may be a very favorable event for those collecting high quality, Barber Quarters ‘by date’ (including Mints) and for collectors who seek one Barber Quarter for more for their respective type sets.

Barber Quarters are 90% silver quarter dollars. These were produced from 1892 to 1916, at four U.S. Mints, Philadelphia (with no mintmark), Denver (D-mintmark), New Orleans (O), and San Francisco (S). All of Duckor’s quarters are certified and encapsulated by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS).

Dr. Duckor’s quarters will be sold by Heritage on July 31 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel in L.A., a few days before the ANA Convention begins at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Heritage will also auction a variety of U.S. coins, including at least two Great Rarities, an 1854-S Quarter Eagle ($2½ gold coin) and an 1856-O Double Eagle ($20 coin).

As no Barber Quarters are rare, in absolute terms, this collection is very important largely because of the quality of the coins included, though the great pedigrees of several of the coins are of special significance. I have not seen some of Duckor’s quarters, and most of those I did see I have not examined in a long time. Further, I have not yet had time to match many of Dr. Duckor’s coins to Barber Quarters in past auctions, especially to those that I have carefully viewed.

While I look forward to pedigree and condition census research, there are other approaches to analyzing a collection. Herein, I address the quality of these quarters with discussions of the PCGS registry, CAC verification, and Dr. Duckor’s refined taste for coins.

Dr. Duckor is certainly among the most famous living collectors, and has been seriously collecting since the 1970s. He acquired coins, for example, at the epic auction of Eliasberg’s gold coins in 1982. Many collectors can learn from his wisdom, connoisseurship, and experience. I know that I have.

“When [Duckor] gave the collection to Heritage to be auctioned,” he “asked them to submit the entire collection to CAC.” John Albanese is the primary grader and the CEO of the CAC. When the CAC places a sticker on a PCGS or NGC holder, the CAC is approving the grade that the PCGS or the NGC assigned to the coin inside, and is opining that this grade is in the middle or upper end of the respective grade range. (more…)

Amazingly, it’s time for yet another Summer ANA Convention. This year’s edition is going to be held on August 5th through August 9th at the Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles and if past shows are any indication, this will be one of the best coins shows of the year.

If you’ve never been to a major coin show before, attending your first ANA can be pretty intimidating. The display area is enormous and there are hundreds of dealers from all over the world. What things should you absolutely not miss at the ANA?

The first thing I’d make sure to do at this year’s show is to view the exhibits. The competitive exhibits are always fun but it’s the Smithsonian’s display that has me very interested. This year’s star coin is the unique 1849 Double Eagle; a coin that, if it were to come to market, would set a record for the most valuable United States issue. There will be other amazing rarities on display as well but the chance to see the 1849 double eagle is just about enough to make any serious gold collector get on the plane and go to L.A.

The next thing I’d do is hit the Whitman Publishing display, buy copies of all their wonderful books and try to get as many as possible autographed by the author(s). Whitman is planning on having many of the authors attend the show and they will be signing their books throughout the show.
I certainly wouldn’t miss any of the specialty club meetings in the area(s) that were of interest to me. As an example, the Liberty Seated Collectors Club will be holding a major meeting during the show and if I were a collector of Seated coins this would be an event I absolutely wouldn’t want to miss.

And, of course, I’d be going to look for coins. Even if you don’t plan on making any purchases, you’ll be amazed at what you see at an ANA show. Some dealers will have incredible rarities that they will be happy to let you hold and examine. Other dealers will have deep inventories of coins that you collect. If there was ever a place to find the proverbial “needle in the haystack” it’s at an ANA show. (more…)

“This show promises to be the most spectacular numismatic event you’ll ever see,” said ANA President Barry Stuppler. “The exhibits will be the ANA’s best ever, the educational programs and events offer something for everyone, the dealer activity will be high, and the host city ensures great attendance and an exciting atmosphere.”

The Museum Showcase makes its inaugural appearance in Los Angeles, and will be a centerpiece of the convention. Among the rarities on display will be 20 coins from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection, including the first (1849 pattern) and last (1933) double eagles ever produced, as well as a 1907 Saint-Gaudens ultra high relief pattern that President Theodore Roosevelt gave his daughter Ethel as a Christmas gift in 1907.

Also featured from the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum and private collections are the finest known – and possibly first minted – 1794 silver dollar; America’s first gold coin, the EB-on-breast Brasher Doubloon; an 1879 gold pattern four dollar “Stella”; four of the five known world-famous Liberty Head nickels; and a rare, 490-year-old original copy of the first illustrated, printed numismatic book, Illustrium Imagines (”Images of the Illustrious”). (more…)

“An Hour with Dave Bowers” is the latest in the continuing series of free PNG educational seminars for collectors and dealers being conducted at shows around the country. The program featuring Bowers will be held at 11 a.m., Friday, August 7, 2009, in room 511-B of the Los Angeles Convention Center West Hall, site of the ANA convention. A complimentary light lunch will be available for audience members.

Bowers will take questions from the audience and discuss his involvement with the hobby starting in 1953 as a teenaged coin dealer, a role that landed him as a young guest on the NBC-TV Today Show in 1957 as well as subsequent appearances years later. He’ll provide interesting recollections about his extraordinary work helping to build and then catalog for auction some of the world’s most prominent coin collections. He’ll also discuss his decades of prolific authorship and ongoing research and writing for Whitman, publishers of A Guide Book of United States Coins (the “Red Book”) and many other titles.

Voted one of the “Numismatists of the Century” by COINage Magazine in 1999, Bowers is the only person to ever serve as President of both the PNG (1977 – 1979) and the ANA (1983 – 1985).

He has received the coveted Friedberg Literary Award from PNG a record seven times, and his books have won the Numismatic Literary Guild’s Book of the Year award more than those of any other author. Many of the auction catalogs he and his companies have produced have become important reference works, such as those for the renowned collections of Louis E. Eliasberg Sr., Harry W. Bass Jr., Ambassador and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb, the Childs Collection and the John Work Garrett Collection sold by order of The Johns Hopkins University. (more…)

One of the many highlights is an 1870 $100 Gold National Bank Note, San Francisco Charter #1741, The First National Gold Bank (Fr. 1162), graded PMG Fine 12 Net (restorations).

“This classic rarity is one of only eight notes of this type in private hands, and one of three of this Friedberg number. Those others are in strong hands and not likely to become available in the foreseeable future. In fact, only three examples have been offered for public sale in the last decade and the latest example, nearly identical to this one, sold for $258,700 in 2007,” said Steve Deeds, President of Bowers and Merena (www.BowersandMerena.com).

“With collectors holding tightly to the others, we’re not sure when there will be another opportunity to acquire such a rare and elusive note.”

Three other 1870 National Gold Bank Charter #1741 notes are also being offered, $5 (Fr. 1136) PMG VF 30, $10 (Fr. 1142) PCGS Apparent VF 30, and $20 (Fr. 1172) PMG Very Good 10 Net. (more…)

Well its not really the summer just yet, but by the way this show was you’d think it was the middle of July!

As always, we have nothing but great things to say about Mary Counts and David Chrenshaw (of Whitman Publishing) and staff for unquestionably putting together a great show. They have everything well organized for both dealers and the collecting public. They have made the Baltimore Show a “must attend” event for everyone.

WAS THE BALTIMORE SHOW HOT?

Sadly, this show was not to be one of their best. We do NOT hold Whitman at fault. It was more market factors and timing (Long Beach was less than 2 weeks ago). Not very many national level dealers attended (many West Coast dealers stayed home). We did not hear of many dealers having even good shows. Our show overall ended up better than we thought-but we were very disappointed in our retail sales. Better gold coins in MS63 and higher made up over 75% of our sales.

Not many dealers had expected this to be a good show. Typically when that happens, the show usually turns out ok. This time, it did not. The strongest activity occurred BEFORE the show with dealer to dealer WHOLESALE. Once the show opened for set up-things immediately died down. It seemed many of the dealers in the room simply did not want to buy and were more intent of selling and raising cash. However, they seemed to be “stuck in mud” because they refused to face reality and sell their coins at the new market levels. Thus activity stalled out. We had never heard so many dealers moaning that they had sold NOTHING as of Saturday morning. (more…)

I have generally sworn off writing show reports as, to be honest, they are as boring for me to write as they are for you to read. At this point, I figured I’d do reports on the Big Two shows (FUN and ANA) and leave the other reports to my fellow Bloggin’ Numismatists.

The recent Long Beach show, however, was interesting enough that I thought it required a little bit of ink.

As you may or may not know, Long Beach is a show that I’ve come to dislike in recent years. It’s become very slow from a business standpoint, I’m not crazy about the way its run and, quite frankly, if I hear them playing the Oldies soundtrack one more time I think I will rip out my inner ear canals.

But this Long Beach seemed a little bit different. Dare I say it actually had a bit of a buzz (?!?) and I think the crowd at the show, at least on Thursday when it opened to the public, was as large as any Long Beach that I can recall going back to the 1990’s.

Why was this Long Beach different from the last edition(s)? My guesses would be three fold. The first had to do with the fact that gold has risen around $50 in the past few weeks. There are a lot of bullion/generic buyers in Southern California and a strong gold market always seems to bring out these buyers. The second is better publicity. I don’t know this for a fact but I would assume that the show promoters tried something new to get buyers through the doors and it worked. Attendance was reported to be up by at least 30%. The third is renewed interest among collectors who have been on the sidelines for the last few years. (more…)

Heavy Thursday pubic attendance definitely was the big surprise. It was the biggest crowd we remember seeing in 3-4 years. We saw many old friends. People we haven’t seen in years stopped by our table to chat or do some biz. Interestingly, most commented about the rise in the price of gold, the treacherous stock market, and the generally bad economy made them reconsider buying coins again. Also, they almost all felt that prices were reasonable again.

LEGEND HAD A GREAT SHOW

For us, the show action started Wed morning on a dealer to dealer level. The first two dealers we sat down and showed coins to bought well into six figures. By the end of set up we had sold a record 3 coins over $10,000.00 and 5 coins over $25,000.00! Wholesaling remained very strong for us through the closing of the show Thursday. We did a little bit on Friday and left early Saturday (yes, we are guilty-but we had been out in LA a full week already due to auctions). All the sales were a complete surprise as we had expected very light activity.

Selling for us may have been made easier by the fact we had many fresh, high grade, and rare gold coins from the extensive LV Collection of Gold Rarities we are exclusively handling. Dealers clearly wanted gold. All the coins over $10,000.00 we sold were gold rarities. Interestingly, none of the coins we wholesaled were “crackouts’ yet we were able to sell them for strong premiums.

Retail wise, our sales were good. There too, most sales were for better gold coins.

THE 2009 CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH

Of all the shows we attend, no other seems to have as many ‘gold bugs” as the Long Beach Show. This show they clearly came out in force. These collectors, investors, or whatever you like to call them are amazingly loyal to the gold market no matter where it is at. On Thursday of the show spot gold jumped to $960.00. The floor was just littered with “gold bugs” looking to buy. If you had any decent selection of gold (generics, rare pieces, whatever) you could have sold them! From our point of view, we did not see price as an negative or obstacle with the buyers. (more…)

Visitors to the three-day show will see both the “Gold River Morgan Dollars Set,” ranked number two on the PCGS Set Registry for date set circulation strikes, and see the “Wild West Collection,” a complete set of superb-grade Carson City dollars. A free gold coin door prize will be awarded to a lucky, registered visitor each day.

The seminar, “Gold: Hoping For The Best, Preparing For The Worst,” will be presented from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, May 30, in room 102-C of the Long Beach Convention Center.

“The gold seminar will be jointly conducted by Travers, an acclaimed consumer advocate who is the author of a dozen award-winning numismatic books, and by Kingsland, a respected Fox Business Network editor and long-time Wall Street journalist,” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

“With the renewed interest in gold because of the U.S. and world economic situation, this certainly is one of the most important and timely educational seminars we’ve had in the history of the Long Beach Expo.”

“This educational program will provide pertinent and potentially valuable information about the precious metals markets from mining stocks to bullion coins – such as the American Eagle and Canadian Maple Leaf – to gold estate jewelry and ‘scrap’ gold,” explained Travers. (more…)

DALLAS, TX – At the end Heritage Auction Galleries’ Central States Numismatic Society Convention Platinum Night Auction on Thursday, April 30, the Adams-Carter specimen of the Class III AU 58 PCGS 1804 silver dollar lived up to its billing as “The King of Coins” when Bedminister, NJ collector John Albanese topped all others with a $2.3 million bid, including the 15% Buyer’s Premium. The total for the Heritage CSNS Auctions is currently at approximately $45 million with post-auction buys continuing at www.HA.com.

“There was never any question of whether it was going to be the top lot in the auction,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage. “Whenever you have an example of the most famous coin in the world it’s going to be a big night. In this case, at $2.3 million, it set a new world record for its class. Thursday night’s price made this particular 1804 dollar the seventh most valuable coin ever sold at auction.”

The Class III 1804 $1 received widespread coverage in the mainstream media in the days leading up to the auction, and the buzz in auction gallery was equal to the advance publicity. As coin collectors and curious onlookers alike watched the auction live in Cincinnati and on HERITAGE Live!, the company’s real-time proprietary online bidding platform, there was a collective hush as the coin climbed past $2,000,000 and spontaneous applause when this most famous of coins finally found its new owner.

While the Adams-Carter 1804 $1 grabbed the headlines, the overall success of both the rare coins and the rare currency auctions is the hidden story in the whole night.

“The total prices realized in these auctions speaks to the continued strength of the rare coin market when there are precious few places with such fortitude,” said Rohan. “Even if you take out the $2.3 million on the 1804 $1, you still have an almost $42 million auction; by any standards that’s a good return.”

Several other rare and pristine coins garnered their share of the overall value of the auction with six figure prices. Following are a few highlights:

1870-S Seated Dollar, XF40 PCGS , Ex: Ostheimer: The legendary rarest regular issue silver dollar ever coined at any United States Mint. From the Alfred and Jackie Ostheimer Collections.

Realized: $503,125. (more…)