It was another million dollar baby for Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers.
A 1927-D $20, graded MS-65 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp., fetched $1,322,500 in Heritage?s Signature Auction Jan. 3-7 at the Florida United Numismatists convention.
Though sales of material in the auction are still ongoing, Heritage, the official auctioneer of the FUN show, is reporting that the auction of 7,431 U.S. coin lots realized $34,902,710. That price includes a 15-percent buyers premium paid by floor bidders.
An online auction session was held Monday, Jan. 9, and the results, unknown at press time, are expected to push the total even higher.
?This is a great start to what will surely be another outstanding year,? said Greg Rohan, president of HGA. ?The fact that this auction saw the sale of the first $1 million plus coin of 2006 is a great way to start a new auction year.?
Called the ?rarest regular issue coin of the 20th century? by the HGA cataloger, only a maximum of 15 1927-D double eagles are known to exist from its original mintage of 180,000 pieces.
Of the piece, the cataloger wrote, ?This particular coin has outstanding frosted mint luster, a characteristic that seems to be consistent whenever this issue is located.?
Another top lot featured an 1860 Clark, Gruber & Co. $20, graded MS-64 by NGC. Also referred to as a Pikes Peak $20 gold piece, the specimen realized $690,000. Other highlights included an 1848 $2.50 CAL., in NGC MS-68 condition, that realized $402,500. An 1891 $20 PR-68 Deep Cameo, as graded by NGC, brought in $299,000, while an 1892-S $1, graded MS-66 by Professional Coin Grading Service, realized $230,000.
Information on the FUN Signature Auction, as well as all previous Heritage auctions, are available in the Permanent Auction Archives at the Heritage Web site, www.HeritageCoins.com. Heritage?s next Signature Auction, scheduled to be held Feb. 8-11, will be the official auction of the Long Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectible Expo in Long Beach, Calif.
