Over 200 U.S. Gold and Silver Coins Valued at $20,000,000, Including Multiple Individual Pieces Valued over $1 Million Each.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries is honored to announce the sale of selections from the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection. Projected to bring upwards of $20 million, the over 200 coins to be offered from the collection have been off the market since at least his passing in 1951. Several individual pieces are valued at over $1 million each.
Mr. Stack, who had begun collecting coins and paper money by the late 1930s, set the goal of building as complete a collection of U.S. coins as time would allow him. In a relatively short time, he built one of the greatest (yet underappreciated) collections of U.S. coins of all time. He took full advantage of an era in numismatic history when significant collections were coming to market in droves, both for private purchase and through public auction. Verging on completeness, the Stack collection at his passing included many major rarities like an 1802 Draped Bust Half Dime, 1894-S Barber Dime, 1838-O Capped Bust Half Dollar, the finest known 1870-S Liberty Seated Dollar, and an 1815 Capped Bust Half Eagle, all of which were sold in previous auctions by Stack’s Rare Coins (predecessor firm to Stack’s Bowers Galleries). In 1944, he even acquired a 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, which was surrendered to the U.S. Secret Service in 1945 and has never been seen again. The only remaining trace of this coin is a solemn handwritten note under the empty space in the album where his 1933 had once resided: “Secret Service has mine.”
Had the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection been sold in a single, concentrated auction offering, it would have been remembered as one of the most significant coin collections of the 20th century, if not of all time. But that was not to be. During his collecting life, Mr. Stack kept a low profile, often buying coins through agents, such as his friends Joseph B. and Morton Stack, founders of Stack’s Rare Coins, who shared a last name but were not related. Dividing the vast collection among his three children, James A. Stack, Sr. stipulated that the coins be held intact and eventually be distributed among his grandchildren, after his youngest grandchild (at the time of his death) had turned 25.
As a result, none of his coins re-entered the marketplace until Stack’s March 1975 auction that showcased James A. Stack, Sr.’s magnificent holdings of U.S. quarters and half dollars. Major auctions of additional portions of Mr. Stack’s U.S. coin collection continued in the 1980s and 1990s, providing further insight into the collection’s completeness and significance.
Now, after a hiatus of 30 years, Stack’s Bowers Galleries will continue the series of auctions of the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection begun exactly a half century ago by their predecessor firm.
For those actively collecting in the 1970s through 1990s, the name James A. Stack, Sr. is synonymous with quality and rarity. So, it will come as no surprise that highlights in this offering are many and include finest known specimens and previously undocumented major rarities, as well as the return of well-known rarities to the marketplace.
One major returning rarity will be James A. Stack, Sr.’s 1798 Small Eagle $5 gold piece. Last sold in B. Max Mehl’s 1946 auction of the William Cutler Atwater Collection, it is the last of the five privately owned specimens to come to market in the 21st century. Now graded PCGS AU53 CAC CMQ, it is one of nine coins in this offering to appear in the popular book, 100 Greatest U.S. Coins. It is also the sole example certified by CAC and CMQ. The last decade has seen the value of this extremely rare early half eagle climb from $1 million to $2 million, then to $3 million, each time an example has appeared at auction.
A more contemporary rarity was just a few decades old when acquired by Stack: his 1911-D Indian Head Eagle graded PCGS MS66 CAC CMQ, which tops the census as the sole finest graded example of this key date. It is just one of several James A. Stack, Sr. coins that are the finest graded for their issues, or even for their entire series.
Among a small but very significant contingent of early silver dollars is a gorgeously toned 1795 Flowing Hair, 3 Leaves type of the common BB-5 variety but in uncommonly high grade: PCGS MS-64 CMQ. It was last seen in B. Max Mehl’s 1948 auction of the C.A. Allenburger Collection, where it was called a “Perfect uncirculated specimen.”
This offering includes no fewer than 28 Territorial gold coins, nearly all of which have provenances dating back to numismatic auctions from the 1910s through the 1940s. Half of the coins are from the collection of Hillyer Ryder, better known as a student of colonial numismatics. Ryder also assembled a world-class but little-known collection of U.S. Federal and Territorial gold coinage. The Territorial selection begins with the first Territorial gold coin: a 1830 Templeton Reid $2.50 gold piece, graded PCGS AU58 CAC CMQ, which last appeared publicly in Henry Chapman’s 1924 sale of the Arthur Nygren Collection.
In the weeks leading up to the August American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Oklahoma City, highlights freshly graded by PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service), will be revealed to current collectors through Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ email announcements and social media accounts, such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Fair attendees will find a more complete display of the collection at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries booth, including a heretofore unknown example of a storied U.S. coin whose identity will be revealed at the convention and through digital marketing.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries is planning a series of two auctions of the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection, one in December 2025 and one in February 2026. The sales will both be held at Griffin Studios, located at the firm’s headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. Updates about the collection will be disseminated via Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ e-blasts, social media accounts, and at www.stacksbowers.com.
