1794 50C Overton 101a MS(PCGS#39201)

Rarities

拍卖行

Bowers & Merena

批号

1

等级

MS63

价格

2,624,518

详细说明

1794 Overton-101a. Rarity-4. Flowing Hair. MS-63 (PCGS). Highly lustrous and sharply struck. Deep shades of gold and silver gray grace both sides of this important rarity. Some faint mint-caused crisscross planchet adjustment marks are noted at the center of the reverse, otherwise only a scattering of trivial marks is present. Perhaps the finest known example of the DATE, and at the top of the Condition Census for the VARIETY as well, as this is the only Mint State example of this date certified by PCGS, and the finest certified by any third party grading ser¬ vice. A highlight of the Noblet Collection and a really great way to begin our auction offering! PCGS Population: 1; none finer. The Condition Census for this variety is given as: MS-62, AU-55, AU-50, AU-50, EF-45. All Condition Census information is derived from Early Half Dollar Die Varieties 1794-1836, Third Edition, First Printing, by A1 C. Overton and Don Parsley. Overton-10 la: This variety represents a later state of the reverse die, with a crack from the rim that runs vertically through the F in OF, then jutting to the left below that word, through the olive leaves there, and then to the final S of STATES. On the obverse, the first star pierces the center of Miss Liberty’s lowest hair curl. On the reverse, the berries are distributed 10 left and 11 right. As noted below, this coin was in the cabinet of Frederick C.C. Boyd, billed as “The World's Greatest Collection,” when the silver and gold portions of his holdings were auctioned by Numismatic Gallery in 1945-1946. Other items were sold privately, including a remarkable collection of patterns which was sold to Ring Farouk, the playboy ruler of Egypt (who was thrown out by General Nasser in 1953, and whose numismatic and other effects were auctioned in Cairo in early 1954). Boyd (1874-1958) is remembered as one of the great figures in American numismatics. Indeed, in 1978 he was enshrined in the American Numismatic Association Hall of Fame. In connection with the present remarkable 1794 half dollar, representative of the overall quality that Boyd sought to achieve, it is appropriate to give some biographical notes that may be of interest to readers: Boyd was born in New York City in 1874. He was schooled until the age of 13, when he became a typesetter at a printing firm in St. Louis. Later he went into sales, traveled widely, joined a dry goods company, and in 1932 became a department manager for Union News Company (of which more will be said). Boyd became visible on the numismatic scene relatively late in life, hardly as a young numismatist. On September 17, 1913, he conducted a mail bid sale of 916 lots in New York City. The offering was described as containing “many desirable pieces of the American series, as well as a varied assortment of the coins of all nations, and an attractive list of paper money, bonds, numismatic books, catalogues, etc. ... [as well as] a nice line of United States silver coins, and in particular quite a large number of United States pattern pieces.” The editor of The Numismatist commented, “We wish Mr. Boyd great success in his undertaking in the numismatic field." Subsequently it was reported that a 1799 $10 piece in EF grade brought $19.50, a Proof 1892 Columbian half dollar brought $625, and an 1860 transitional half dime pattern (of which 100 are stated to have been struck) realized $775 While this may have been his first widely visible undertaking in the minus mafic field, the contents of the sale demonstrate that by this time Boyd must have been familiar with many different specialties. Most probably, he collected privately and without fanfare for many years earlier. In the following year, 1914, he joined the American Numismatic Society, which in its new building (dedicated in 1908 on Audubon Terrace in the Morningside Heights section of New York City) served as a focal point for collecting activities in the city. Any history of the ANS must of necessity focus upon the 1914 year, not because Boyd joined, but because of an incredible public display gathered from many private cabinets, including four 1804 silver dollars and many other legendary rarities. Fast forward to August 1922, when the American Numismatic Association (sister organization of the .American Numismatic Society) held its annual convention in New York City at the Great Northern Hotel at 118 West 57th Street. Boyd conducted a public auction sale of some 800 lots, with the auctioneering conducted by Daniel R. Kennedy, who also called sales for the best-known New York City dealer of the time, Thomas L. Elder. Success at¬ tended this and other efforts, and during the decade of the 1920s Boyd, with an office in New York City, was a major retail coin dealer and ran large display advertisements in The Numismatist. Helping augment his stock were quantities of bank-wrapped rolls of coins, especially small denominations, acquired from various sources, as well as quantities of low-denomination Proofs (mainly dated in the 1880s acquired from veteran dealer David U. Proskey). Mean¬ while, Boyd the dealer was also Boyd the collector. Obviously, numismatics was in his blood! In 1926 he sold his private collection of fractional currency and many of his obsolete bank notes, the latter being particularly popular due to a long-running serial listing by D.C. Wismer published each month in The Numismatist. However, he announced that he was as enthusiastic as ever, and that his current specialties were coins of the world, store cards, and numismatic books. Indeed, store cards—privately issued tokens bearing advertisements—would increasingly demand his attention. In 1936 he purchased a set of 1933 gold coins consisting of two $10 pieces and the rare $20, the seller being James G. Macallister, the Philadelphia dealer. In summer 1937 the duplicate 1933 $10 was given to the National Collection housed at the “Casde" building of the Smithsonian Institution, on the Mall in Washington. DC. Meanwhile, Boyd was busy on many fronts, including selling coins at retail in a market that had expanded (beginning circa 1934) to levels hitherto not imagined. After super-collector and hoarder Col E.H.R. Green passed away in 1936, Boyd was named as an ap¬ praiser of the coin part of the estate, working with Green’s holdings in 1937 and 1938. B.G. Johnson of St. Louis was also involved. An unfortunate circumstance attended Green’s paper money collection; it had been stored in transparent cellulose nitrate holders (a material similar to that used to make film), and the chemical action had reduced nearly all of the pieces to fragments and dust— what a loss! However, the coins from Green’s holdings survived in good order and were subsequently dispersed throughout the numismatic community, the most famous of the group being a suite of five 1913 Liberty Head nickels (the finest of which was acquired by St. Louis collector Eric P. Newman, who later sold it through the Numismatic Gallery to Baltimore collector Louis E. Elias- berg). When all was said and done the coin part of the Green estate was valued at $1,240,299. One can readily imagine that today (in 1998 as these words are being written) the holding could be easily valued by moving the decimal point two spaces, yielding $100,000,000 or even far more. In October 1939 at the ANA Convention in New York City, Boyd displayed many interesting and rare coins from his cabinet, among which were 15 dif¬ ferent silver Lesher “dollars” made in Colorado 1900-1901, a complete set of varieties of Pedley-Ryan silver discs (made in Denver in 1933), a remarkable array of private and territorial gold coins, and more. Selections were shown from his holdings of the federal silver series, among which were the rare 1894- S dime, 1876-CC 20-cent piece, and 1870-S Liberty Seated dollar. Separately, his wife Helen mounted her own exhibit which included the 1933 double eagle, thought to be one of just four known, plus some varieties of 1907 $20 issues. It should be stated that in 1939 the 1933 $20 was a highly prized rarity, seemingly legally held, and openly discussed and displayed. In 1944 the U.S. Treasury Department went on a “witch hunt,” declared the pieces illegal, and attempted to seize them all (in what many consider to be a gross miscarriage of federal authority, echoes of which have come down to the present time). In the very late 1930s and early 1940s, Boyd transferred his prime interest from coin dealing to collecting, concentrating on specialties he found to be the most interesting. Large quantities of late 19th-century and early 20th- century copper, nickel, and silver coins acquired from various sources in¬ cluding Proskey were sold to Howard E. Macintosh of Tatham Stamp & Coin Company. Located in Springfield, MA, Tatham was quite possibly the largest seller of interesting coins to the general public (although B. Max Mehl was no slouch in this regard). Tatham was also well known in strictly numismatic circles, and among other things shot home movies of various coin conventions (we wonder if any of these exist today). In the 1940s Boyd was vice president of the Union News Company with headquarters at 131 Varick Street, New York City. The company operated newsstands, cigar shops, book stores, drug stores, luncheonettes, soda foun¬ tains, and cafeterias according to its letterhead, with many of these being located in train terminals. In addition, many food concessions were oper¬ ated elsewhere, including (by 1944) 30 in Rockefeller Center alone! Boyd’s greatest numismatic pal in the early 1940s was Abe Kosoff, a young dealer who in 1937 had hung out his shingle as the Numismatic Gallery, and who in 1944 took Abner Kreisberg as a partner. Boyd, seeking to deaccession his federal coins, consigned many pieces privately to auctions held by Kosoff. In 1944 at lunch with Kosoff at the Netherlands Club (where each Tuesday they would meet and engage in numismatic conversation), Boyd offered his collection of territorial gold coins for $50,000, and Kosoff accepted. Around the same time Boyd decided to dispose of his silver and gold coins. Numismatic Gallery was on the ascendancy, and this cabinet, one of the finest ever to be offered, would launch the firm into the forefront of auction activity. Boyd sought to be anonymous, so Abe Kosoff devised the title “The World’s Greatest Collection" for the offering. The sale was in multiple parts, with the silver being sold in 1945 and the gold in 1946. In the year that his gold coins were sold he retired his vice presidency in the Union News Company (however he remained a director of Union News and for the next 12 years was on the boards of both the Union News Company and its parent, the American News Company). In the silver series Boyd was ahead of his time in recognizing that Uncirculated and Proof coins of the same date represent not two differences in quality or desirability but, instead, two different methods of manufacture. Thus, he collected one of each. Not until the New Netherlands Coin Company (John Ford and Charles Wormser) began emphasizing such things in the 1950s did any widespread interest develop. Regarding New Netherlands Coin Company, Ford became a close friend of Boyd, and during the early 1950s Boyd sold many tokens, medals, and other pieces to Ford, an appreciative buyer, who emphasized history and numis¬ matic characteristics. The concept of market value was an also-ran, as such pieces were acquired for enjoyment. After 1950 and later Boyd made many donations to the American Numismatic Society, including a collection of dies and counterfeits made by the young C. Wyllys Betts, a rich holding of 13,552 world coins (particularly extensive in Latin American, Indian, and Far Eastern specialties), and more. Boyd passed away on September 7, 1958, leaving many numismatists and other friends to mourn him. From the Douglas L. Nohlet Collection. Previously from Numismatic Gallery’s sale of the World’s Greatest Collection, Part III, April 1945, Lot 2.