Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 36

Pre-Long Beach Coin and Currency Auction

Commemorative Gold Coins

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 4226		Withdrawn Check results on similar lots	Unsold
Lot 4227		1903 Louisiana Purchase-McKinley Gold Dollar. PCGS graded MS-64. Golden orange color. Old green label holder. Gold-gold satin frost is boldly hypnotic on this fresh-appearing Louisiana Purchase commemorative dollar. A solidly graded, premium quality MS64, this coin displays impressive striking definition for the McKinley issue with excellent detail in the coat, bow tie, and hair. Kept from gem level by only a few stray hairlines (PCGS # 7444) . Estimated Value $1,700 - 1,800. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $2,070
Lot 4228		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold Dollar. MS-60. Accompanied by a green label PCGS tag "MS63". Our grade is MS60, the color is muted the luster not in full force, but the design is "as struck" meanting that all elements, including the dolphins, are very clearly defined. Estimated Value $550 - 600. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $748
Lot 4229		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold $2.50. PCGS graded MS-67. Well struck with lovely natural golden toning. As nice as this coin is seen. The otherwise golden-orange color warms to denser sunset-red shades in areas. The devices were struck smack on the dot at the required force by the dies leaving all design elements on Columbia and the hippocampus plain and clear-cut, with not even an iota of weakness as found on scales of the sea beast, unlike some examples parading around in the same numerical grade. Superb! Pop 14; none finer. (PCGS # 7450) . Columbia -- wearing an ambiguous headdress that might conceivably have been intended to represent a liberty cap -- rides sidesaddle and facing backwards on a hippocampus, which is to a horse what a mermaid is to a woman. In her free hand is a caduceus, said to represent the medical breakthrough of Col. William C. Gorgas' successful campaign with the U.S. Army Medical Corps to put an end to the malaria and yellow fever epidemics which had halted all previous canal-building attempts. According to Slabaugh, the hippocampus itself alludes to commerce through the Canal; this requires elaboration, and the best we can do is to surmise that it alludes to the Canal as making possible the transportation of land-based goods (normally by draft horses) by water (as the fish body swims): the mythological equivalent of a ship, though its original symbolism was very different. Mintmark S is in exergual space, far to right of date. Estimated Value $13,000 - 15,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $17,825
Lot 4230		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold $2.50. MS-63. Accompanied by an NGC MS63 tag this is a frosty example of the Type, a coin with bold design. The luster consists of fine raised swirls in the fields, which were imparted by dies given this special treatment. Estimated Value $2,500 - 2,750. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $3,335
Lot 4231		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold $2.50. PCGS graded MS-62. Attractive golden orange color. The 1915-S Panama-Pacific Exposition was held at a time in our history when the art world was casting aside the constraints of its previous straightlaced ways. Many new devices were being tested on America's coinage: matte proofing, rims without denticles, artistic lettering, textured fields, and the like. As can be seen, the coins struck for this expo, such as this handsome Quarter Eagle, incorporate many of these innovations. Instead of a more mundane design, the artist proposed an unusual motif of Columbia seated on a mythological hippocampus, half-horse, half-sea serpent. The eagle, too, was styled in a new way not seen before on an American production coin. It was modeled upon a similar eagle seen on one of the rare Pattern issues. The field is all a-swirl with raised die lines to give it texture (PCGS # 7450) . Estimated Value $1,800 - 2,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $2,875
Lot 4232		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold $50 Round. PCGS graded MS-63 PQ. Wonderful luster with excellent smooth surfaces.A lock-solid frosty specimen with strong primary luster and rich toned highlights on both sides. More than adequately struck for the Type, in fact 100% so as seen in the stylized olive branch on the helmet as well as the parallel lines of the crest. Since this rare issue is extremely expensive, it improves the situation to find one without the least little weakness in the design. Clearly, a coin that gets extra points and our "Premium Quality" stamp of approval where fullness of design is concerned. For only the second time in a United States coin, the date is rendered in Roman numerals: MCMXV for 1915. The mint of origin also happens to be the locale of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California. It is claimed this press could strike a coin with a pressure of 450 tons per square inch. By comparison, Morgan Silver Dollars required no more than 150 tons of force. This medal press struck 1,500 of each $50 gold piece, for a total 3,000 coins or nearly 7,500 ounces (value today at $380 an ounce = $2,775,000). At $100 apiece, there were few takers and so only 645 Octagonal and 483 Round 'fifties were sold. The overage was melted. This is the largest denomination coin ever issued by the United States, and also the heaviest at approximately two and one-half ounces.900 Fine. Pop 120; 76 in 64; 8 in 65. (PCGS # 7451) . Estimated Value $60,000 - 65,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $71,300
Lot 4233		1915-S Panama-Pacific Gold $50 Octagonal. PCGS graded MS-65 PQ. A splendid gem with impeccable clean surfaces. Can't see why this wasn't graded higher. Creamy gold surfaces eddy and churn with almost "frothy" luster on this handsome great big coin with the sharp corners. Soft-edged devices and lettering throughout the centers are typical on this issue due to the unique design of Minerva and the owl; only a small percentage of this year's production is found with enough convincing detail and sparkling luster to be called Gem and earn a grade of 65, and this is one such coin! In 1915 visitors from all over the world populated on a veritable new city that had been constructed on the San Francisco waterfront. Taking a page out of the history of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia) and another page from the 1892-1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, among others, the show's promoters made the Panama-Pacific International Exposition a showcase for marvels of science, engineering and the arts. The official reason d'être for the Expo was to honor San Francisco's rebirth from the devastating earthquake and fire of ten years before, and also to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal. The $50 octagonal is milestone in U.S. gold coinage, both as to size ($50 or two and one-half ounces of 900 Fine gold) and format (octagonal). On the octagonal issue there are 8 dolphins spaced around the inner border at the corners on either side. The design was the work of Robert Aitken, a noted sculptor. His bust of Minerva, goddess of the harvest, wears a Corinthian plumed helmet. For the reverse, an owl and pine branch. What a resplendent way to preserve the occasion than by this well struck MS65 gem housed in a PCGS holder! Pop 14; only one higher in 66. (PCGS # 7452) . Estimated Value $120,000 - 130,000. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $149,500
Lot 4234		1926 Sesquicentennial Gold $2.50. PCGS graded MS-63. Lovely rich golden toning. Vivid orange gold color with a hint of warmer yellow toning lights up the surfaces of this well struck and nicely preserved coin. Only a few light marks on the standing figure (PCGS # 7466) . Estimated Value $550 - 600. View details and enlarged photos Check results on similar lots	Realized $805