$36 Million Platinum Night Session Drives Heritage's $62 Million FUN Auction Two 1796 Quarter Eagles Break Million Dollar Mark in Heritage's Second Largest Auction Ever!
News-Antique.com - Jan 17,2008 - Dallas, TX. Two million dollar coins were sold during the course of Thursday's Platinum Night session by Heritage Auction Galleries, the Official Auctions of the FUN 2008 Orlando Convention. Total prices realized from Heritage's coin auctions exceeded $50 million, and another $10 million in rare currency was auctioned in Heritage's second largest auction ever. Results from both auctions have been posted by Heritage in their Permanent Auction Archives at HA.com. When proceeds from Final Session Auctions for coins and currency are concluded, plus Post Auction Buys from both events are combined, the total prices realized are expected to exceed $62 million. An additional $4.3 million was realized in Heritage's Signature auction of Ancient and World Coins held at the NYINC just prior to FUN.
"We are simply thrilled," commented Heritage President Greg Rohan, "that two coins out of the incredible Madison Collection each broke the $1 million mark - both were 1796 quarter eagles, one without stars and one with. Lot 3058 was the Madison 1796 $2.50 with No Stars, certified by PCGS as MS65 (Breen-1, Breen-6113, Bass-3002, BD-2, High R.4) and which realized: $1,725,000. This coin, the single finest graded at PCGS, was simply the finest of the first quarter eagles. Its pedigree included Lorin Parmelee, Brock, the University of Pennsylvania, Philip H. Ward, Jr., Lelan Rogers, Numisma '95, and A Gentleman's Collection.
Lot 3059 was the other design type from 1796, the $2.50 With Stars. This coin was certified as an MS65 by NGC, with a CAC confirmation (Bass-3003, BD-3, R.5), and realized $1,006,250. Its pedigree included Byron Reed, the Durham Western Heritage Museum, John Whitney Walter, and the Jimmy Hayes Collection.
Three additional coins rose above $500,000, plus dozens of coins in the auction rose above the $250,000 mark!"
"Combining the Platinum Night, Signature, and Final Session catalogs of U.S. coins and currency," continued Rohan, "more than 16,000 lots were offered by Heritage at FUN. More than 1,000 consignors participated, suggesting that this will be the largest auction of 2008. More than 7,000 bidders participated as well. This was simply an amazing FUN auction. We had several multi-million dollar standouts among the anchor consignments, including the Madison Collection and Part Two of the Kaufmann Collection.
"The total prices realized from FUN 2008 were not expected to exceed last years record-setting event at $78 million," explained Rohan, "but frankly, prices realized were more than $5 million greater than our most enthusiastic predictions. The strength of this market is simply amazing for coins in all price ranges. Further, the FUN auctions took place just days after our Official Auction of ancient and world coins at the New York International Numismatic Convention, which realized an additional $4.3 million! At least part of these wonderful results must be attributed to our new Heritage Live online bidding system that allows Internet-based bidders to participate directly in the floor action, bidding like any other floor bidder. Increasingly more Internet bidders are participating - winning - with this system."
