Heritage Auctions – Great Collections Headline February Long Beach Offerings

January 31, 2018

The recent Heritage Auctions FUN Show demonstrated how a number of specialized, high-quality collections add up to a memorable offering, and the current Long Beach Expo is poised to follow a similar trajectory.

This year the February 22-26 Long Beach Signature Heritage Auctions of US coins has no fewer than 11 featured collections. Combined with important coins from more than 200 individual consignors, our Long Beach plate is full — in fact, the large number of high-value coins expands our February 22 Premier floor session by two hours to accommodate 800 lots.

This is the most robust February Long Beach auction in recent years. While all 11 featured collections form the backbone of this event, three especially noteworthy collections are profiled here.

The Admiral Collection is quite simply one of the finest early eagle and Liberty Head ten collections ever assembled, ranking among the all-time great eagle collections including Eliasberg, Warren Miller, Harry W. Bass, and Dallas Bank. The set is complete for all Guide Book varieties excluding the rare 1798/7 variety with seven stars left, six stars right and the extremely rare 1804 restrike proof novodel Plain 4 (just four pieces known). It certainly ranks among the finest specialized sets ever put together for these two series. Many coins from this important consignment derive from populations of 75 coins or fewer. Some pieces represent the absolute finest examples extant or the highest-graded coins ever offered at public auction.

The Property of a Lady is a stunning collection formed in the 1960s. Silver coinage is the focus for much of the collection, with early halves, early dollars, Bust, Seated, and Barber coinage, as well as Morgan dollars at the forefront. Most of the coins are wonderfully toned and original, and all have been absent from the market for 50+ years.

Proofs are included in the later series, including some dazzling Seated halves and Seated dollars, as well as Morgan dollar proofs.

Among the circulation strikes, we note a Choice Fine 1796 half (Ex: George Walton) and an elusive high-grade 1921-S Walking Liberty half certified MS65 PCGS. Some beautiful copper pieces are included (including several remarkable proof half cents). Gold is represented by key commemorative issues, including a resplendent five-piece Panama-Pacific set — with original box — that will be sold as separate lots during the Premier Session. The two $50 Pan-Pac gold pieces (round and octagonal) each grade MS64 PCGS.

The Merrill Collection of U.S. half dollars was assembled over the last 25 years by noted Bust half enthusiast Chris Merrill and his son Jacob. Their PCGS Registry Set of Everyman Early Half Dollars (1794 – 1839) received recognition by PCGS in 2015 as a Platinum Award-Winning Set after five years as the finest known. The collection included all but five of the total 450 Bust Half die varieties by Overton number.

Merrill’s Complete Variety Set of Circulating Liberty Seated Half Dollars (1839 – 1891) is currently the most complete PCGS Registry set, lacking only the prohibitively rare 1853-O No Arrows variety. The Merrill U.S. half dollar set from 1794 to 2017 is also the most complete PCGS Registry Set in that challenging category. Many of Merrill’s half dollars were collected and certified by PCGS back in the 1990s, with hundreds of coins still housed in their original PCGS old green label holders. Coins from The Merrill Collection will appear in the present Long Beach auction, Heritage’s Central States event, June Long Beach, and upcoming Internet auctions:

Individual highlights include, but are not limited, to these: