A Condition Census 1796 Quarter Dollar, B-1, MS61 PCGS from the Frost Collection sold for $168,000 to lead Heritage’s April 3-6 U.S. Coins Signature Auction to $6,826,524.
The 1796 quarter in this auction was from the rarer B-1 variety of the coveted coin.
“This is an exceptional coin that comes from a low mintage, and survivors in Mint State are few and far between,” says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “The B-1 variety is even more elusive than the B-2, and this coin is one of the top half dozen examples.”
A 1915 Indian Eagle, PR66 NGC, one of just 75 Proof examples struck in 1915 by the Philadelphia Mint achieved $117,000. The surviving population has been estimated by John Dannreuther as 40-45 pieces, while NGC and PCGS have combined to certify just 38, including an unknown number of resubmissions and crossovers. The remaining population that is available to the collecting community is even smaller than the estimated numbers, because two of the known coins are in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Also reaching six figures was a 1912 Indian Eagle PR66 NGC that ended at $111,000. Mint records show that the Philadelphia Mint struck 144 Proof Indian Eagles in 1912, but the artistic sandblast finish used on Proof coins at the time did not attract the attention of collectors, which led to a sharp decline in orders for Proof sets. Just 83 Proof Indian Eagles were sold in 1912, with the remainder melted for recoinage. The offered example is one of what Dannreuther estimates to be just 60-70 remaining examples and one of just nine carrying a grade of 66 (with only five graded higher).
A 1929 Double Eagle, MS65 PCGS drew a winning bid of $93,000. More than 1.7 million were minted, but the 1929 double eagle is the first of several scarce issues that marked the end of the Saint-Gaudens series that began in 1907 and concluded in 1933. PCGS CoinFacts estimates that nearly 1,000 of the 1929 double eagles remain, but Heritage experts believe even that estimate is generous, and that the actual survival rate is somewhere between just 350 and 400.
An 18th-century rarity that is exceptionally popular to the most serious of early dollar specialists and advance type collectors, a 1795 Flowing Hair, Three Leaves, B-6, BB-25, R.3 Dollar AU58 PCGS. CAC brought $90,000. Any Flowing Hair Dollar that even approaches Uncirculated condition is going to generate considerable demand, which explains the 40 bids that poured in for this borderline Mint State coin. A B-5, BB-27 Dollar, AU58 PCGS. CAC fetched $81,000.
Also closing at $81,000 was an 1895 Morgan Dollar, PR64 PCGS that is known today only in Proof format. Mint documents reflect the coinage in June 1895 of 12,000 standard silver dollars, but no such circulation strikes are known today. If circulation strikes were produced, the most likely answer is that they were melted in the silver dollar destruction brought about by the Pittman Act of 1918, leaving only a limited number of Proof coins known today.
Also exceptionally popular among collectors was a 4.10-ounce Blake & Co. Mixed Metal Presentation Ingot that prompted 42 bids before it ended at a remarkable $58,800. Produced in 1870 in Silver City in Owyhee County of the Idaho Territory, it features all of the assay information, denoting the gold and silver content of the pour, all laid out vertically on the face of the ingot. The back side of the ingot reads: A.C. / JULY / 1870. Just 10 Blake & Co. mixed metal ingots from Owyhee County are known, including one that was stolen from the October 2007 Ford sale.
Complete auction results including the 1796 quarter and other pieces above can be found at HA.com/1382.
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