A Proof-65 1904 $20 gold piece realized $72,450 to highlight Scotsman Auction Company’s Midwest Summer Sale 2009 that was held July 24 at the St. Charles, Mo., Convention Center.
This price and all prices cited here include a 15 percent buyer’s fee.
The $20 was housed in a Professional Coin Grading Service green label holder. It was described by the catalog as, “the obverse portrait, stars and numerals are all frosted with pleasing satiny texture, though the reverse devices are less so rewarded.”
Overall, the nearly 1,300 lots in the auction brought a total of $1,444,801.
The second highest price achieved was the $38,525 recorded for a 1916-D Mercury dime that was graded MS-65FB (Full Split Bands) by the Professional Coin Grading Service.
The dime was described in the catalog this way: “Very few marks affect the surfaces of this platinum-tan coin, limited to a tiny abrasion and a singular tick on Liberty’s neck, although certain angles of lighting will reveal a pair of nearly invisible diagonal hairlines rising through the back of Liberty’s cap.”
An MS-68 1864 Seated Liberty quarter fetched $26,737.50. Only one other has been graded by PCGS in the same grade, the catalog notes, and there is none finer.
The cataloger also says, “studious technical analysis of the surfaces fails to reveal any large blemishes.”
For more information, contact Scotsman at 11262 Olive Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63141-7653. Telephone (800) 642-4305, or visit the Web site at www.scoins.com.
