Archive for May, 2009
Park Avenue Numismatics Acquires Rare Date 1870-CC $20 Liberty Type 2 AU55 NGC FINEST KNOWN
- Finest Known 1870-CC Type 2 $20 Double Eagle Graded AU-55 by NGC
April 1, 2009 - Park Avenue Numismatics is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Finest Known example of the rare and elusive 1870-CC $20 Liberty Type 2 Double Eagle graded AU55 by NGC worth an estimated $550,000. “We are fortunate to handle major rarities such as this and our clients’ rely upon us to continue to aggressively pursue and locate key date gold coins to assist them in completing sets and series, stated Bob Green, President of Park Avenue Numismatics. I’ve been trying to buy this particular coin for years and when it finally surfaced I went after the coin without hesitation,” Green continued.
Park Avenue Numismatics, a Miami based rare coin firm has handled this date before including a VF30 NGC example valued at $235,000*, two XF45 certified examples worth and estimated $370,000* each, two examples in AU50 PCGS conservatively valued at $425,000* and two example in AU53 NGC currently worth $475,000* each in the past several years. “Collectors contact us regularly with Key Date gold coins because of our stellar reputation in this specialized area of the market,” Green continued. Other numismatic rarities acquired recently include a 1933 $10 Indian MS65 NGC, 1907 Rolled Edge $10 Indian MS65 PCGS.
Interested sellers of rare date gold can contact Park Avenue Numismatics buying department Monday through Friday 9am-5pm EST via toll free 800-992-9881.
1860 Seated Liberty Dollar MS65 NGC
Park Avenue Numismatics Inventory Item # PAN33018
1860 Seated Liberty Dollar MS65 NGC
The obverse of the Liberty Seated dollar displays Liberty seated on a rock in Classical flowing robes, head turned toward her right (viewer’s left). Her left arm is bent, raised hand holding a liberty pole with a cap. The right arm is extended downward at her side, with the hand balancing a shield across which the word Liberty is displayed in a curving banner. Thirteen six-point stars surround the seated figure inside a dentilled rim with seven on the left side, one between Liberty’s head and the cap, and the remaining five along the right. The date is centered at the bottom between the base of the rock and the rim.
On the reverse, an eagle is prominently displayed inside a dentilled rim. The eagle’s wings are partially spread but folded downward at the joint as if the majestic bird had just landed or perhaps instead is preparing to fly off. An olive branch is in the dexter claw (viewer’s left) ; the sinister claw clutches three arrows. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA encircles the top two-thirds of the coin inside the rim, with the ONE DOL. denomination centered at the bottom. Most were minted at Philadelphia; branch New Orleans (O) and San Francisco (S) mintmarks are located below the eagle, above the denomination.
Seated Liberty dollars of 1860 were apparently intended mainly for use in the export trade to China, where many were melted. In his Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, David Bowers writes:
“They never were available from the Mint at face value, and all were paid out at $1.08 each to bullion dealers, banks, and others who fed them into the Orient trade. A small percentage of the mintage (217,600 business strikes) circulated domestically after the resumption of specie payments in autumn 1876.”
Bowers also indicates that there was little interest in business strike Seated dollars during this time period. Collectors desiring date sequences of dollars were satisfied with Philadelphia Mint proofs.
The above factors account for the scarcity of 1860 dollars in all grades. NGC and PCGS have certified approximately 250 examples from Very Good through Mint State, many of which are undoubtedly resubmissions.
Offered At $75,600 - Click Here To Purchase This Coin
1802/1 $5 Capped Bust MS63 PCGS
Park Avenue Numismatics Inventory Item # PAN9067
1802/1 $5 Capped Bust MS63 PCGS
This type is also labeled Draped Bust or Turban Head to distinguish it from the later Capped Bust type introduced in 1807 (the Guide Book calls this type Capped Bust to Right, and the later type Capped Bust to Left). The eagle on Robert Scot’s earlier Capped Bust Small Eagle design of 1795 was unpopular, criticized as being scrawny. Scot replaced the small eagle with a larger eagle, often called a Heraldic design because of the dominant presentation of the Union shield over the eagle’s body.
Some have noted that steel coinage dies used at the time were nearly as valuable as bullion, and for that reason it was common to use and reuse those dies until they wore out. Such economy resulted in many varieties of early half eagles, including the chronologically “impossible” pairing of the Heraldic eagle reverse with an obverse 1795 date, explained by the use of an older 1795 obverse die in 1798.
Similarly, 1801-dated dies were prepared but not used in 1801, modified the next year to produce the 1802/1 overdate, and 1803 coins are 1803/2 overdates. The Large Eagle dies were first made early in 1798, but earlier-dated dies were retrieved from storage to meet increased demand for half eagles that year. This resulted in the production of Large Eagle reverse examples dated 1795, 1797, and 1798, the years also associated with the Small Eagle reverse.
This variety has the low overdate obverse with an extensively cracked reverse. Eight different varieties are known for the 1802 half eagle coinage, and all are 1802 over 1 overdates; however, these are from two distinctly different obverse dies.
The first obverse die, seen here, has the final digit about centered between the bust and the border. The other obverse die has the top of the digit 2 touching the drapery. This is a pleasing example with lightly reflective fields and attractive greenish-gold coloration.
Offered At $31,500 - Click Here To Purchase This Coin
1907 $20 St. Gauden High Relief Flat Rim MS67 NGC
Park Avenue Numismatics Inventory Item # PAN6307
1907 $20 St. Gauden High Relief Flat Rim MS67 NGC
The great drama that unfolded between 1905 and 1908, centered around the redesign of our nation’s gold coinage, has been well documented. The list of players is almost certain to be longer than we know, but some of the most important names on that list are those of Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Charles Barber, and Philadelphia Mint Director Frank Leach.
After an agonizing process that involved great tension between several of the aforementioned principals (especially Roosevelt and Saint-Gaudens versus Mint Engraver Barber), the new double eagle design was ready to be produced in 1907. The initial, so-called Ultra High Relief version of Saint-Gaudens’ double eagle proved technically impractical, and the next phase of the design to be struck has since been designated as the High Relief type.
This transitional type exists in two variations: referred to in recent decades by numismatists as, respectively, the Wire Rim and the Flat Rim. Apparently, the so-called High Relief Wire Rim version of Saint-Gaudens’ design (referred to by some contemporary observers as a “fin” rim) was not regarded with high esteem by those individuals who were most immediately involved in its production. Writing in the Renaissance of American Coinage (2006), Roger Burdette includes the following comments:
“Mint headquarters in Washington received a number of complaints about the new coins. Many of these were apparently concerned with the workmanship of production rather than design. Director Leach forwarded a copy of one letter to Philadelphia ‘…simply [to] let you see a sample of the most recent criticism of the new coinage, and to impress upon your people the fact I shall expect there will be no cause for such or even milder complaints.’ The letter was from F.H. Watriss from the law firm of Bartlett, Frazier, and Carrington in New York:
‘Gentlemen: As an American citizen I take some pride in seeing our Government do its best in everything it undertakes. I have just seen the new $10 and $20 dollar gold coins and although the design may be open to discussion the workmanship cannot be; the latter would be a disgrace to any mechanic. Both issues should be called in. Why the Department should permit such work is beyond comprehension. Very Respectfully Yours’
The workmanship complaints seem to have concentrated on the fin rim common to these coins, as well as the worn look of the $10 piece. After receiving the letter from Watriss, Leach wired the mint with instructions ‘…condemning all pieces with ‘fin’ edge be sure no more such coins get out.’”
The letter from Watriss was dated December 6, 1907. Burdette observes that by December 20 the fin (or Wire Rim) problem seems to have been solved, quoting from a letter of that same date from Director Leach to Barber: “I am more than delighted with the results you have obtained in preventing the ‘fin’. I know the President will be pleased too. I have an appointment to see him Monday A.M.”
Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth (2006), note that the Flat Rim double eagles, like this piece, are much scarcer than their Wire Rim counterparts, by a margin of nearly five to one. This estimate actually seems conservative when considering the combined population data from NGC and PCGS, where 3,887 Wire Rim coins have been graded, versus only 502 of the Flat Rims.
Offered At $195,000 - Click Here To Purchase This Coin
1922 Grant W/Star 50c MS67 NGC
1922 Grant W/Star 50c MS67 NGC
Park Avenue Numismatics Inventory Item # PANK1072
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War General and President of the United States, was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on the Ohio river southeast of Cincinnati, his family moving 24 miles to Georgetown, Ohio in 1824. A century after his birth, it was desired to have a commemorative issue produced to commemorate Grant’s birth and his life. Although Grant served throughout the Civil War, he is best remembered as the officer who accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865. Three years later, he was elected President and served two terms without particular distinction, and afterwards wrote his memoirs, finishing just days before his death on July 23, 1885. Rumor has it that he was actually buried in Grant’s tomb in New York city.
Profits from the various Grant commemorative issues were earmarked to provide suitable memorial buildings in southern Ohio. The original request from the Ulysses S. Grant Centenary Memorial Association was for 200,000 gold dollars. Half Dollars were not suggested, however, legislation was changed to authorize just 10,000 gold dollars along with 250,000 half dollars. Dave Bowers noted the significance (or lack thereof) of the varieties of these coins: “The Centenary Memorial Association was aware of the extra profits reaped by the distributors of Alabama and Missouri half dollars, so they too desired to have a special mark on their coins, but, not being able to devise anything significant in the way of an emblem, they came up with the idea of putting an otherwise meaningless star on the obverse of about half the issue of gold dollars.” Although the committee did not request additional half dollar varieties with the star on the obverse, this bonus was provided, a fact they apparently only discovered when they received the coins.
The May 1922 issue of The Numismatist, carried a report about these issues: “The Grant coins differ from other commemorative coins heretofore issued in that there is no inscription on them telling of their nature or object–no reference to a Grant Memorial–the designs alone telling the story. In design and execution they are the equal of any of our recent commemorative issues, all of which have proved exceedingly popular with collectors.”
