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Proof 1860 Coronet Gold 5 $ Half Eagle Makes a Comeback at the Auction

2017-08-26 Sat

After being off the market for nearly 20 years, one of nine documented surviving examples of the Proof 1860 Coronet gold $ half eagle will return to the auction block.

The example that once was part of the famous Harry W. Bass Jr. Collection is graded Proof 65+ Cameo by Professional Coin Grading Service. The coin highlights the Kagin’s Auctions offerings in a sale to be held on 15th September in collaboration with the CoinExpo Santa Clara, Sept. 15 to 17, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California.

Numismatic experts consider the Proof 1860 half eagle out of 62 are reported to have been produced at the Philadelphia Mint and is the second rarest Proof half eagle struck at the Mint after regular production of gold Proof coins began in 1858. The auction catalog also provides a detailed report of the issue’s remaining examples, tracing the six coins held by private collectors and the three pieces in institutional collections.

On 1st November 2000, the former Bass half eagle was sold in Auctions by Bowers and Merena sale. The coin then graded and encapsulated PCGS Proof 65, realized $57,500. Coin World’s Coin Values currently values the coin at $120,000 in PCGS Proof 65.

Prior to the 2000 sale, the former Bass coin appeared in the May 23 and 24, 1974, sale by Stack’s of the collection of Theodore Ullmer, where it was cataloged as “Gem Proof.”

The latter Bass coin is one of two examples of the Proof 1860 Coronet half eagle graded by PCGS, the other being a Proof 64 example.

The roster of known examples in private hands includes:

the Ten Eyck/Clapp/Eliasberg/Trompeter coin, graded Proof 65 Cameo by Numismatic Guaranty Corp.

the Garrett/Slotkin specimen, graded NGC Proof 64 Ultra Cameo.

the Farouk/Norweb piece cataloged as Proof 63 in the Norweb sale Oct. 12 and 13, 1987, by Auctions by Bowers and Merena Inc.

the Oliver/Lake Highlands coin, graded NGC Proof 64 Ultra Cameo.

the Amon G. Carter Jr. Family Collection specimen, cataloged as “Brilliant Proof, hairlines” in the Carter sale conducted Jan. 18 through 21, 1984, by Stack’s.

The National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History holds the U.S. Mint Cabinet example of the piece. In 1968, the Josiah K. Lilly example also became part of the National Numismatic Collection as part of a multimillion dollar tax write-off.

The American Numismatic Society’s example was a part of the J.P. Morgan Collection, first donated to the American Museum of Natural History, then transferred to the ANS in 1908.

The 15th September auction also includes the SS Central America gold ingots, a full variety set of nine Augustus Humbert octagonal $ 50 slugs by Kagin variety as recognized in Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States by Donald H. Kagin; hobo nickels; and other U.S. coins and Americana.