Why No Motto Philadelphia Half Eagles May be the Best Value in Today's Dated Gold Market
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How Rare are Non-Shipwreck Gem Type One Double Eagles?
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In the recent Stacks Bowers 2016 ANA Sale, I was fortunate to purchase an amazing 1860 double eagle, graded MS65 by PCGS, which was part of the Bull Run Collection and earlier was sold as Lot 900 in the famous October 1982 Eliasberg Collection auction.
After I bought this coin, I told another dealer that the Eliasberg 1860 “was the finest non-shipwreck Type One double eagle I had ever owned.” This got me to thinking: just how rare are non-shipwreck MS65 and finer double eagles of this type?
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The Final Link to Completing a Charlotte Gold Collection
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Can you guess which coin took me over two years of searching to find and which I finally found to complete the Revere Collection of Charlotte gold? Hint: it isn’t what you think it is.
Read More10 Rare Date Gold Coins with Surprisingly Low/High CAC Populations
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To me, CAC populations help to quantify quality. By this, I mean that if 8 examples of a specific date of Liberty Head half eagle have been approved by CAC, we can assume that there are at least 8 above-average examples of this date with some degree of originality and eye appeal. A figure of “8” at PCGS is not as quantifiable when it comes to quality.
Read MoreSix Liberty Head Gold Issues Which Have Been "Ruined" by the Grading Services
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The powers that be at PCGS and NGC have never sat down and said “let’s deliberately ruin such and such issue by misattributing them or miscalculating them.” Unfortunately, this is exactly what they have done on a number of important U.S. gold coins. I have selected six. There are more, but these examples are egregious enough to merit discussion.
Read MoreCool Coins from Long Beach: 1851-O $20.00
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I always like to share some of the interesting “secret” coins that I buy at shows and I recently realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve written a “Cool Coins” Blog.
Read MoreWhy are so Many 19th Century-Dated Gold Issues so Rare with Original Color and Choice Surfaces?
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As collectors become more insistent on originality, they are quickly discovering that many 19th century issues are extremely hard to locate with a nice, natural appearance. Why is this?
Read MoreWhat Are the Three Rarest Carson City Half Eagles?
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Of the three denominations of gold coins struck at the Carson City mint, perhaps the most popular to collect by date are the half eagles.
Read MoreGary Carlson: In Memoriam
/Gary was a world-class expert on early type and knew more about early silver dollars then just about anyone else in the coin business. Our numismatic paths didn’t cross all that often but when they did, I found Gary to be fair and honest. In my dealings with collectors, Gary’s name would come up from time to time and I never heard anything bad attached to him. When someone told me they were a “Gary Carlson customer” I knew that their coins were nice and that they were being treated fairly.
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