Capped Bust Quarter Top Coin in December Heritage Sale
CACG-certified finest 1815 Capped Bust quarter elicits nearly three dozen bids before selling for a stellar $126,000 at auction.
Nearly three dozen bids poured in for the finest-certified 1815 Capped Bust quarter (B-1, CACG-certified MS-67) until it sold for $126,000 to lead Heritage’s U.S. Coins Signature Auction to $5,654,911 Dec. 14-17.
“The 1815 quarters represented the first Capped Bust design for the denomination by John Reich, the celebrated German-born designer of American coins,” said Todd Imhof, executive vice president at Heritage Auctions. “His designs had appeared earlier on half dollars in 1807 and on dimes in 1809, but this was the beginning of his design on Capped Bust quarters … and it is the finest-known example.”
According to Heritage, Numismatic Guaranty Company claims one other MS-67 example, but that example has traditionally been ranked second to this one, which originally hailed from the collection of the man commonly known as “Colonel” E.H.R. Green, the London-born millionaire who was close friends with President William McKinley and was among the world’s most revered coin collectors.
Also reaching six figures in the sold-out event was a 1927-S Saint-Gaudens double eagle, graded MS-64, a Choice example of a coin that always has been popular and was believed in the 1940s to be the fourth-rarest Saint-Gaudens double eagle, behind the 1924-D, 1926-S and the 1926-D. In this sale, it brought $108,000. But some 1927-S double eagles were used in foreign trade, putting them out of reach during the Gold Recall of 1933. When international trade resumed after World War II, coin dealers found many exported Saint-Gaudens double eagles had survived in European and Latin American banks and were repatriated in the 1950s. Only a relatively small number of 1927-S double eagles ever surfaced in foreign holdings.
A prize among Southern gold collectors for type purposes, an 1853-D Liberty half eagle graded MS-64+ by PCGS, CAC, drew a record $90,000 – eclipsing the previous standard of $86,500. This example of the coin that is considered the most available half eagle from the Dahlonega Mint is tied with one other MS-64+ example at PCGS for the distinction of being the finest certified.
Another popular lot was a 1915-S Panama-Pacific round $50 coin graded MS-63+ that prompted more than 30 bids before it sold for $78,000. Called the “King of the Pan-Pac Commemoratives,” this coin is, along with the octagonal $50 gold, the crown jewel of the 1915 series. The round Pan-Pac $50s, including this example from The Mercury Rising Collection, are especially sought after in any grade.
Three dozen bids came in for an 1864-S $10 graded XF-40 before it closed at $57,600. The rarest S-Mint $10 and the second-rarest Liberty $10, it hails from an original mintage of just 2,500 – a number that shrunk after the coins were released into circulation and circulated heavily in the hard-money economy of the western United States. PCGS CoinFacts estimates the surviving population at just 22-26 examples over all grades.
Other top lots and their prices realized included:
• A 1908-S double eagle, MS-65 NGC: $55,200
• An 1855 gold dollar, MS-66+ NGC, CAC: $50,400
• A 1913 double eagle, MS-65 PCGS: $50,400
Complete results can be found at Heritage Auctions.
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