Auction News Network

$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.

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.

Rare 1878 $500 Banknote May See $500,000

Once every five years or so, according to currency dealer Stacks Bowers, an 1878 $500 Legal Tender Note surfaces at auction. The last time that this one appeared, in 2007, it brought $517,000. Classified technically as a “Friedberg 185d,” it’s rated ‘Very Fine’ and one of only six known, one of which is in the Smithsonian and another in the Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y. When this example comes up at the ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction in Philadelphia on August 8^th, it’s expected to realize $300,000-$500,000.

Rare $100 “Watermelon” Note May Roll To $150,000

The 1890 $100 “Watermelon” Note took its name from its design details and green ink, which some thought made the bill resemble the skin of a watermelon. The $100 version, with Admiral Farragut on the face, was referred to as the “Baby Watermelon” and the much rarer $1000 note as the “Grand.” The “Baby” that Heritage will offer on February 3^rd in Long Beach, California is the first to come on the market since 2008. It’s estimated at $150,000 up.

1 Cent Coin Sells For $1.38m

One of the rarest American coins in existence sold this past weekend at Heritage for a heady $1.38m. It’s a 1793 Chain S-4 Cent piece from the famed Eliasberg Collection. The “gem grade” coin, one of the three finest surviving example of the issue in the world, has an impeccable provenance dating from 1864.

Ancient Chinese Paper Money For Sale

Around the time Chaucer was spinning his tales but before the Guttenberg Press, China was turning out paper bank notes and one of them from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) will be sold by Spinks at its currency auction in Hong Kong, Jan.14. It’s a 2 kuan cash note printed on grey mulberry bark paper with black Mongol text and a red seal. Last year a similar note sold for $154,000.

Greenland Currency Highlights Paper Money Auction

Greenland began issuing paper currency in the very early 19^th century. The first example may be a Serial No. 2, 1 Rigsdaler note that Stack’s Bowers will sell in its Paper Money session at a 3-day auction next month in New York. Extremely rare and listed in “fine-very fine” condition, it’s expected to realize $30,000-$50,000.

Ducat May Storm to $40K At Stack’s Bowers Sale

Coins are an extraordinary window into history. For example, at New York’s International Numismatic Convention next month, they’re auctioning an Austrian Ducat struck by the leader of the Counter-Reformation movement who kicked out all of the Protestants from Salzburg. With remarkable detail, the 1594 Ducat shows a symbolic Catholic tower lashed by a great storm.  High estimate $40,000.