2017-11-23 Thu

Stack’s Bowers Galleries sold a 1792 Silver Center cent pattern, graded Mint State 61 brown by PCGS with a green CAC sticker on 9th November for $900,000 at the Rarities Night auction for the last 2017 Whitman Coin and Collectibles Expo in Baltimore.

It is counted among the finest of 14 examples known, with the silver plug in the center of the coin, representing an attempt to make a cent coin with a cent’s worth of metal in it.

It was consigned by the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation and was last sold at auction at Heritage’s 2012 Central States Numismatic Society auction where it realized $1,150,000. The provenance of its most recent offering noted that it traded between dealers John Albanese, Kevin Lipton and Anthony Terranova prior to its acquisition by the foundation.

Another consignment from the foundation was the finest known 1794 Flowing Hair Half Dollar of the Overton 105 die marriage, graded About Uncirculated 58+ by PCGS that brought $ 252,000. It was last offered at auction at Bowers and Merena’s August 2010 Boston Rarities Sale and also offered as property from the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation and then graded Mint State 62 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp. — it realized $189,750.

The Stack’s Bowers description observes, “Satiny surfaces are dressed in rich steel-olive patina, the luster virtually complete. Splashes of reddish-orange colour are evident along the right obverse and reverse borders. In recognizing the potential bidder confusion stemming from its prior offering in an MS-62 holder, the description adds, “With a nearly full luster and virtually complete striking detail, this coin has the appearance of Mint State quality.”

Another highlight was the only known Mint State 1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle silver dollar of the Bowers-Borckardt 72 die marriage, graded PCGS MS-64, that realized $264,000. The variety is the only die marriage of 9 by 7 Stars obverse with the small letters reverse, and is a distinct variety listed in the “Red Book”. It previously sold at Heritage’s Eric P. Newman Collection, Part II sale, in November 2013, for $381,875.