Rare dollar to top Pogue auction

The second in a series of auctions of coins from the D. Brent Pogue collection will be held Sept. 30 in New York City.

Conducted by Stack’s Bowers Galleries and Sotheby’s, the sale will feature 105 great rarities in American coinage.

The headline piece will very likely be the Lord St. Oswald 1794 silver dollar, named after the individual who consigned it to a London auction in 1964.

A complete provenance records the coin’s owners right back to its origin in 1794 when William Strickland, an ancestor of the 1964 consignor, visited the United States.

Strickland took this silver dollar and other coins back to England with him after spending nearly a year in the United States, Sept. 20, 1794, to July 29, 1795, according to the sales catalog, and his prominence allowed him to raise a glass with President George Washington, talk farming with Thomas Jefferson and rub elbows with Vice President John Adams.

The catalog provides rich historical detail and deserves a place in the libraries of all collectors.

Catalog estimate of the 1794 dollar values it at between $3 million and $5 million. Discriminating collectors could send it higher.

It is graded MS-66+ by the Professional Coin Grading Service.

A 1795 silver dollar once owned by Catherine Bullowa is expected to bring $600,000 to $800,000. It grades PCGS MS-66. It is a Borckardt-18, Bolender-7 Three Leaves variety.

A plug 1795 dollar of the same variety also from the original St. Oswald holdings grading PCGS MS-65+ is expected to bring $500,000-$700,000.

Four other 1795 silver dollars are also in the sale.

The auction will also feature early half dollars and early gold.

Among the halves is what the catalog calls “the legendary Overton-Meyer 1817/4 half dollar.”

The Capped Bust piece is graded PCGS VF-35 and has an estimate of $250,000 to $300,000. Sheriden Downey is quoted as calling it the king of half dollars.

Among the gold rarities is an 1804 $10, which shares a special date with the 1804 silver dollar and was once owned by Treasury Secretary William Woodin, who is also remembered as the individual who advocated the exemption for collector coins when the Gold Recall Order of 1933 was issued.

This 1804 $10 with Crosslet 4 is graded PCGS MS-63+. It is tied for the finest known.

In a blog post, Q. David Bowers wrote that most of the 80 to 100 of these that are known are rough, have been cleaned, or have other problems, making this the hardest of the 1795-1804 coins to find in “nice” condition.

Estimate is $150,000 to $225,000.

In all, there are 105 coins in the auction. In May 2015 the first 128 coins of the Pogue Collection to be offered brought over $25 million.

“In the entire history of American numismatics – since the art and science of coin collecting became widely popular beginning in the late 1850s – no collection of this quality has ever been formed,” Bowers wrote.

“Over a period of four decades Brent sought the rarest of the rare, the finest of the fine, emphasizing copper, silver, and gold coins from 1792 through the 1830s plus some later treasures as well.”

Following Part II of the Pogue Collection will be a companion Rarities Auction on Oct. 1.

Visit www.stacksbowers.com for more information.

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