Gearing Up for Platinum Night

July 31, 2009
Posted by John Dale

Heritage is about two hours into Session 1 of our Los Angeles U.S. Signature Coin Auction, and tonight, the Platinum Night session will give bidders the opportunity to win some top-notch treasures. Among all the wonderful coins, what will emerge as the top lot? There are several strong candidates.

Right now, two lots are tied for highest bid. The first one to sell will be Lot 1246, the 1880 Coiled Hair Stella, a fantastic specimen of one of the most famous U.S. gold patterns. Matching it with a $400,000 current bid is Lot 1316, an AU58 example of the 1856-O double eagle, the finest example of that date Heritage has offered since its record-breaking auction of the singular Specimen-63 coin for over $1.4 million.

Following the two lots at $400,000, two beautiful Saint-Gaudens eagles are not far behind. At a current bid of $325,000, Lot 1312, a 1933 eagle in MS65, is just a few bidding increments away from the front-runners. Also close is the lot just before it, Lot 1311, a 1920-S eagle in MS66, at $300,000.

No auction would be complete without its wild cards, and with the right bidding environment, there are several lots that could explode and take over the top slot. Will the lure of shipwreck lore send the massive Lot 1374, a hefty Justh & Hunter gold ingot salvaged from the ocean-floor resting-place of the S.S. Central America, as high as it once was deep? And what of the brass 1776 Continental dollar in Lot 1002? It's the finest known example of an infrequently traded but undeniably in-demand variant of its type. Leave the pricing guides at home for this one; they won't help you be the last bidder standing.

After that, there are many more lots noted at or around the $200,000 mark, including the 1854-S quarter eagle and a number of other high-end Continental dollars from the Collection of a Patriotic American.

Which lot will wind up in the top spot? Join us on Heritage LIVE! to watch the auction action and maybe contribute some of your own!

One of only two Rolexes known to have landed on the moon, and Heritage has it...

July 30, 2009

Posted by Noah

You know, I just happen to be in the market for a new watch...

In my humble estimation, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than this. An Apollo 17 Lunar Module Flown Rolex GMT-Master Chronometer, directly from the personal collection of Mission Command Module Pilot Ron Evans, will be part of our Oct. 8 Signature® Space Exploration Memorabilia Auction. Nobody does Space Exploration memorabilia better than Heritage and - as if you needed proof - the firm has done it again.

"We’ve done a tremendous amount of research on the subject," said Michael Riley, Chief Historian and Senior Cataloger at Heritage, "and we can confidently say that this is the only one of two Rolex watches known to have ever made it to the moon's surface to come up for auction."

There is nothing that can set the modern imagination alight like space travel, and little that inspires more awe in humans than the original Mercury and Apollo astronauts. America's "Right Stuff" pioneered space flight in the 1960s and actually spent time on the surface of the moon, the closest humans have ever come to personally exploring a distant world. As such, anything associated with the nation's space program, especially anything that was actually with the astronauts on the lunar terrain, brings a premium from space collectors.

In the evolving hierarchy of Space Exploration collecting, astronauts' timepieces have proven among the most sought after. It's widely known that the Omega Speedmaster Pro was the only watch approved by NASA for use on the Apollo moon flights, leading to its being called the "Moonwatch." Several astronauts, however, preferred their own timepieces, such as the Evans' present example. It already has significant value simply because it's a Rolex. Factor in its provenance, who it belonged to and where it's been, then it becomes not just a great watch, but one of historical import, as well.

"Many students and collectors of space-flown timepieces are aware that Jack Swigert carried and/or wore a Rolex on the ill-fated Apollo 13 flight, which never landed on the moon," said Riley. "Our research has turned up only one other Rolex, worn by Edgar Mitchell on Apollo 14, that can claim to have landed on the lunar surface."

Dr. Mitchell himself reported that he did indeed wear his Rolex in the lunar module during Apollo 14, but the whereabouts of the Rolex are unknown as of now, so this watch – with its unimpeachable provenance – carries a special distinction. Interestingly, but on another note, Dave Scott actually took his personal Waltham watch with him to the moon on Apollo 15.

This handsome, all-original, 1968-era Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master was Apollo 17 Astronaut Ron Evans' personal watch. He placed it into his Personal Preference Kit (PPK), which was taken to the moon by his crewmates Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard the Lunar Module Challenger while he orbited the moon in the Command Module America. It remained on the moon for approximately 75 hours on what is, up to this day, the last manned lunar landing mission.

After Evans' return to Earth he certified the watch by engraving the pertinent facts, along with his name, along the outside edge of the back of the watch with an electric engraving tool. He wrote: "FLOWN ON APOLLO XVII 6-19 DEC 72 ON MOON 11-17[?] DEC RON EVANS."

Apparently Commander Evans didn't remove the stainless steel band to accomplish this as the "writing" is a bit rough and shaky. The apparent '7' in the 'ON MOON' phrase was certainly intended by him to be a '4' but, being directly below the band's attachment to the watch, and due to the size of the portable engraving machine, the number was not clearly engraved.

There is no doubt – due to photographic evidence, authentication and a letter of certification from Ron Evans' wife, Jan Evans – that this watch belonged to Commander Evans, and that he took it with him on Apollo 17.

Like I said, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than this...

Collector's Corner: A passion for biography via affordable ephemera

July 29, 2009
Posted by Noah

(Heritage Blog is happy today to relay the latest in it Collector's Corner posts, where collector's can share the story of their passion, or its evolution, with like-minded souls. Today's post comes from a writer, a biographer and a collector of ephemera, with a heavy emphasis on black and white Carte de Visites from about 100 years ago, give or take a decade or so on each side. While the writer's specialty is not something that Heritage has a heavy emphasis in, we do see good examples of Cartes de Vistes in various auctions, and we can all appreciate the work that goes into identifying a subject - it's like putting a piece of someone's soul back in place and honoring their memory for it. This is a lovely and engaging narrative that I think you'll enjoy as much as I did. - Noah Fleisher)

Collecting anything is a passion that makes sense without question to the collector. Others may look askance when they see some various collections, eyebrows raised, curious glances clearly indicating a bit of disbelief.

I collect ephemera, usually inexpensive documents, photos, and in particular, diaries of days past. As a professional writer, particularly of biographies of both well-known and obscure figures in history, I am unable to resist biographical material that sits gathering dust in an antique shop. That diary or letter, with handwritten words put on those pages by someone who was obviously compelled to share their deepest thoughts and actions remains a window to their soul even so many years later. That person would have no way of knowing at that moment in the past, at the point of pen touching paper, that anyone would care. They would certainly have no way to even grasp the reality that anyone who didn’t know them would care, and certainly not 10s or 100s of years after that writing.

Yet I care. I cannot not care. I collect these documents so as to be able to understand people from all walks of life, from all decades and even centuries. It is hard to get anything more blatantly human than someone’s writings. That’s why as a people so many of us love to read memoirs and diaries and to look at old photographs. All of these items are the truth of the moments of a life - a snapshot in time, or the words of a brief slice of someone else’s reality.

Photos clearly have that effect, too. If a photo speaks to me, if it has some sort of name identification on it, and it is for sale for a good price, I will purchase it. I then take it home and do the research on that name, on the life of that person. This “system” never fails me. If I were to browse through 30 photos at any given visit to an antique shop and buy just one, I can be assured that the person - a stranger to me at the point of purchase - will become a close personal friend in short order. The story of that individual, every single time I have done this, has been an amazing tale.

Take, for example, my purchase of a photo out of an antique mall in Frederick, Maryland. She was breathtakingly beautiful; a young woman wearing nothing but a corset was looking over her right shoulder. The picture was taken from behind, her curly hair caught up in a loose knot and then cascading down her back. It was a black and white carte de visite with a red filigree-type border surrounding the woman’s picture. Underneath that, at the bottom and centered, was the woman’s name, “Miss Charlotte Behrens,” and under that, “ZITKA.”

When I turned the photo over and saw the price - less than one dollar - there was no choice. This lady was going home with me. I’m so happy she chose me to tell her story. As I got her home and began my research I learned that Miss Behrens had been the Victorian stage’s fallback version of Elizabeth Taylor. At the time of her death, I discovered, she had been married to Robert B. Mantell, one of the stage’s best known early Shakespearean actors and, to this day, recognized as such. Charlotte was considered the “anti-Victorian” Victorian actress, and had amassed an incredible paper trail - through newspapers, magazines, and family letters - that would rival any well-known celebrity of today.

Sadly, Charlotte Behrens passed away at the age of 32, in the prime of her life. She was just catching her stride as a well-known and celebrated actress when a mysterious illness befell her. For months she was in and out of bed, and then she was gone. Her talent ultimately became lost to history, likely never to again be celebrated…. until I found her battered photo at the bottom of a pile of forgotten entertainment industry photographs.

Charlotte’s is only one such story of many that I have found in my never-ending desire to collect and tell the stories of the past. Or, more appropriately, those stories have repeatedly found me - through photos, documents, diaries, letters, and just about any sort of written paperwork and/or visualization that can trace back to an actual person who at some point walked the face of our earth.

Thomas Carlyle, a Victorian satirist and writer said, “History is the essence of innumerable biographies.” I’m a collector of stories in the hopes that I can chronicle as many of those biographies as I can get my hands on in my biographical lifetime.

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Anonymous

We all know 'Hollywood' chews 'em up and spits 'em out, but this is truly frightening...

July 28, 2009
Posted by Noah

I know that the truism in vintage movie poster collecting is that classic horror holds sway - and some of those posters are indeed still mighty creepy - but I have to say that little can compare in sheer sinister menace than the top lot in our just finished July 23-25 movie poster auction, a 1923 gem for the movie Hollywood. You can see it there and I dare you not to be at least just a little bit creeped out.

The strange thing is that it is indeed an apt metaphor for Hollywood even today, and a bold and beautiful print, truly as much a great piece of art as is a fantastic piece of early American cinema and Pop Culture. It's just so… I don't know… Eeewww…

The movie itself was not of much remark, nor is it particularly remembered. The poster is a true rarity, and one look can attest to its appeal and popularity. It does little, however, to convey the story of Hollywood, one of hapless wannabe actress Angela. She comes to L.A. – her Grandpa in tow – and fails to find any work in Tinsel Town. As this cruel fate befalls her, and on her rounds through the town and to the office of every casting director, Angela's Grandpa gets signed to a contract and becomes a big star. The rest of the family soon comes to L.A., ostensibly to bring their relatives back home. Once in Tinsel Town, though, they all also become movie stars, all as Angela is forced to sit and watch. Short on story, the movie was more importantly a showcase of virtually every major movie star of the silent era, as Angela encounters star after star in her own unsuccessful bid for a slice of fame’s pie. From “Fatty” Arbuckle, to Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Zasu Pitts and Gloria Swanson; you name the star and they made a cameo.

While the movie really cannot be said to even approach the idea of lurid, there is something distinctly lecherous and lustful in this image, even as it's comical and absurd, stylish even, with its Deco feel, outstanding lines and audacious coloring. This poster borrows heavily of the commercial illustration palate of the day, and bears more than a little resemblance to a lot of great advertising posters of the era, minus, of course, the Big Creepy Head devouring a daisy chain of young maidens…

I also have to wonder if an image like this would even stand a chance if released as part of a PR push for a major film today. We have a bevy of sallow-faced, empty-eyed kids with raven hair crawling out of TVs and slashing through cinemas everywhere, outer space robots with American brand vehicle names on them and a host of other disturbing imagery, but this - in these hyper-sensitive-desensitized times - would drive people out of their minds… In fact, I think I've gone a little mad just looking at it.

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Coin Monday: A Portrait of American Liberty

July 27, 2009
Posted by John Dale

From the early Renaissance to the present day, the commemorative medal has been an important part of the Western artistic tradition; of the thousands of medals struck in Europe from the early 1400s through the end of World War I, the best are equal parts art and artifact – beautiful slivers of history that tell their stories through heraldic allegory.

Most such medals are little-remembered today, their subjects all-but-forgotten except to the specialist, but a handful have gained and kept greater fame. One such medal is the Libertas Americana, which is represented in bronzed copper in Heritage’s upcoming August 2009 Los Angeles US Coin Auction.

The Libertas Americana is widely considered an American medal and collected as such – and the concepts for the design came from famous founding father Benjamin Franklin – but the actual creation of the medal fell to Augustin Dupré, among the most famous French medallists of his day, and a tasteful choice on Franklin’s part, since the reverse is an allegory of France’s support for the American colonies as they fought for independence from Great Britain. The standard reading is that the figure of Minerva is France, complete with fleurs-de-lis on her shield; the American colonies are the infant Hercules, killing the snakes; and the lion is Great Britain, depicted with tail held between the legs, a show of cowardice.

It is not the reverse for which the Libertas Americana is remembered, however; rather, the beautiful obverse is what has been most enduring. Dupré’s figure of Liberty, a young woman with free, wind-blown hair and a cap-on-pole over her far shoulder, had a readily discernible influence on the earliest coins struck at the Philadelphia Mint, the copper cents and half cents. Among the best treatments of this artistic “borrowing” is the relevant set of passages in Numismatic Art in America, a brilliant examination of American coinage aesthetics by classicist Dr. Cornelius Vermeule.

Dr. Vermeule’s erudite treatment of the Libertas Americana is well worth reading, but a simpler demonstration might be just as effective. In the Platinum Night catalog for the Los Angeles Auction, the Libertas Americana medal is lot 1013. A turn of the page (or a click of the “Next Lot” link on the Web page) and the next lot is a 1793 half cent. Looking from one to the other, the debt is obvious. While the half cent’s New World workmanship was not so polished as its French inspiration, the two have a shared belief in the importance of Liberty, a belief that lives on and not only in metal.

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-John Dale Beety

Capes, Crooks and Cliffhangers: Heroic Golden Age Serial Posters book new from Heritage

July 24, 2009

Posted by Noah

Heritage Auction Galleries has announced the publication of Capes, Crooks & Cliffhangers: Heroic Serial Posters of the Golden Age, a new comprehensive book about the posters of the Golden Age serial movies, which used to play to enthralled audiences before 1930s and 1940s Hollywood hits. The posters are widely sought today and can command prices well into the five figure range.

The coolest thing about this book? It comes with a special introduction by Noel Neill, TV’s original Lois Lane. the other coolest thing? The amazing images of these rare, valuable and amazing posters. Mmm-mmm gooood!

The standard softcover edition is available for $39.95. Also available is a deluxe slipcased hardcover edition – strictly limited to 100 copies – which comes with a numbered bookplate that is signed by both authors and by Neill, for only $125.

“All of these colorful characters, and many others from the comics, pulps, and radio, made their silver screen debuts as multi-part serials,” said Grey Smith, co-author of the book and Director of Vintage Movie Posters at Heritage, “in which the hero would face certain death at the end of each chapter, urging their fans to return week after week to continue their thrilling adventures.”

The superheroes that are now the subjects of multi-million-dollar blockbuster films and the centers of merchandising and comic book franchises – names like Batman, Superman and Captain Marvel – may have gotten their starts in the pages of Golden Age comic books, but it was actually in these serial adventures that their names and personas were forever bonded to the American psyche.

“In reading about these amazing posters, and the classic serials they represent,” said John Petty, Co-author of Capes, Crooks & Cliffhangers, “You get a real sense of how these chapterplays transported depression-era audiences to a place of absoluteness. There was good and bad, right and wrong and just and evil. You can imagine how important this was to people in such confusing times.”

No less a person than Stan Lee calls it, “… a page turner…a literary and artistic feast,” and Leonard Maltin hails it as “[a] welcome book.” Nice... Thanks Stan...

Fans of today’s blockbuster superhero movies owe it to themselves to see where America’s cinematic obsession with superheroes all began. For more information on ordering your copy of Capes, Crooks & Cliffhangers, click here.

-Noah Fleisher

Bernie Wrightson totally creeps me out, and I mean that in the best way possible…

July 23, 2009
Posted by Noah

If you sense a slight lag in my sentences today it’s because I am having trouble typing through the savage grief in my bones and the stinging tears in my eyes…

If you haven’t heard the news then I advise you to sit down for this, because it’s going to hurt: Gidget the Chihuahua, who was famous for having the words, “Yo quiero Taco Bell” CGI-ed onto her grizzled muzzle, as well as for having spent the better part of a forgettable Hollywood movie riding around in Reese Witherspoon’s purse (nice work, if you can get it) has died at the age of 15… That, though, isn’t what has me so bitter I could chew tinfoil. No… It’s the fact that this dog’s death is national news and the fact that more people can utter the tagline to that inane fast food commercial than can recite the preamble to the Constitution… Which category do you fall in?

No, what I am morning is the very death of good taste and erudition in America… The obit linked to above actually quotes the owner as saying that Gidget was “happy right up to the end.” Um… Okay… She was a dog… A dog with a brain the size of a pecan… It’s not like she had a lot of room to contemplate the deeper truths of the universe.

My bile raised, I wanted something to calm me down. I gravitated to the upcoming comics auction here at Heritage and it wasn’t more than a minute before I started paging through the Bernie Wrightson original artwork grouping in the sale. Granted, it’s not the most cheerful stuff, but Wrightson is an unqualified master of horror comics – his imagery is familiar to almost every pop culture fan in the nation, in some form or another – and the very thought of his original Swamp Thing #8 artwork was enough to make me swoon. I spent many an hour with Swamp Thing as a kid, most of them hiding in the back a huge bush in our backyard, with frequent visits by one of our many dogs, where I read those things over and over and over until they literally crumbled in my hands.

Wrightson is a legendary modern comics figure, and, as I’ve learned from a couple of our comic guys here, this trove of his work is as good a grouping as a Heritage auction has ever had. The Uncle Creepy splash page and the cover to the Bernie Wrightson 1977 NYCA Gallery Catalog is among the most brilliant work this great artist has ever done. It’ll rightly bring a pretty penny.

If you don’t know Wrightson’s name, a quick glance at some of his work will quickly familiarize you with him. The bulging eyes, wild hair and oily, creeping colors have a subtlety that is all its own. The work is equally compelling and repelling, which is what I reckon makes it so much fun… I suppose some might say the same about that dog and its strange fame. I wouldn’t disagree, necessarily, I would just make the case that one adds infinitely to the national pop culture archive, making as collectively smarter in the end, while the other does just the opposite… In fact, I can feel IQ points draining as I think about it. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which.

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Famous pucks from Harold ‘Mush’ March part of NHL trove in October

July 22, 2009
Posted by Noah

Mention the name of legendary Chicago Blackhawks right winger Harold “Mush” March to hockey fans and two famous goals come to mind: First, his historic overtime goal in game four of the 1934 Stanley Cup – a laser shot out of a face-off that secured the win and was the first overtime goal to ever decide a championship – and the first ever goal scored in Toronto’s famous Maple Leaf Gardens Stadium, which forever gave Blackhawk fans bragging rights over Leafs fans.

Now those two famous pucks, along with March’s 1930 Blackhawks jersey and 1934 Blackhawks jacket, will form the centerpiece of the hockey offerings in our October 2009 Vintage Sports Memorabilia auction. The trove comes with unimpeachable provenance, having been consigned by March’s son, Harold, Jr. Unfortunately for you, and me, the lots aren’t viewable online yet, but I just had to tell ya’…

“For NHL fans in general, and Blackhawk fans in particular, can’t get much better than this,” said Chris Ivy, our Sports Director. “These pucks are key pieces of both hockey history and the storied Chicago Blackhawks franchise.”

Both pucks are estimated to bring $10,000 and up. That’s a lotta hockey sticks, if you know what I mean.

March was a scrappy winger, known for his diminutive size, his fearless play and his fidelity to Chicago. He is one of the few players of the era to spend his entire career with the same team, all 17 years of it, a mark only topped by Dit Clapper, the revered 20-year Boston Bruins defenseman. He was not known as the greatest scoring threat, but he certainly had a penchant for scoring important and timely goals, namely the 1934 Stanley Cup OT winner.

March described his most famous goal in John Devaney and Burt Goldblatt’s 1975 book The Stanley Cup, A Complete Pictorial History:

"Well on that goal that won the series, they had a face-off,” March related. “I shot it and it went through Cude's legs (Wilf Cude, the Detroit goalie who later starred with the Montreal Canadiens) and into the net. I didn't realize it at the second, you know, that we'd won the Stanley Cup, but it was great. I rushed in and got the puck and then the fellows grabbed me and wheeled me on their shoulders all the way around the rink. It was nice to see my name on it for the first time. It's always nice to be a champion."

“We’re very excited to be the first ones to offer Marsh’s famous pucks to collectors,” said Ivy. “He was a great player and a crucial figure in two Blackhawk Stanley Cup titles, as well as several great moments besides the two these pucks represent, and we fully expect Chicago fans who bleed red and black to recognize how important this memorabilia is.”

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

You’re a Good Man, Charles Schulz: Original Peanuts artwork readies for August Comics Auction

July 21, 2009
Posted by Noah

Okay, first I must unburden myself – and I don’t think I’ll be alone in this – by saying that Lucy Van Pelt should be ashamed of herself. I cannot tell you how many years, how many thousands of Peanuts strips I read through only to walk away with a burning sense of anger at the raven-haired nemesis of poor bald-headed Charlie Brown. Come on Lucy! Let him kick the darn ball for once!

Whew… I feel better… After spending the morning working on some PR for our upcoming Comics and Comic Art auction I just simply couldn’t go on without venting my lifetime of frustration with Lucy. Now, after today, and a decade of therapy, I think I might be able to let it go. I believe the history has vindicated my position of frustration with her, and my deep and abiding compassion for Charlie Brown – and it has nothing to do with the fact that we have the same haircut…

In the impressive trove of original Charles Schulz Peanuts art that will be featured in the aforementioned auction there is indeed a football-themed strip – it should bring a lot more than its $25,000 estimate – that features Lucy, as ever, simply unable to contain herself and her impish impulse to cause grievous bodily harm to Charlie Brown, who, also as ever, is too much of a simp to not fall for Lucy’s guile. Come on Chuck! Don’t fall for it! Don’t you see the pattern this sets up for your whole life? Man… and to think, he keeps pining after the Little Red-Haired Girl… As if…

Looking over these amazing 12 strips – especially the one pictured above, where Schroeder and Lucy compare music boxes, and guess whose is better? – I couldn’t help but remember a feature from a Mad Magazine of my childhood, I can’t remember which issue, where they tackled the subject of what would happen if the Peanuts gang were to age like normal folks… It certainly stuck with me, especially the panel of Snoopy and Woodstock as hippies in the 1960s. Let’s just say that when Woodstock comes out of Snoopy’s dog house he’s flying a little crooked. KnowwhatImean? There was also a great panel at the end that showed both Charlie Brown and Lucy as old fogies, on the day of Charlie’s retirement. They were married, and they were bickering. It was funny, but bittersweet. I guess Lucy never managed to get Schroeder to look her way, and I guess her meanness to Charlie Brown masked some more tender feelings beneath… Or maybe I’m just reading a little too much into it…

Our Director of Comics Operations here, Barry Sandoval, said that he was a little surprised by how popular the Schroeder and Lucy strip is, and in general how many people name the young piano genius as their favorite Peanuts character. Not Snoopy, not Linus, but Schroeder. If most of these people are like me, they like Schroeder because he has class and taste, because he plays the keys like an old soul, and because he was able to get the better of Lucy in almost every situation… Somehow, in small part, this made a big difference to anyone sick of watching her always pull that football away from Charlie Brown, sending him careening through space with an “Auuuuggghhhh!” and a thud.

To make a comment, click on the title of this post.

-Noah Fleisher

Coin Monday: 1933, the Golden Endgame

July 20, 2009
Posted by John Dale

Production of gold coins for circulation in the United States ended in 1933. Though the Mint continued to strike eagles and double eagles through the last days of the Hoover Administration – hundreds of thousands of each – a new President transformed the nation’s money and banking systems.

On April 5, 1933, just a month after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in, he signed Executive Order 6012, which drastically reduced the amount of gold Americans could own, barring exceptions for professional or numismatic purposes (the latter exception thanks to then-Secretary of the Treasury William H. Woodin, himself a coin collector).

In conjunction with the executive order, the Treasury halted the release of gold coins from the Mint and its own stores; millions of coins, mostly double eagles, were melted later in Roosevelt’s tenure. This included almost the entirety of the 1933 mintages, which were held back from release while there were coins of earlier dates still awaiting distribution. There is considerable controversy over whether the 1933 double eagle was ever officially issued and thus legal to own, enough to fill two nonfiction books and many hundreds of pages of legal documents arguing both sides. Even today a court battle over a set of 10 1933 double eagles is ongoing.

The legal-tender status of the 1933 eagles, however, is not in doubt, and the few known survivors, such as this MS65 example in Heritage’s upcoming August Los Angeles U.S. Coin Auction, are eagerly sought-after. Not only are they rare, with only 30 to 40 pieces known according to the catalog description, but they also represent the end of the circulating gold coin, not only in the United States but throughout much of the Western world; in response to the Great Depression, a number of European nations, including the United Kingdom, moved off the gold standard in 1931 or 1932.

For a coin of such quality as this Gem, aesthetics cannot be overlooked, either. From the sharp strike to the vibrant luster and the nuanced colors that enliven each side, every facet of the piece reinforces its aura of beauty. That beauty has entranced a series of prestigious owners, including Phillip H. Morse and Jim O’Neal. Ownership of any 1933 eagle has long been a sign of an advanced collection, and possession of a Gem such as the present piece especially so. With the auction of this lot, the final Saint-Gaudens eagle could be the final addition to a memorable collection of the series… or it could be just the beginning.

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-John Dale Beety