Two Below the Radar Sales Records From the Stack's 2026 ANA Sale
/With thousands and thousands of lots offered for sale, Stack’s Bowers captured the attention of collectors from around the world last week. I don’t follow much of anything other than better date gold at auction, and having just returned from a grueling week of coin slingin’ in Pittsburgh, I had enough trouble keeping track of the whos, whens, and whats that I created a work chart/spreadsheet thingy to make sure I didn’t miss any bids.
NOTE TO READER: I didn’t miss any but had quite the little thrill when my internet went kerplooey right before I had a customer’s six-figure bid that I needed to execute. Luckily, I had thought of this and had a backup (my phone) which I used to buy the lot in question.
There were lots of rare date gold coins in the Stack’s Bowers sales, but not much stuff that excited me. Yet, two managed to really stand out. Coincidentally, they both happened to be from New Orleans, and both were half eagles.
Lot 2332: 1846-O $5.00 PCGS MS61, image courtesy of Stack's Bowers
The first was Lot 2332, an 1846-O half eagle in an old green label PCGS MS61 holder. As the coin was awarded a gold sticker by CAC, even if you had no idea how to grade it, you knew from the sticker that it had to be an MS62 or even a bit better by today’s standards. The coin was outstanding for the issue and I thought it would set a record price; easily besting the current high price of $45,000.
I had figured that it would hammer at around $40,000, which meant that with the 22% buyer’s premium, the coin would cost around $48,800 all in. Instead it brought $61,000 all in. At first I thought this sounded like a ton of money for a fairly obscure coin. But the more I thought about its price realized, the more I saw the buyer’s perspective. He’s a collector, so he probably will keep the coin as is.
In this market, $61k isn’t all that crazy when you realize that this coin was totally fresh to the market (I had never seen it before and I’ve seen almost every good-to-great New Orleans half eagle known), choice for the grade, and legitimately was in the top three known.
Lot 5336: 1893-O $5.00 PCGS MS64 CAC, image courtesy of Stack's Bowers
The second coin was a lot further off the radar. It was Lot 5336, a PCGS/CAC MS64 1893-O half eagle that brought a stunning $43,920. In grades up though MS63, this is a common enough issue, and I’ve bought and sold maybe a dozen MS63 to MS63+ coins in this last three years. A stellar PCGS/CAC MS63+ is maybe a $7,500 coin. But $43,920 is a heckuva lot of dough to pay for a coin, which while very nice will look foolish if it doesn’t get into an MS65 holder. I dropped out in the mid-20s because while I thought the coin was exceptional for what it was, I just couldn’t see PCGS ever grading it as a 65.
Overall, I thought the results for the dated gold in the sale(s) were mixed. This is going to sound sophomoric, but good coins bought good money while yucky coins went cheap.
Doug Winter is available for auction representation. Please call 214-675-9897 to discuss me representing you at the next round of auctions.
