Rare gold coin may fetch up to $4 million at Georgia auction

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/16/rare-coin-estimated-at-up-to-4m-to-be-auctioned-in-georgia/

An auction gallery in Georgia is selling what’s believed to be one of the rarest coins ever made in the United States — a $3 gold coin estimated to be worth up to $4 million....

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

That coin does not appear to be the famous Eliasberg specimen throwing out the long held notion that it is a unique coin. The coin in the cornerstone of the San Fransisco mint not withstanding.

 

Your gonna have to give us more than that

 

For years, the story was that only two of these coins were produced. One to put in the cornerstone of the new US mint building in San Francisco and one other that was in the Louis Eliasberg collection (I believe he purchased it from Stacks in about 1915 or so). The one in Eliasberg's collection was in the XF range and was known to have problems. It was apparently mounted somehow in jewelry and had three digits scratched on the reverse along with a somewhat porous surface. Although the image in the article is cut off somewhat, it does not appear to be the same coin to me. But the condition is correct. If this is so, the coins population just doubled. My estimate for auction price will be about $2.75 to $3 million. I would not be shocked at all if it did reach the $4 million mark though.

 

Now I learned something twice today

 

To clarify, Eliasberg bought the coin (for $11,500) in January 1946. Harry Bass bought the coin from the Eliasberg estate (for $687,500) in October 1982. (Harry Bass put together the only complete set of every US gold coin (by date and mintmark) issued by the US Mint.)

The unique 1870-S $3 (as well as the rest of the gold coin collection) is currently on permanent loan to the ANA Museum in Colorado Springs and is on display in the Harry Bass wing of the museum. (I know the 1870-S $3 is in the ANA Museum because I saw it there less than 2 weeks ago. I may go by there tomorrow to check up on it.)

Has this coin in the auction in Georgia been authenticated by PCGS or NGC? I would think that a coin that rare and that valuable would have been slabbed.

 

I've got no idea but I am enjoying reading all this historical information. This is a rare area of the hobby for me.

Ruben

 

Thank you for the clearing that one up Hobo, it was way too late for me to do anything but go by memory on that one.

 

Here are better images of the coin from the auction




I don't like the denticals on the reverse from 1:00 to 2:30. The rim is very strong in that area, yet the denticals are weak.

I also wonder why this firm was chosen to auction such a coin. They claim the owner knew the importance of the coin, yet they chose a small auction house with no real experience or reputation for selling rare coins! very questionable.

 

Conder:
Agreed, exactly what I was thinking.

Why the heck would anyone consign to that small company.

And not sell during a national show.

Not logical, unless....


well, unless the piece is bogus.

Also, who the heck would buy it if it isn't slabbed?

A very wealthy idiot?

 

You know, talking about the cornerstone of the SF mint brought up something I always wondered about. How secure is this? Is it inside the building? There must be well into 7 figures of coins in there. I would imagine a group of thieves, for that kind of money, had to have taken a look at that target.

 

?

I posted pictures of it once but, doesn't that mean that it is INSIDE the corner stone? That is about as secure as it gets.

 

That's the direction the light is coming from. I would expect the denticles to look weaker there, because their edges aren't being lit from the side or head-on, and the angle is probably such that they aren't casting any shadow.

But there's no way I'd touch any great rarity through a little-known auction house with no apparent authentication. (Not that I'll ever be in this market anyway, but you know what I mean.)

 

Stone cannot be broken? We are talking millions and millions here. I was just wondering if there were other physcial security precautions.

 

IF you are a Buyer of this coin BRING YOUR OWN EXPERT AUTHENTICATOR...But do not forget the CASH..

 

Maybe, but the whole building is standing on it . Maybe in the post nuclear reality.

 

Cornerstones are usually huge and below standing level, they just had a show on history channel about the white house cornerstone being stolen...

 

Ok, I was just envisioning, if it was accessible to outsiders, some van driving up with a couple of jackhammers in the middle of the night.

 

Yeah they couldn't do that. There is a huge hotel across the street and people and cops everywhere.

 

The problem is that "cornerstones" are not always located at the corner or even on the outside wall. In the case if the Granite Lady's cornerstone they didn't bother to keep records or exactly where it was and no one knows where it was actually located.