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Heritage Auctions Awards 20th Mint State High Relief $20 to Ohio Collector

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Celebrating a 20-year tradition, Heritage Auctions has awarded a Mint State 1907 High Relief double eagle to Ken Conway, of Ohio, as the Grand Prize in its annual numismatic survey. The classic American numismatic rarity was certified by NGC as MS-60 Wire Rim, estimated to be valued at about $12,500.

Lucky collector Ken Conway
Lucky collector Ken Conway

Conaway is a longtime Heritage Auctions member who started his serious numismatic collecting with certified Morgan Silver Dollars. Some seven years ago, he moved to the collection of U.S. Government silver ingots. Today, Conway’s U.S. Government ingot collection rivals any ever assembled privately and he attributes much of his collection success as well as research results to Heritage Auctions.

Working with Mark Van Winkle, Heritage Auction’s Chief Cataloger, Conway has validated ingots as well as provided description details for auction listings. His research of U.S. Government silver ingots relies heavily on the Heritage Auction archives available on HA.com, calling it a vital tool in his research. “Being able to look back to the early 2000s and study each of the ingots sold by Heritage Auctions in the last great collection – that of Alan Bingel – is absolutely priceless,” Conway said.

The prize in Conway’s collection is an 1892 U.S. Assay Office New York silver ingot, the oldest-dated government ingot known in existence, which was won by him in person at the Heritage’s ANA Signature Auction in Chicago last year.

Additional prizes awarded in the annual numismatic survey include:

  1. First place, five winners may auction up to $100,000 at 0% sellers commission.
  2. Second place, 10 winners may auction up to $50,000 at 0% sellers commission.
  3. Third place, 10 winners may have a Heritage Auctions’ representative review their collection and give a professional current market evaluation, and have up to 30 coins certified by PCGS or NGC at Heritage’s expense.

The Grand Prize 1907 High Relief double eagle is considered by many collectors as the most beautiful American coin ever minted. President Theodore Roosevelt, sharing his desire to improve the aesthetic qualities of America’s coinage, personally selected sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a new coin that would reflect American ideals. However, as collectors quickly learned, production problems (multiple blows were needed for full striking) and stacking problems in banks limited the commercial use of the High Relief design, and only 12,367 were minted.

Reduced-relief versions of Saint-Gaudens’ basic design, with the date changed to the Arabic numerals “1907”, were produced for the remainder of the year. The High Relief rarity is on most collectors’ want list, and examples are avidly pursued wherever they appear.

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Heritage Auctions is the largest auction house founded in the United States and the world’s third largest, with annual sales of more than $900 million, and 850,000+ online bidder members. For more information about Heritage Auctions, and to join and receive access to a complete record of prices realized, with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit HA.com.

Want to get the up-to-the-minute updates and breaking news stories about Heritage Auctions? Get them as they happen at: HA.com/Twitter; Facebook: HA.com/Facebook. To view a complete archive of Heritage press releases go to: HA.com/PR. To link to this press release on your blog or Website: HA.com/PR-2677.

Heritage Auctions
Heritage Auctionshttps://www.ha.com/
Heritage Auction Galleries is one of the world's largest collectibles auctioneers. Besides offering rare and valuable U.S. and world coins and currency, Heritage offers ancient coins, exonumia, antiques, comic books, sports memorabilia, and many other collectibles. The firm is based in Dallas, Texas.

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