A 1796/5 BD-1 Half Eagle, MS64 NGC, once of the famous “Mr. 1796” collection, and an 1825 BD-2 Quarter Eagle, MS66 NGC will be among the top treasures that will cross the block in Heritage’s March 26-28 U.S. Coins Signature® Auction.
The 1796/5 BD-1 half eagle is the second-finest example of 1796-dated half eagles, of which the original mintage was estimated by John Dannreuther to be no more than 2,000 pieces, from which he estimated that between just 80 and 100 remain in all grades. The offered example is the finest ever offered at auction, fully two grade points higher than any other example ever offered previously at Heritage.
The 1825 BD-2 quarter eagle is the third-finest example, and the second-finest available to the collecting community. Quarter eagles of the 1821-34 era are dominated by low-mintage issues, as the denomination was not popular in commerce at the time. They were not used by everyday Americans or favored by banks, which usually opted for the larger face value of half eagles, a preference that required half the number of coins.
The BD-2 is the most available of the three die marriages, with a surviving estimated population of 80-100 pieces.
“These are among the finest examples anywhere of two exceptionally important coins in the early U.S. gold series,” says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “They are spectacular coins that are among several high-value rarities featured in this auction, an event that will be a perfect bridge between our impressive FUN auction in January and the stellar Central States auction that is coming up in the spring.”
Also among the treasures to be found in this auction are a trio of shipwreck gold ingots:
A Kellogg & Humbert Gold Ingot from the S.S. Central America, which weighs in at 26.30 troy ounces, has a serial number that is among the highest for the KH-02 mold from the shipwreck. Many Kellogg & Humbert ingots ended up in the melting pot, either at the San Francisco Mint or after being shipped via steamboat to New York banks. The ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America shipwreck provide a detailed look at this prolific firm’s assaying practices.
Also from the S.S. Central America comes a Kellogg & Humbert Gold Ingot that is slightly larger, weighing 26.55 ounces. Of the 343 Kellogg & Humbert ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America during the first salvage expedition, 80 were poured from the KH-02 mold, with varying thickness determined by their individual weights. The 343 Kellogg & Humbert ingots bound for New York aboard the ill-fated sidewheel steamship, including the one offered in this auction, likely were intended to be bank deposits, as assayers in California would not have needed to ship gold bars to the Philadelphia Mint for coinage.
A third ingot from the S.S. Central America will be offered when an 18.60-ounce Justh & Hunter Gold Ingot, PCGS Genuine crosses the auction block. Justh & Hunter ingots comprised the second-largest portion of the private assayer gold bars loaded onto the S.S. Central America at Panama, having made the journey from California. A total of 86 Justh & Hunter ingots were later recovered from the shipwreck off the coast of the Carolinas, ranging in weight from 5.24 to 866.18 ounces. The majority of these ingots — 60 — are attributed to the firm’s San Francisco office, while the remaining 26 are from Justh & Hunter’s Marysville office. This smaller ingot, from the 15.01- to 25.00-ounce weight class, is one of only a few ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America from this mold.
Other top attractions include an 1879 Flowing Hair Stella, PR65 Cameo NGC, a beautiful example of one of the most iconic and avidly collected odd-denomination issues in all of American numismatics. Technically, it is a pattern, but the stella has long transcended that category, embraced by collectors of gold coins, patterns, type coins and legendary rarities alike.
A 1919-D Quarter, MS66 Full Head PCGS is one of nearly two dozen lots in the auction from The Big Sky Collection of Standing Liberty Quarters, Part I. The finest 1919-D quarters typically available to collectors grade MS66 Full Head, and there are only 12 such coins reported at PCGS and NGC combined (one of which is Plus-designated, and only a single PCGS coin is finer in Full Head), making this Registry-grade rarity a remarkable example of this challenging date. It is believed that this example has not been offered to the collecting community since it was offered at Heritage in 2012. This auction marks just the 11th time, and the fourth time in the last decade, that a 1919-D in this grade has been offered at Heritage.
A 1920-S Indian Ten, MS63 PCGS is the most elusive ten in Mint State, ranking among the rarest Indian Head tens in all grades combined, and it has been called the rarest date in the series in Mint State grades of MS63 or finer.
An 1800 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle, MS64 PCGS. CAC is a spectacular Choice example, with only one carrying a higher grade. It is a magnificent example of the BD-4 variety, of which Dannreuther estimates 5,000-7,500 pieces were included in the original mintage. Of those, an estimated 125-175 are believed to have survived in all grades.
A 1796 Draped Bust Quarter, XF45 NGC is a premier Guide Book variety and a key issue for its denomination and for silver type. The quarter denomination was authorized by the Mint Act of 1793, but no quarters were struck until 1796. Featuring Robert Scot’s Draped Bust design and Small Eagle reverse, the 1796 quarter is among the three final Federal denominations introduced during the year. The 1796 quarter is notable in part because denomination appears on either side. The 1796 Draped Bust design exists as the only 1700s-dated representative of the quarter dollar series and serves as a one-year-only type coin.
Charles Collection
The 85 lots in this collection are all gold, except for a single vibrantly colorful copper pattern, an 1865 Judd-441 Three Dollar, PR63 Brown PCGS.
Other top offerings from the collection include, but are not limited to:
Stoebner Family Collection
This assemblage includes 125 lots, a remarkable trove that John Stoebner started in 2019 as a pre-retirement hobby, thanks to the inspiration he took from his brother Donald, who had been a coin collector for most of his life, dating back to the 1950s. Donald Stoebner assembled one of the finest collections of early-date large cents from 1793 to 1814, including several rare Sheldon varieties; his collection was sold at Heritage’s 2019 Long Beach auction. John began his silver dollar collection with an example of every Carson City Morgan dollar before expanding his search to include major varieties of both Morgan and Peace dollars. By the time he retired, his 117-coin Morgan dollar collection ranked No. 11 among PCGS Registry Sets of Morgan Dollars with Major Varieties; it now ranks as the No. 27-rated set of all time.
Top offerings in the auction from the Stoebner Family Collection include, but are not limited to:
Lester D. Taylor Collection
Taylor assembled one of the most comprehensive collections of Prooflike Morgan silver dollars, and he recently condensed more than four decades of research into his latest book, Prooflike Morgan Silver Dollars. Highlights of his collection offered in this auction include, but are not limited to:
Zeus Collection
The core of this fine branch-mint silver dollar collection is primarily made up of Morgan dollars from the mints in New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City. Among the top offerings from the collection:
Images and information about all lots in the auction can be found at HA.com/1391.
About Heritage Auctions
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