Stack’s Bowers and Sotheby’s teamed up on February 9, 2016 to offer selections from the D. Brent Pogue Family Rare Coin Cabinet. By the end of the evening, the cumulative total of the coins sold from this and the Pogue I and II sales set a record for the most valuable coin collection of all time.
CoinWeek was on hand to film the action and to talk to dealers and collectors after the sale to get their impressions of this historic event.
Interviewed: Barry Sunshine, PCGS Set Registry Award Winner & Scott Travers, Coin Dealer and Author of The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual (revised 7th Edition, 2015).
Transcript:
On February 9, Stack’s Bowers and Sotheby’s teamed up once again to offer coins from the D. Brent Pogue Family Rare Coin Cabinet. This, the third of five scheduled sales, focused on 18th century copper, capped bust dimes and half dollars, three dollar gold, and capped bust half eagles from 1807 to 1820.
For a collection of the magnitude of Pogue, this was a workmanlike selection, with the middle portion dominated by collector coins. Despite the comparably lower numbers these coins brought – many of these were once in a lifetime dream coins for the collectors that came out on top.
CoinWeek was the only numismatic publication at the sale, and here’s our breakdown…
Half Cents
The Pogue half cents offered this evening brought $4,159,500. This was roughly 20% over Stack’s Bowers low estimate and 15% under Stack’s Bowers high estimated price. The Pogue $5 gold coins performed similarly against the estimate.
Playing the percentages, the big winners were lot 3007, the finest certified 1795 no pole half cent, which we previewed earlier, and lot 3010, the finest certified 1797 half cent, 1 above 1 variety.
The second highest price realized on the night belonged to lot 3004, the breathtaking Tettenhorst-Pogue 1794 half cent in MS67RB. This coin brought $1.15 million two years ago at the Missouri Cabinet sale, and brought a healthy 940,000 with Buyer’s Premium at Pogue III.
Moving on to Cents
Six large cents crossed the block at Pogue III. The Headliner was the Garret-Naftzger Sheldon 3 1793 Chain Cent, Lot 3013.
Presale estimates had the coin in the $750,000 to $1 Million range. It’s $998,750 – top price on the evening – was clearly at the high-end of target. In 2013, Stack’s Bowers offered the Cardinal Chain Cent, an example in PCGS MS65BN CAC – that coin brought the same money.
The big winner was the 1793 Ameri. (S-1) Chain Cent, Lot 3012, which brought $470,000, blowing past the presale estimate by more than 50%.
Dimes
Looking beyond the big numbers of some of the evening’s higher profile coins, Pogue III’s most successful portions were the dimes and half dollars.
The dime section was received with great enthusiasm on the sales floor. Collector Barry Sunshine came ready to improve upon his award-winning registry set, picking up four coins on the night including the dream coin 1830/29 in MS67.
Some of the most “exciting” action of the night that we captured on film was of Sunshine battling against internet bidders for these “once-in-a-lifetime” coins.
As a lot, the dime sections brought 11% higher prices than Stack’s Bowers pre-sale high estimates. The Mills-Wolfson 1814 Small Date dime was the biggest winner, beating the estimate by over 200%.
Half Dollars
Half dollars formed the lion’s share of the evening’s offerings. 41 capped-bust halves in total crossed the block.
The Earle-Eliasberg-Pogue Proof 1827 stole the show with active bidding online, on the floor, and over the phone. CoinWeek’s Greg Reynolds gives the blow-by-blow in his account of the sale. The hammer price of $258,500 went well above the presale high estimate of $150,000.
Across the board, halves faired well on the evening. A few bargains were had, but in aggregate, Pogue III halves brought 24% over high estimate.. This is in line with the strong showing all coins saw during Pogue II.
Gold $3
Action for the Gold $3s was on par with the performance we saw with the large cents… On the high end of the high estimate, but not over.
Here, the most impressive result came from the 1875 Proof. Finest known one of reportedly 20 struck. Hammer price $329,000. 3117
Wrapping up the night were the Capped-Bust Gold $5s
26 ultra-high end capped bust $5 gold coins from 1807 to 1822 brought a combined total of 4 million 732,900.
The Pogue 1815 half in MS-65 realized 822,500, falling in the lower end of the presale $750,000 to $1 million estimate range. As a whole, the rest of the offerings finished a bit stronger, however. The 1819 in MS61 finishing especially strong at $141,000.
This video program was filmed in 4K resolution for maximum video quality. Click the “Watch on YouTube” button to view video at maximum resolution.
Copyright © CoinWeek February 2016
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