2016-07-21 Thu

On 16th July, one of the most respected coin collectors, the 80 year old, Eugene Herr Gardner, passed away due to complications of multiple myeloma. His entire collection fetched more than $52 million at auctions. More than 3,000 coins were hosted for public sale through four auctions between 2014 and 2015. Gardner collected these coins over a period of 20 years and was pleasantly surprised when all of it fetched $52.8 million.

The star coins of his collection include PCGS Mint State 66 1796 Draped Bust dime that was sold for $881,250; a PCGS Proof 64 1827/3/2 Capped Bust quarter dollar with Certified Acceptance Corp. which was auctioned for $396,562.50; and a PCGS Extremely Fine 40 1870-S Seated Liberty dollar which went for $505,250.

To honour his works and contributions, Heritage has established a Scholarship Fund at The American Numismatic Association.

His collection of Seated Liberty and Bust coinage was so impressive that in 2014, the Liberty Seated Collectors Club presented him the LSCC Hall of Fame. He always emphasised on quality and completeness. His collection of circulation-strike Seated Liberty half dollars is considered exceptional.

His collection consisted of beauties like 1842 Seated Liberty, Small Date, Small Letters half dollar, a pairing of design obverse and reverse subtypes which had just four known examples.

Mr. Gardner’s 1842 Seated Liberty, Small Date, Small Letters half dollar, graded PCGS MS-64 sold for $99,875 in 2014.

His work and collection was as respected as those assembled by the greatest collectors of U.S like Eric P. Newman, Jimmy Hayes and Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. In 2014, he became the member emeritus of Gardner Russo & Gardner LLC, which he founded in 1968.

Before going completely independent, he worked for a popular investor William Ruane at Kidder Peabody in New York and continued staying in touch with Ruane Cunniff and Goldfarb LLC.