Sale’s big punch widely telegraphed

A 1794 silver dollar sold for almost $5 million last night in New York City in the sale of the D. Brent Pogue Collection conducted jointly by Stack’s Bowers Galleries and Sotheby’s.

What is surprising is not the strong result but the fact that it was telegraphed so accurately and early to the general news media.

I did not keep count of the number of stories that I saw claiming the coin to be a $5 million item, but there were many.

All the stories were certainly positive for the two auction firms specifically and the numismatic community generally.

The actual figure came in at $4,993,750 including the 17.5 percent buyer’s fee.

Once belonging to Lord St. Oswald, the coin was graded MS-66+ by the Professional Coin Grading Service.

Ron Guth posted on Facebook last night that the sale brought $26,120,837.50 for the 105 lots.

The first of the seven Pogue sales, which was held May 19, brought over $25 million with 128 lots.

There were three other lots last night with price tags over $1 million.

Bringing $1,175,000 was the King Farouk 1798 Small Eagle $5 gold piece. It is the finest of six surviving pieces grading PCGS AU-55.

The finest 1795 9 Leaves reverse variety $10 gold piece realized $1,057,500. It was graded PCGS MS-63+.

The Garrett 1795 13 Leaves variety $10 brought $2,585,000.

All I can do at this point is whistle at the high prices and report that there are five more sales to come.

Congratulations to all involved in this historic series of auctions.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."