1993-W $50 Gold Eagle, DCAM PR70DCAM 认证号28716960, PCGS号9875

Mitch Spivack

For years, this coin was considered the "King" of all Proof American Gold Eagles. Why? Let's take a stroll down "Memory Lane". The date was April 23, 2006. The 1993-W $50 Gold Eagle in PCGS-PR70DCAM was making it first public auction appearance ever that evening as the "pop 2" coin. When the bidding closed, the coin hammered at $33,000 (plus buyers fee)! I know for a fact that the consignor of this coin to that auction had reserved the coin for a small fraction of that sales price. No one had really expected the incredible level of interest at auction on this neat coin. Following the auction, the "hunt was on" to try to slab another 1993-W $50 Proof Gold in PCGS-PR70DCAM and over the next couple of years, additional PR70DC coins were slabbed by PCGS. My sources and research shows that the next few PCGS-PR70DCAM coins fetched roughly $20,000 - $30,000 each. But, the hunt for this particular date in PR70DC was relentless. This coin became one of the "trophy" coins to slab in PR70DCAM. More and more coins were graded PR70DC and the supply simply exceeded the demand, resulting in lower prices. About two years or so after the famous 4/23/06 auction, prices fell to roughly the $10,000 level on a number of trades I believe and eventually broke under $10,000. Now, four years later, the coin is "pop 54" (still the 2nd lowest $50 "pop" in PR70DC at PCGS) and the Price Guide properly shows that the current value of the coin is only a tiny fraction of what it was back in 2006 ($5,750 at the time of this commentary). Yet, I do want to share my personal experience with this particular coin. Although the "submission hunters" contributed to "killing" the 2006/07 price level on this coin through their targeting of this particular date and successful slabbing of many PR70DC specimens (and many might suggest the early price levels were euphoric at best and quite deserving of being "killed"), make no mistake about it that in this commentator's opinion, this date is very scarce in true PR70DC perfect condition. This dated $50 proof coin is plagued with small planchet imperfections (including pinprick holes in the planchet) as well as tiny red copper spotting to name just a few of the more common problems routinely seen on these coins. Locating a PR70DC coin free of all problems is not an easy task. This coin is still a very popular coin for Eagle collectors and nice quality PR70DC coins are often gobbled up quickly. No doubt, there will be more of the story to write on this coin as the years unfold.