A hoard of 262 Indian Head $5 gold pieces sold at a government sale of unclaimed property has been authenticated and graded by the Professional Coin Grading Service, the firm announced Oct. 8.
Nearly half of the coins are in Mint State condition.
“Not since the dispersal of the Virgil Brand collection a quarter century ago have we had such a large group of rare date gold coins become available at one time,” said Jeff Garrett of both Lexington, Ky., and Sarasota, Fla., who had joined with Marc Earle of St. Petersburg, Fla., to buy the coins.
The entire hoard then was sold to Bill Gale of the New York Mint in Edina, Minn.
A special “Golden Gate Collection” label was created by PCGS for the group.
By far, the largest number of individual coins is the 111 uncirculated examples of the 1911-S. Of that number 14 were MS-61, 78 were MS-62 and 19 MS-63, PCGS reported.
A dozen 1916-S pieces in the hoard broke evenly as six were graded MS-62 and six MS-63.
“This is the only large group of Mint State San Francisco Mint $5 Indians I’ve ever heard of. By far, the S-mint issues are the rarest $5 Indians to find in Mint State,” said David Hall, PCGS founder.
There are 139 circulated coins that include Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco coins from 1908 to 1916.
The coins were in a safe deposit box whose original owner was from Venezuela, PCGS noted.
