Flip that 1804 dollar
The Dexter 1804 silver dollar that sold for $3.3 million in the March 31 Stack’s Bowers Auction sold again April 2 for an undisclosed higher price in a private treat sale.
Can an 1804 silver dollar be flipped?
Apparently so.
The rarity that sold Friday night for $3.3 million was sold again on Sunday afternoon for an undisclosed sum.
Buyer was Bruce Morelan, a man known for his fine collector’s eye and the owner of the all-time finest set of early American dollars listed in the PCGS Set Registry®.
Acting as Morelan’s agent was Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics in Lincroft, N.J.
She acquired the coin April 2 from Kevin Lipton of Beverly Hills, Calif., and John Albanese of Bedminster, N.J., who had jointly purchased it for $3,290,000 at the Stack’s Bowers auction of the fifth part of the D Brent Pogue Collection in Baltimore.
“It is a hell of a coin and a hell of a deal for Super Collector Bruce Morelan,” said Sperber.
“After Friday night’s auction, I suggested we probably need this coin in his early American dollars set. The negotiations with John and Kevin took only a few minutes to work out and everyone involved is happy.”
Morelan was surprised by the price.
Bruce Morelan
“I was shocked when the coin sold so low. I’m happy to pick it up for a few incremental bids over that level. While the coin is not necessary for the circulation strike early dollars set, it certainly is complementary to my set and collection as a whole,” Morelan said.
Among the world’s most famous rare coins, only 15 1804-dated silver dollars are known today, and eight of them are categorized as Class I, including the Dexter/Pogue specimen.
No silver dollars dated 1804 actually were struck that year. Researchers believe the surviving Class I examples were made by the United States Mint in the 1830s to be given as diplomatic gifts for a State Department mission to the Far East and Asia. Decades later, Mint employees made a handful of other, similar examples of 1804-dated dollars for collectors.
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News Express. >> Subscribe today
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