Gold and silver coins hidden for years in a garage bring $88,000 in Philadelphia

After reading this, you may decide that clearing out your garage isn’t such an unappealing idea after all…

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Magnificent ‘Washlady’ dollar stars at Heritage’s $9.42m COINFEST auction

The ‘finest known’ Washlady brought $161,000 as the market for rare coins remains ‘very strong.’

…The equally rare and collector-coveted VF30 NGC. M. 4.2-F.6, W-2360, R.8., from The W Philip Keller Collection of US Colonials, took the second spot on the auction podium in Stamford, realising $115,000.

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Worth more than the poker chips… a set of silver playing cards brings $554,500

The extraordinary deck headed a $3.8m sale of fine silver at Christie’s New York. The top lot of the sale was as expected the extremely rare set of German engraved and parcel-gilt silver playing cards, signed Michael Frommer, Augsburg, 1616, realising $554,500, doubling its estimate of $150,000 – $250,000.

Despite their popularity among noble clientele – silver cards were supplied to the courts of Bavaria, Tuscany, and Brunswick among others – only five sets of silver playing cards are known to survive today.

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AND MORE From Elsewhere:

Rare Bugatti could fetch record price at Monterey Auto Week auction

A 79-year-old Bugatti Type 51, which was raced in 17 European Grand Prix events and is considered one of the finest surviving vehicles of its kind, may set an all-time auction record August 14 during Monterey Auto Week.

The Bugatti, boasting its original bodywork, engine and gearbox, is predicted to sell for $4.5 million, which would be the highest price ever paid for a grand prix racing Bugatti.

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UPDATE: The Bugatti failed to sell after reaching a high bid of $2,750,000 – not reaching it’s estimate of $3,500,000-$4,500,000 US.

Only block to feature the rare US ‘Type 1b stamp’ sells for $50,000
Sold for comfortably above its pre-sale estimate was this US one cent blue block of four, with a fifth stamp attached.

Dated to 1851, this is certainly no ordinary block; it happens to be the only recorded use of a block of 1851 one cent stamps from the top row of the first-ever plate.

Consequently, it is also the only block to include the rare and coveted imperforate Type 1b stamp. It can be seen in the block’s upper left, and is one of the best examples of its kind. Read the Full Story >>

Medal from the greatest single moment in American sports’ auctions in Dallas

Not one but two celebrated icons of sport will star in Heritage Auctions’ final Signature Sports Collectibles auction of 2010, November 4-5.

The first major highlight is Lou Gehrig’s 1927 Yankees jersey. Gehrig – aka “the great Iron Horse” – wore his jersey during the most famous season in New York Yankees history in 1927. His historic jersey is estimated at $600,000 or more.

Appearing alongside it is the only gold medal from the 1980 Lake Placid, NY, US Olympic hockey team ever to be offered at public auction. Read the Full Story >>

UPDATE: November 5, 2010: The 1980 U.S. Hockey “Miracle on Ice” Olympic Gold Medal Presented to Mark Wells sold for a final price of $310,700 (including buyer’s premium) and the 1927 Lou Gehrig Game Worn New York Yankees Jersey went for $717,000.00 (including buyer’s premium.)

The press release from Heritage Auctions:

“(Dallas, Texas) — The first 1980 “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey gold medal ever offered in a public auction sold for $310,700 Friday night, November 5, 2010. The winning bid from a sports collector was three times higher than the pre-sale estimate, according to the auctioneer, Heritage Auctions (www.HA.com) in Dallas, Texas.

“This gold medal was awarded to Mark Wells, then 21 years old and a center for the U.S. hockey team. He privately sold it earlier this year to an anonymous collector who consigned it to our sports memorabilia auction,” said Chris Ivy, Director of Heritage Sports Collectibles.

“The winning bidder is a Western United States rancher who enjoys many categories of collectibles, but this was his first purchase from our sports department. He is very excited to own this iconic piece of American sporting history,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions.

“He was one of 16 collectors bidding for the medal online or by telephone who took it from its opening bid of $25,000 to the winning level of $310,700.”

The price includes a 19.5 percent buyer’s premium paid by all winning bidders in the sports memorabilia auction that included the prized medal.

“We originally estimated it would easily sell for $100,000 because this was the first time any of the Olympic gold medals awarded to the 20 players of the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ U.S. hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union was ever offered in a public auction,” said Ivy.

With only five seconds left in the final period of the 1980 Olympics hockey game at Lake Placid, sportscaster Al Michaels enthusiastically said the now famous phrase, “Do you believe in miracles…YES!”

The medal, crafted by Tiffany, is accompanied by a letter from Wells in which he wrote: “I hope you cherish this medal as much as I have. I personally cannot think of another piece of memorabilia that has had such a profound effect on the sports world than this precious keepsake.”

For additional information, contact Heritage Auctions at (214) 528-3500, or visit online at www.ha.com.

1856-O double eagle coin brings $345,000, after 100 years hidden in Ohio
Graded “extremely fine”, this newly-surfaced specimen starred in Heritage’s Long Beach sale

A recently-discovered specimen of the 1856-O double eagle – graded XF45+*, NGC – was the big star of Heritage’s September US Coin Auction in Long Beach, California.

The 1856-O soared to $345,000 amidst spirited bidding according to the auction house. Overall, Heritage’s sale realised an impressive $13.4 million sales total. Read the Full Story >>

‘World’s most valuable penny’ brings $1.7 million for charity in the US

A famous, one-of-a-kind Lincoln cent from World War Two has been sold by a New Jersey coin dealer for a record $1.7 million.

The coin was mistakenly struck from the wrong metal, 67 years ago. It was purchased by a Southwestern United States business executive, and proceeds from the sale went to a charity.

“This is the world’s most valuable penny,” said rare coin dealer Laura Sperber, President of Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey who obtained the unique penny for the unnamed collector.

“It’s the only known example of a 1943-dated Lincoln cent incorrectly struck in a copper alloy at the Denver Mint.”

Read the Full Story here>>

“(Orlando, Florida) — A rare U.S. nickel that was owned over the years by an infamous Egyptian King and a Los Angeles sports team owner, and was the centerpiece in an episode of a popular television series, sold for $3,737,500 in a public auction conducted in Orlando, Florida Thursday, January 7, 2010. The little coin with the big value is a 1913-dated Liberty Head nickel, one of only five known of that specific date and design.

“It is probably the most famous United States rare coin because it was seen by tens of millions of viewers in an episode of ‘Hawaii Five-O’,” said Greg Rohan, President of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions (www.HA.com), the firm conducting the auction online and at the Orlando Convention Center through the weekend at a coin collector’s convention.

“The winning bidder is a very advanced, East Coast coin collector who was filling a hole in his collection with the addition of the 1913 Liberty nickel. The under bidder who also wants to remain anonymous is a sophisticated business executive who has just re-entered coin collecting circles.”

Although the name of the seller also was not disclosed, previous owners of this 1913 Liberty nickel included a roster of the rich and famous.

“In the 1940′s this coin was in the collection of the notorious King Farouk of Egypt who was deposed in 1952. In December 1973 it was prominently featured in an episode of the TV series, ‘Hawaii Five-O,’ entitled ‘The $100,000 Nickel.’ Los Angeles Lakers owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, paid $200,000 for the coin in 1978, and it changed hands several times since then, crossing the million dollar mark in 2003. Now it sold for over $3.7 million in spirited bidding,” said Rohan.

The price includes the 15 percent buyer’s premium and represents the actual total price the winning bidder is paying for the coin.

“The U.S. Mint struck tens of millions of Liberty Head nickels from 1883 through 1912, but switched designs in 1913 to depict a Native American on the “head’s” side and a bison on the “tail’s” side. However, five nickels with the new date, 1913, but the old design of the symbolic Miss Liberty secretly were made at the Philadelphia Mint and eventually sold to collectors.”

One of the five fabled 1913 Liberty nickels is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; another belongs to the American Numismatic Association (ANA) Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the three others, including the coin in the January auction, are privately owned by collections.

For additional information, contact Heritage Auctions at (800) 872-6467 or visit online at www.HA.com.”

Financial News – Yahoo! Finance
WallStreet Journal
Saturday May 3, 2008
By Carolyn Cui

“The gyrations in gold prices have upended the market for precious coins just as a lot of new investors have rushed in.

Coin sales surged for most of the last year as the price of gold and silver shot up. Buyers view coins as a way to hoard wealth and protect against uncertainty. And they are less bulky than a barrel of crude oil and more affordable than a gold bar.”

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Stupid Investment of the Week
By Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch
May 1, 2008

“It’s not collecting, it’s speculation,” says Jon Hanson, a rare coin dealer in Wellesley, Mass. “You are buying something because you’ve been told it has the possibility to be worth something, but millions [of the coins] have been made and they’re easy to come by. … Things like these coins become worth something because of the hype, and that hype doesn’t last forever. When the hype dies and the focus shifts, there’s no demand, and you’re left having paid too much.”

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A Van Nuys man parts with his stash and draws collectors from around the world to Long Beach auction.

Los Angeles Times
By Susannah Rosenblatt and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
February 17, 2008

“Even the untrained eye could tell: This $3.01 in pennies was much more than spare change. By the end of Friday night’s auction in Long Beach, Walter Husak’s rare American penny collection had fetched a cool $10.7 million.

And the top price tag of $632,500 each for two 18th-century coins broke rare penny sales records. Husak’s collection dates from the days of Washington and Jefferson, 1793 to 1814, with rare pieces including cents from 1793 that depict a startled-looking Lady Liberty, her hair blowing wildly behind her.”

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(Fallbrook, California) — Rare coin experts are warning that 2007-dated Presidential dollar coins, deliberately altered after leaving the United States Mint to remove the edge lettering including the motto, “In God We Trust,” are being offered to unsuspecting buyers in online auctions and at swap meets. The Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a nonprofit organization composed of the country’s top rare coin dealers, has issued a consumer advisory about the altered coins being sold as genuine errors.

The Mint mistakenly released for circulation thousands of genuine coins without the edge lettering, but the PNG cautions that worthless, fake versions now are appearing in the marketplace, especially Internet auctions.

“The edge lettering on some perfectly-made coins is being intentionally removed in machine shops to fraudulently make the coins appear to have a plain edge without the date, without the mintmark and without the mottos, In God We Trust and E Pluribus Unum. It’s the wild, wild West out there online, and it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better,” said Fred Weinberg of Encino, California, a former President of the Professional Numismatists Guild and an internationally known expert on mis-struck coins.

“You run the risk of paying $100 or more for an altered coin that’s only worth one dollar. Unless you know how to determine authenticity, the coin should be certified by a nationally-recognized authentication company or you should know the reputation of the professional dealer you’re buying it from.”

The normal weight of the George Washington dollar coins is 8.1 grams (125 grains) and the diameter is 26.5 millimeters. Any plain-edge coins that weigh less than 8 grams (123 grains) or with a diameter of 26 millimeters or less should be viewed with skepticism. They may have been deliberately trimmed to remove the edge lettering, according to the PNG.

“The altered coins are deliberately machined down until the lettering on the edges disappears. It’s also possible for the incused lettering to be filled in, then re-plated or re-colored, and then the altered coin is deceitfully sold as a genuine Mint-made error,” Weinberg explained.
Weinberg also cautions consumers to be wary of sale pitches for so-called “upside-down” lettering errors.

“The relationship is random between the edge lettering and the ‘heads’ side on the Presidential dollars. Some coins have the letters reading ‘up,’ and some are ‘upside-down’ when you view the front of the coin. These are not inverted-lettering errors, only a random method of placing the edge-lettering on the coins. Half the coins will have the letters up, and half will appear upside down.”

Members of the Professional Numismatists Guild must adhere to a strict code of ethics in the buying and selling of rare coins and paper money. For additional information, contact the PNG at 3950 Concordia Lane, Fallbrook, California 92028. Phone: (760) 728-1300. Online: www.PNGdealers.com.
E-mail: info@PNGdealers.com.

By SHANNON BUGGS
Houston Chronicle
March 15, 2007

“An unspecified number of the more than 300 million new George Washington presidential $1 coins made it through the minting plants in Philadelphia and Denver without getting lettering on their edges. Instead of bearing the inscriptions “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum,” the edges are smooth like pennies. The coins also are missing the mint mark and year.”

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February 3rd Auction to be Show’s First to Offer Internet Bidding

Omaha, NE – January 30, 2007 – Proxibid, a premier provider of live auction broadcasting services, today announced that it will provide live Internet bidding for an upcoming auction to be featured on HGTV’s popular show “Cash in the Attic.” This is the first time the television show’s auction will be available for online bidding. The live auction will take place on February 3, 2007 at 5:00 p.m. at Hammer Down Auctions in Leander, TX. Live online bidding for the event will be available via Proxibid’s Web site.

Cash in the Attic is one of HGTV’s most popular shows. During the show, professional appraisers scour the homes of the show’s participants for hidden treasures. The items chosen by the appraisers are then auctioned off to raise money to pay for a home improvement project for the participants.

“By offering online bidding in conjunction with the live auction, we are able to add a new type of bidder to the traditional auction typically featured on the show,” said Michele Hammer of Hammer Down Auctions. “Proxibid’s leading technology will enable us to attract a wider audience than ever before to a ‘Cash in the Attic’ auction. We are thrilled to be working with Proxibid to bring live Internet bidding to HGTV’s viewers.”

The items up for auction include pottery, decorative glass and valuable coin collections. Some of the auction highlights include:

• Lot 1: Formia Collection murano art glass vase with certificate of authenticity. Hand-blown and heavy beautiful crystal vase measures 5 lbs. 10 oz. and was made in Italy;
• Lot 2: Lavorazione murano 10″ vase made in Italy;
• Lot 16: Vintage American coins set encased in plexiglass holder. All coins have natural toning. Set includes a 1922 Peace Dollar, 1943 Lincoln Steel Wheat Penny, 1943 Silver Jefferson Nickel, 1964 Roosevelt Dime, 1964 Washington Quarter and a 1962 Ben Franklin Half Dollar;
• Lot 17: World War II obsolete coin collection encased in plexiglass holder; includes 1942-1945 silver Jefferson nickels, 1943 Steel Cent and 1944-1946 Lincoln Shell Case Wheat Pennies;
• Lot 18: American series presidents’ collection encased in plexiglass holder; includes 1964 Lincoln Memorial Cent, 1963 Jefferson Nickel, 1984 Washington Quarter, 1954 Roosevelt Dime and a 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar.

“Being part of a show like ‘Cash in the Attic’ further solidifies our position as a leader in the Internet auction marketplace,” said Bruce Hoberman, CEO of Proxibid. “Proxibid’s proprietary technology and stellar customer service and support will attract new viewers to ‘Cash in the Attic’. Now, bidders from across the globe can participate in one of the most popular shows on American television.”

To participate in the online auction, visit www.proxibid.com/hammerdownauction. Once there, bidders can view the auction catalog, place pre-bids and bid online during the live event. While the auction will take place on February 3, 2007, the actual “air date” is to be determined.