DALLAS, TX.- A pair of elite collections, one brimming with toned Morgan dollars and the other with an exceptional array of silver and gold type coins, will be among the top attractions in Heritage’s Long Beach Expo US Coins Signature® Auction September 12-15.
“The Puccini Collection of Toned Morgan Dollars is really extraordinary,” says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “Some shine a spotlight on colorful obverse toning, and some on stunning reverse Morgan ‘toners’ ... and it also is extensive, basically the first truly complete toned Morgan dollar collection that includes all major varieties for both the obverse and reverse sets. It represents an extraordinary opportunity for collectors of toned Morgans.”
The collection, which honors the memory of the consignor’s beloved Bichon Frisé that was named after the consignor’s favorite opera composer, features 488 lots of multi-colored beauty, including a magnificent 1881 Morgan Dollar, MS66 PCGS. The coin is not scarce in MS66 as a date, but it is so spectacularly toned as to be essentially unique, with comparable toned pieces rarely being scene in any grade. Such is the core theme of the Puccini Collection: some coins are challenging dates and varieties, but all are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities with regard to their colorful patinas. Other top offerings in the collection include, but are not limited to:
• A 1901 Morgan Dollar Doubled Die Reverse, VAM-3, AU58 PCGS
• An 1883-O Morgan Dollar MS64 PCGS. CAC
• An 1879-S $1 MS65 PCGS. CAC
Another important collection in the auction is the Duffy Family Collection, which boasts a bumper crop of silver and gold type coins in collector grades.
Among the top selections from the collection is a beautiful 1795 Capped Bust Right Half Eagle, AU55 PCGS from a small original production run of just 8,707 during the first year (although it is likely more 1795s were struck in ensuing years, since at the time, the Mint continued using coinage dies as long as they were serviceable). The example offered in this auction represents the scarce BD-6 variety, of which it is believed no more than 60-80 survive today in all grades.
From the same collection comes a seldom-seen circulated example of an 1879 Flowing Hair Stella, PR50. Flowing Hair stellas are exceedingly popular among collectors. The denomination, widely believed to have been created by former Chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures, and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary John A. Kasson, the idea for this denomination actually came from Philadelphia lawyer and inventor William Wheeler Hubbell and his influential sponsor, Alexander H. Stephens, Chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, who championed the proposal in Congress.
A 1796 Capped Bust Right Quarter Eagle, AU50 PCGS from the Duffy Collection, with no stars on the obverse, is from a tiny mintage of 963 pieces, and the No Stars motif was abandoned later in the year, making it a celebrated one-year design type that Ron Guth called “one of the most historic and important U.S. gold coins” and Q. David Bowers calls “the rarest U.S. gold design.” This coin represents the extremely popular BD-2 variety, with Normal Arrows that extend only to the end of “N” in “UNITED” on the reverse. John Dannreuther estimates the BD-2 dies were used to strike 897 pieces of the first-year mintage and the surviving population of the BD-2 variety is 100-125 examples in all grades.
A fourth prized offering from the Duffy Collection is a 1796 Draped Bust Quarter, B-2, AU55 PCGS from a total mintage that year of 6,146 coins, of which a number of high-quality specimens — like the impressive Choice AU coin offered in this auction — were preserved.
Also from the Duffy Collection, a 1907 Rolled Edge Eagle, AU55 PCGS is a gorgeous example of the second-rarest issue in the entire series. The Rolled Edge coins were meant to solve the problems of their Wire Rim pattern predecessors but fell short; for example, the Rolled Edge coins usually were softly struck in the centers, and Mint Superintendent John Landis did not care for the design, which was soon abandoned in favor of the No Periods motif. This impressive Choice AU specimen is one of just 50 examples that were not melted before distribution.
The featured collections in the auction are exceptional, but they did not produce all of the event’s top lots. Consider:
An 1895 Morgan Dollar, PR67+ Deep Cameo PCGS. CAC is a breathtaking Superb Gem coin, of which no business strikes are known. It is possible that as many as 12,000 circulation strike Morgan dollars were produced in 1895, but if they exist, their whereabouts are unknown. Meanwhile, just 880 Proofs, including the one offered in this lot, were struck, many of which are not available to the collecting community.
An 1864 Quarter Eagle, MS60 NGC is one of the four rarest circulation strikes within the Liberty Head series and remarkably rare in Mint State. With a reported mintage of just 2,772 pieces that does not naturally reflect the number of existing 1864 specimens, a total estimated to be less than two dozen in all grades, with just four certified Mint State pieces and the remaining examples in lower grades. The offered coin is the finest 1864 circulation strike Heritage has handled, and the first non-Details piece seen at Heritage since 2017. It is one of just 60 to earn a grade of 60, with only two carrying finer grades.
An 1861-S Paquet Reverse Double Eagle, AU53 NGC is an exceedingly important coin, named after Anthony C. Paquet, an engraver at the U.S. Mint who was active from 1857-64. He produced many designs for medals and a few for patterns, but the reverse of this double eagle is his most famous. Paquet was tasked with creating a new reverse for the double eagle in 1860. After it was determined in early 1861 that the design would wear too quickly, and although dies already had been shipped to the California facility, Philadelphia Mint officials sent a telegraph to the San Francisco Mint to return to the standard reverse. According to Doug Winter’s doubleeaglebook.com: “This telegraph appears to have taken a considerable amount of time to reach the mint and by the time it had, $385,000 worth of the new reverse 1861-S double eagles had been struck and released into circulation.” That equates to a mintage of only 19,250 coins, of which only a few hundred are estimated to have survived.
One of the truly intriguing lots in the auction is an Ephraim Brasher Countermark, VF30 on a 1760 Great Britain George II Half Guinea. Brasher is the most famous of all early American regulators, and one of the most instantly recognizable names in all of American numismatics. Renowned for his New York-style Doubloons, Brasher belonged to an important class of silversmiths and goldsmiths in the colonies ... and also was George Washington’s next-door neighbor on Cherry Street in New York when the city briefly served as the nation’s capital. The Bank of New York regularly employed goldsmiths and silversmiths, like Brasher, to test foreign coins received at the bank in routine commerce, weighing each coin as it was deposited, and adding a plug of gold to any found to be outside the allowable tolerances, after which they stamped the coins with their hallmark to indicate that the coins were acceptable. An incredible survivor from the early period of colonial numismatic history, this is the only the second 1/2 guinea host for an EB stamp locatable by Heritage experts.
