Auction News Network

$1000 Silver Certificate Sells For $2.6m

Technically, you could spend the 1891 silver certificate that auctioneer Stack’s Bowers offered this week: it’s still considered legal tender. You would be ill-advised to do so, however, as the rare certificate, which bears the likeness of former Senator and New York Governor William L. Macy, sold to an anonymous collector for a world record $2.6m.

A Million In Gold Falls From Attic

You can’t make this stuff up: U.S. gold coins (497 to be exact) rained down from the ceiling when a workman was renovating an old grape drying barn in Les Riceys, France. They’re worth a million, or more. Sotheby’s is selling the whole Champagne Lanson Bonnet “Vineyard” collection at its rare coins auction next month in Los Angeles.

$3.6m Expected For Australia’s First Banknote

Australia’s first banknote, issued 100 years ago, is expected to realize $3.6m in a private sale at Coinworks in Melbourne. If it does, it will be the highest price ever paid for an Australian coin or banknote. The 10 shilling bill, hand-numbered M000001 and issued May 1, 1913, was discovered 12 years ago among the effects of Judith Denman, daughter of Lord Denman, Australia’s governor-general at the time of the currency’s issue. The historic banknote last sold at auction for $1.9m.

Over $3m For Rare Nickel

Few American coins are as rare as the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel that Heritage offered this week in Illinois. Even fewer have as colorful a history. Recovered from a fatal car crash and initially dismissed as a fake, the coin—one of only five known examples– languished in a box for four decades. Only after what Heritage called “a secret midnight meeting in Baltimore in 2003,” did its owners discover its true value. Yesterday they received more substantial confirmation when it sold for $3,172,500.

Grand Price Expected For $1000 Bill

There was so much sliver pouring out of Nevada in the 1890s, they printed $1000 and $10,000 bills to soak up the bullion. That ended and the $1000 notes are now so rare, the only one believed still in private hands goes to auction at Heritage later this month for an anticipated $2m.

World Record Price For Australian “Holey Dollar”

Australia’s first coin, the aptly named “Holey Dollar” is also one of the rarest.  Originally created in 1913, it was fashioned from a Spanish silver dollar that had been struck at the Lima Mint in Peru. Only about 20 of the coins with that Lima pedigree survive. Of those, the one that sold this week in Australia was the “absolute finest,” according to Belinda Downie, director of Melbourne-based auctioneer Coinworks. Evidently collectors agreed, as the coin fetched $508,000, a new world record price for an Australian coin.

U.S. Half-Cent Sells For $358,000

When issued back in 1796, it was worth only a half-cent, but this week in Salisbury, UK, the U.S. Liberty Cap copper coin sold for $358,000 (with buyer’s premium). It’s called a “With Pole” specimen because there’s a pole stuck in the design. There are only 20 of these certified coins known to exist. Still in amazing condition, it had been stashed away in a cupboard for 50-years after the untimely death of its young collector.

First U.S. Silver Dollar (1794) To Be Sold

Hard to believe that just 218 years ago the United States didn’t have its own national money system. The Coinage Act changed all that and authorized striking the first uniform silver dollar by a U.S. Mint in 1794. One of those so-called “flowing hair” or Frothingham dollars will be offered at Heritage’s coin auction in Orlando in early January.

“Prohibitively Rare” Gold Coin At Heritage

The 1887 Queen Victoria Crown was struck in the days when coins really were works of art, as seen in the reverse of this coin with a crowned lion and a chained unicorn, surrounded by intricate border wreaths.  Heritage is selling the piece rated R7, or “prohibitively rare,” at its New York auction on Jan.6-7. High estimate is $250,000.

The First U.S. Coin Ever Struck?

When it last came up for auction in 2006, the 1792 half disme that Heritage will offer early next year sold for $1,322,500. The price, however elevated, wasn’t a fluke. It’s a very special item, one that may be the very first U.S. coin ever struck. Heritage hasn’t yet issued an estimate for the half disme, but it’s likely to make its price of six years ago appear a bargain.

Space Flown Coins At Heritage

Among the myriad categories in numismatics, one of the most specialized—and recent—may be items that have been to space. A Heritage space-themed auction coming up on November 2^nd features a number of these examples, including an Apollo 17 Flown Silver Robbins Medallion that comes from the collection of astronaut William Pogue. The sterling silver medal flew aboard the 1972 mission, which included the final lunar landing of the NASA program. It’s estimated at $25,000-$30,000.

Update: The Apollo 17 Medallion blasted well above expected altitudes, selling for almost $54,000.

Relics Of Chairman Mao May Sell For $1.6m

The American collector spent 15-years collecting all things Mao, trinkets, paintings, Warhol and Richter prints, books and an extremely rare 100 yuan note signed twice by the Chairman. A total of 208 lots at a Bloomsbury Auction in London that may fetch $1.6m.

Rare “Red Seal” $5 Note From Alaska Offered

Collectors call them “Red Seals,” currency issued by national banks at the turn of the century. A few years later the seal color changed to the familiar blue. Next month Heritage Auctions is selling an extremely rare 1902 $5 Red Seal Note from the National Bank of Fairbanks with a high estimate of $300,000.

Australian “Holey Dollar” Sells For $425,000

In the early 1800’s, Australia ran short of coins so they acquired Spanish silver dollars, punched a hole in the center , and called them “Holey Dollars,” worth five shillings. The last one in private hands was just auctioned in Melbourne for $425,000.

Ingot From Sunken “Ship Of Gold”

In 1857 a hellacious hurricane sunk the SS Central America steamer off the Carolina coast. On board were 15 tons of gold from California. 130 years later a team of American divers recovered the treasure from the so-called “Ship of Gold.”  A 2.5 pound ingot from the find will be auctioned by Bonhams next month.