With the World’s Fair of Money and all related auction sales completed, the final tally came in at over $50 million of coins and currency sold by Heritage and Stacks Bowers combined. While less than recent years, there were certainly individual stars from both firms. We previewed some of the top lots from Heritage last week, it was gold coinage which made waves in the Stacks Bowers sale. A 1798/7 capped bust right eagle graded AU58 by PCGS sold for $352,500 while a PCGS/CAC PR65+ 1898 Liberty head double eagle last sold in 1982 brought $258,500. The PCGS/CAC PR65 1875 Liberty head quarter eagle from the Eliasberg collection sold for $135,125. An exceptional early type coin, a gem 1799 eagle also garnered $258,500. Once again, coins which have been off the market for ten years or more performed the best.
METALS COOLING A BIT, BUT HOLDING THEIR OWN
Precious metals have cooled off a bit, as traders seem to be unsure about taking a strong position either way in the commodity markets. Silver has been especially volatile, and after spiking in the first days of August has come off more than a dollar from the high. Gold has been more stable, trading in a tight range between $1,310 and $1,360. As summer turns to fall and the Presidential election gets closer there is a good
chance that the volatility in precious metals will increase.
THIS WEEK’S MARKET
GREYSHEET
Gold Type: The biggest news in this segment is the overall lack of bidders for generic Saint-Gaudens double eagles, with the exception of CAC stickered coins.
Peace Dollars: While we noted weakness on the Bluesheet for sight-unseen examples, high-end (often CAC-approved) examples typically sell higher than our levels at auction.
Walking Liberty Half Dollars: There are a fair number of +/– signs this week for Walkers which continue to be one of the more active areas of the collector market. High-end gem (MS65+) examples of the pre-1933 issues are still doing extremely well, when they come up for sale. AU58’s also continue to move upward with little sign of retreat anytime soon.
BLUESHEET
Peace Dollars: We note weakness in dated issues of Peace dollars. High grade examples without CAC stickers have been especially weak.
