A rare example of the most beautiful American coin has sold for $90,000 in a blockbuster coin auction in Dallas, USA.
The 1913 Twenty Dollar Saint-Gaudens was one of the star lots in Heritage Auctions’ Summer Fun US Coins Auction that closed on July 20.
The coin’s value was largely down to its superb condition, rated as MS65 – Mint State with a 67 out of 70 rating for condition.
And the Saint-Gaudens design is a favourite with collectors for reasons of design and rarity too.
The Saint-Gaudents Double Eagle is one of the most famous and desirable of all US coins. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
They were produced as part of a proposed redesign of US coins by President Teddy Roosevelt, who enlisted star designer Augustus Saint-Gaudens to produce a set of coins he intended to be the country’s most beautiful.
Saint-Gaudens did his best, but his high-relief designs couldn’t be properly struck and were impractical in commercial use. Their chequered design and production history – the project was started in 1905, two years before the designer’s death – has produced some of the greatest rarities in American numismatics.
The 1913 coin was produced in decent numbers, but only about 5,700 of the coins (the highest value coin the US minted) survive. Most of these were held in Europe and have been damaged, probably by poor storage. Many high-value bullion coins remain uncirculated and were handed between central banks and treasuries to pay international transactions.
The most valuable coin at the sale, which realised $10.3 million in total, was an 1860 Mormon Five Dollar coin.
Its $144,000 hammer price was a record for the type and condition grade and a top five price for any example of the coin.
Fewer than 600 of the coins were minted in Utah Territory.
It took 64 bids to close on an 1867 Quarter Eagle that is the finest-condition survival of its type. It was sold for $105,000, a record for the type.
