Coin News: The King of American Coins comes to Long Beach

Heritage Auctions' Coin Newsletter [Read this newsletter online]( [Heritage Auctions]( [Coin News]( In This Issue: • [The King of American Coins comes to Long Beach](#collector-a) • [A World of Money: Extreme Rarity Chekiang Dragon Dollar in MS66](#collector-b) • [Website Tips: Better results for View Prices in Other Grades](#tips) • [This Week's Top Ten](#top10) • [Around Heritage Auctions](#around) • [Is It Time To Sell?](#sell) • [Current Auctions](#current) May 15, 2018 [Newsletter Archive]( [Last Issue]( []The King of American Coins comes to Long Beach [1804 $1 Original PR62 PCGS Secure]( [1804 $1 Original PR62 PCGS Secure]( 1804 dollars deserve headlines every time they come to auction. Heritage is proud to feature [the Mickley-Hawn-Queller specimen, a Class I "Original"]( as one of the offerings in the [June 14-17 Long Beach Signature Auction](. This coin will cross the block as a part of the Premier session, scheduled for the evening of Thursday, June 14. For more than a century, the 1804 dollar has reigned as the "King" of U.S. coinage, a fitting title to bestow on a coin made for royalty. The U.S. Mint received orders to strike complete sets of proof coinage meant to serve as diplomatic gifts for sovereigns such as the Sultan of Muscat, the King of Siam, and the Emperors of Cochin-China and Japan. While most denominations specified by the Mint Act of 1792 were still in production in 1834 and thus simple to produce as proofs, the silver dollar and gold ten dollar (eagle) had not been struck for many years — since 1804, the Mint's research found. There was just one catch: those silver dollars struck in 1804 were made from carryover obverse dies and did not bear that date. When the Mint struck those silver dollars dated 1804 and a few spares, an inadvertent rarity was created. Matthew Stickney became the first confirmed non-royal, non-government-employee owner of an 1804 dollar in 1843, when he traded a gold Immune Columbia piece — a remarkable numismatic delicacy — as well as other coins to the Mint Cabinet to get his example The second confirmed piece to come into a collector's hands was this very coin, which had come into the possession of bank teller Henry C. Young in October of 1847 and was sold to now-legendary numismatist Joseph J. Mickley the same day. After the Civil War, the market for the various 1804 dollars blossomed. The Mickley specimen offered here sold at a W. Elliot Woodward sale for $750 in October 1867, while the Chapman brothers cracked the four-figure mark and coined the phrase "King of the U.S. series" in May 1885 when they sold the Dexter specimen for $1,000. While those Originals were setting records, the Second Restrike or Class III coins, artificially worn and given artificial backstories were working their way toward marketplace acceptance. Prices for 1804 dollars at auction soared as the decades passed. In 1960, the Davis Restrike 1804 dollar brought $28,000 at auction, while in 1970 the Mickley Original specimen realized $77,500. In 1980, at one of the U.S. coin market's great heights, the Berg Restrike example reached $400,000, while the 1989 offering of the Dexter Original representative saw it go for $990,000, another bull-market record tantalizingly close to the million-dollar threshold. The Stickney Original piece, which in 1946 was the first five-figure U.S. coin at $10,500, became the first seven-figure 1804 dollar and the most expensive U.S. coin ever auctioned when it sold as part of the legendary Eliasberg Collection in 1997 for $1,815,000. The Sultan of Muscat Original, universally considered the best-preserved of 1804 dollars, leapfrogged that price to bring $4,140,000 in 1999, a record price for any coin that stood for several years and still the highest price realized at auction for any 1804 dollar. This piece, encapsulated in a PCGS PR62 holder, was last offered at auction in the 2013 Chicago Signature Auction, where it realized $3,877,500. It is our privilege to offer it once again in Long Beach as a part of the Geyer Family Collection. The Long Beach Signature auction will be open for bidding soon at [coins.HA.com](. [Back to Top](#top) []A World of Money: Extreme Rarity Chekiang Dragon Dollar in MS66 [Chekiang. Kuang-hsü Dragon Dollar ND (1898-99) MS66 NGC]( [Chekiang. Kuang-hsü Dragon Dollar ND (1898-99) MS66 NGC]( Our upcoming [June 28-29 Hong Kong auction]( features, among many other rarities, a [Chekiang Dragon Dollar certified MS66 by NGC](. Minted in 1898-99, this is among the rarest of all the "Dragon Dollar" issues, and seldom available to collectors of the series, with archived auction records reflecting the offering of only three coins since 2008. All three of these previously offered coins were VF Details condition, with two pieces having chopmarks, and the third showing graffiti damage. The last of these to be sold at auction was a VF Details (Chopmark) example sold by Heritage in December 2017 at the hammer price of $55,000. This spectacular example is truly amazing and a once in a lifetime opportunity for the collector who wants to acquire the finest known example of a supremely rare dragon dollar. Much like the 50 Cent example of this type in the same auction, the strike is essentially flawless, with untoned bright silver color over satin obverse fields, with prooflike reverse fields. No notable flaws detract from the overall appearance of this one-of-a-kind example. Only three pieces have been certified of this classic rarity, with only one other Mint State example, an MS64 graded by PCGS. [Back to Top](#top) []Website Tips: Better results for View Prices in Other Grades We have added a new feature to the item page for US coins, improving the "View prices in other grades" link. Previously, the link to view prices in other grades did a search on the Index number of the item. This had two issues: - All searches through this link reset the user's search parameters to Index number. - Some coins have two panes — a variety pane and a general pane. Searches done from the general pane would exclude any item cataloged as a variety; they would simply include items cataloged with the general PCGS number. This is particularly problematic with coins that are often cataloged as varieties, particularly pre-1834 issues. The new View prices realized link fixes these issues. - Searches from the general pane no longer search through the PCGS number only; they search through the user's default settings of Titles or Titles and Descriptions. - Searches done from the general pane (or searches done for coins with no panes) include all relevant varieties as results, without limiting the results to coins cataloged as no variety. As a desirable side-effect of no longer being locked into PCGS numbers, it is now possible to modify the search results on the fly to include or exclude different designations. For example, before this change, a search for 1878 $1, PL, would only return Prooflike coins, and there was no easy way to view Deep Mirror Prooflike coins or coins without a designation. Now, the same search still returns prooflike coins, but by changing selections in the Coin Designation field, it is easy to adjust your search to include whichever combination of Prooflike, Deep Mirror Prooflike, and No Designation coins you choose, by simply clicking on the Coin Designation(s) you want to see. Please be aware that the new link returns results with the Coin Designation already chosen. As a side effect of this, further keyword searches on the same search page will retain this selection as a part of the search, often resulting in too few results. (Additional searches from different search pages are not affected.) As a result, we recommend that if you click on the View Prices in Other Grades and choose to perform additional searches from the same page, you first click the Start Over button. [Back to Top](#top) [] This Week's Top Ten [1926-S 1C MS65 Red PCGS]( The ten highest valued cents minted in San Francisco to sell in Heritage Auctions, one per issue. - [1926-S 1C MS65 Red PCGS]( Realized: $149,500 - [1969-S 1C Doubled Die MS64 Red PCGS]( Realized: $126,500 - [1909-S VDB 1C MS67 Red PCGS Secure]( Realized: $117,500 - [1909-S Indian 1C MS67 Red PCGS]( Realized: $97,750 - [1914-S 1C MS66 Red PCGS]( Realized: $83,375 - [1909-S Lincoln 1C MS67 Red PCGS]( Realized: $69,000 - [1913-S 1C MS66 Red PCGS]( Realized: $63,250 - [1925-S 1C MS65 Red PCGS]( Realized: $54,625 - [1920-S 1C MS65 Red PCGS]( Realized: $48,875 - [1915-S 1C MS66 Red PCGS]( Realized: $48,300 Wrong planchet errors have been omitted from this list. Do you have a suggestion for a future top ten list? [Send it to us!](mailto:StewartH@HA.com?subject=Top Ten List Suggestion) [Back to Top](#top) []Around Heritage Auctions Babe Ruth's 60th Home Run Record Bat From 1927 Season May Bring $1 Million in Heritage's Sports Memorabilia Catalog Auction [1927 Babe Ruth Game Used Record Sixtieth Home Run Bat Gifted to Legendary Performer and Collector Joe E. Brown, PSA/DNA GU 10.]( [The game-used bat Babe Ruth swung to smash a terrific 60th home run]( — the 1927 right-field bomb that set a 34-year record - is estimated to sell for $1 million or more in [Heritage Auction's spring Sports Memorabilia Catalog Auction]( May 17-18. Considered one of the greatest treasures in baseball history, the bat makes its auction debut among nearly 1,400 memorabilia-only lots for all collecting disciplines. "It's definitely a contender for the best bat in the hobby," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage. "Ruth hit 17 home runs in September 1927 to break his own record — the best month of his career. It's a piece marking the absolute prime of the game's greatest figure and the pinnacle of New York Yankees history as well." Authenticated GU 10 by experts at PSA/DNA, Ruth's record-breaking bat shows extensive game use, which suggests it served a lengthy tenure in the hands of the game's foremost slugger. Multiple ball marks and stitch impressions on the left barrel match Ruth's label-down, left-handed swing. Attesting to its rich provenance, the right barrel is inscribed "To Joe E. Brown From Babe Ruth." One of Ruth's friends and a figure familiar to most veteran hobbyists, Brown was a much-beloved comedian and movie star and widely regarded as the first celebrity sports memorabilia collector. A 2012 notarized letter from Don E. Brown — son of Joe L. Brown and grandson of Joe E. Brown — accompanies the bat and discusses the history of the collection and this bat in particular. Equal to Ruth in mastery of his chosen field of endeavor, if not in global fame, the extraordinary [Jack Smalling Baseball Autograph Collection]( supplies the auction with the most comprehensive autograph collection ever made available to the collecting hobby. Smalling literally wrote the book on collecting autographs through the mail—The Baseball Autograph Collector's Handbook - and his 13,000 autographs offered as a single lot include such elite rarities as Vic Willis, Mickey Welch, Martin Dihigo and Josh Gibson. Gridiron gamers have emerged as a strong theme in this sale, with photo-matched jerseys from current and future Canton immortals [Bobby Layne]( [Troy Aikman]( [Brett Favre]( and [Tom Brady](. Also on offer is a veritable treasure trove of awards includes championship rings from all four major American sports and legendary jockey Jose Santos' personal trophies for winning [The Preakness Stakes]( and [The Belmont Stakes](. [Back to Top](#top) []Is It Time To Sell? A compelling consignment opportunity presents itself, as Heritage proudly presents the upcoming July 12-16 Summer FUN US Coins Signature Auction in Orlando. Heritage's auctions have been a fixture in Orlando, both in winter and summer, for many years. And regardless of the time of year, these sales have been enthusiastically embraced by bidders. We see no reason why history won't repeat itself yet again. You can personally benefit from Heritage's connections to buyers from around the world and sell your coins alongside the millions of dollars of rare, desirable and important offerings that have already been consigned. The May 29 [consignment deadline]( for US coins will be here before you know it. Call our Consignment Hotline at 1-800-872-6467 x1000 today! [July 12 - 16 Summer FUN US Coins Signature Auction]( Consignment Deadline: May 29, 2018 [David Mayfield]( Vice President, Numismatic Auctions [David@HA.com]( 1-800-US-COINS ext. 1000 Interested in Selling? [What's My Coin Worth?]( [Consign to a Heritage Auction]( [Back to Top](#top) [] Current Auctions Coin and Currency Auctions [May 27 The Charles J. Ricard Collection of Napoleonic Medals Monthly World and Ancient Coin Auction #271821]( [May 27 The Charles J. Ricard Collection of Napoleonic Medals Monthly World and Ancient Coin Auction #271821]( [View Lots]( [Weekly Internet US Coins]( [Weekly Internet US Coins May 15-16 Live session @ 6PM CT]( [View Lots]( [Tuesday Internet Currency Auction]( [Tuesday Currency May 15 Live session @ 7PM CT]( [View Lots]( [Weekly World Coin Auction]( [Thursday World Coin May 17 Live session @ 8PM CT]( [View Lots]( OTHER SIGNATURE AUCTIONS • [Tiffany, Lalique & Art Glass - May 16]( • [Sports Memorabilia - May 17-18]( • [Modern & Contemporary Art - May 24]( • [Online Prints & Multiples - May 31]( • [European Comic Art - June 2]( • [The David and Janice Frent Collection of Presidential & Political Americana - June 2-3]( • [Photographs - June 5]( • [Summer Fine Jewelry - June 11]( • [Hudson Valley Estate - June 27]( OTHER INTERNET AUCTIONS • [Tues. Jewelry - May 15]( • [Thurs. 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