Many of the ultra-rare coins we sell never make it onto the DWN website. Every now and then, we let you go Behind the Curtain to see some of the truly special coins we sell directly to clients. These are typically individuals who have active want lists with us or who we are working with closely to create important sets.

1850 $1.00 PCGS MS68

The 1850 is the scarcest of the six Type One gold dollars from Philadelphia. It is moderately scarce in MS65 but it becomes rare in MS66, and it is extremely rare in MS67 and finer.

There are exactly three Superb Gem 1850 gold dollars known. These are as follows:

PCGS/CAC MS68: DL Hansen Collection, ex Legend 5/2020: 275 ($88,125), Heritage 1/2020: 4312 ($57,600; as NGC/CAC MS68), Heritage 1/2013: 5775 ($55,813; as NGC/CAC MS68), Bowers and Ruddy 10/1982: 6 ($11,000), Eliasberg Collection, Clapp Collection, Stickney Collection, 1907.
PCGS MS68, Midwestern Collection, ex Douglas Winter Numismatics 12/2021.
PCGS/CAC MS67: Heritage 2015 ANA: 4240 ($32,900), ex Steve Duckor Collection, David Akers.

The piece that I sold had wonderful rich coloration and was virtually free of marks. It is always a source of astonishment to me that such a small coin could have survived for 170+ years in such pristine condition.

This important coin is now in a Midwestern Collection of gold dollars which features a number of important high grade business strikes.

1798 $5.00 PCGS/CAC AU55, ex Eliasberg

*1798 $5.00 PCGS AU55 CAC, ex Eliasberg*

There are three major types of 1798 Heraldic eagle half eagles of which the Large 8/13 Star Reverse is the most available. Most of the examples which are available are found in the EF45 to AU53 range, and these coins are infrequently found with the originality and eye appeal to merit approval by CAC. In the higher AU grades, this issue is very scarce and it is rare in Uncirculated. The two nicest 1798 Large 8, 13 Star half eagles to sell in recent years are the PCGS MS63 Pogue I: 2077 coin which brought $58,750 in 2015, and the lovely NGC/CAC MS64 which sold for a record-setting $144,000 as Heritage 6/2018: 4125.

This coin was fresh to the market and it hasn’t been available to collectors since 1982. It is outstanding both for the grade and for the variety with completely original medium russet color. It should be stressed that not more than a small handful of circulated 1798 Heraldic Eagle five dollar gold pieces haven’t been scrubbed and/or processed, and nice original coins such as this are very rare. There is some weakness of strike on the bust over Liberty’s eye and into the cap which, oddly, is not seen on the reverse. A few mint-made vertical adjustment marks are unobtrusive and the peculiar raised artifact below the date is a scribe line which is seen on every known BD-2 1798 $5. The overall eye appeal is way above-average for the grade and this is an impressive coin made all the more desirable by its splendid pedigree (see below).

It is very challenging to locate a nice AU 18th century half eagle of any date, and any piece with CAC approval attracts considerable interest among type collectors and early half eagle specialists.

The new owner of this impressive 1798 half eagle is a Southern collector who is working on a complete set of US gold struck from 1795 through 1834

The pedigree is as follows:

Douglas Winter Numismatics, ex Bowers and Ruddy 10/1982: 333 where it bought $3,000 as “Extremely Fine-40", Eliasberg Collection and obtained in 1942 from John H. Clapp, Jr. Earlier from S.H. Chapman’s Zug Collection sale held in 1909.

1838-C $2.50, PCGS/CAC AU58+

This coin was an old friend as I had sold it to a collector back in the early 1990s. I bought it back from him in 2021, along with all the other quarter eagles from Charlotte. This was an outstanding complete set which featured coins in the AU50 to MS63 grade range. All of the coins were sold individually; some on my website, and others to collectors who reached out to me and asked for specific dates for their set.
When I figured buy prices and grades on this Charlotte quarter eagle set, I graded this coin “lock MS61.” I still think it should be in an MS61 holder but after getting skunked at PCGS, I figured an AU58+ was a decent consolation prize.

The thing that makes this coin special (a DWN Coin with Character™) is its wonderful fiery reddish-gold color which shows clearly at the obverse and reverse borders. I can’t recall ever seeing another 1838-C quarter eagle with this color, and it reminded me of the magnificent PCGS/CAC MS63+ 1838-C half eagle which I sold in 2019.

The 1838-C is the single most popular quarter eagle struck in Charlotte. It is a first-year-of-issue and two-year type which gives it a wide range of collectors who would like to own a nice example.

I sold this coin to an eastern specialist who completed an obverse mintmark gold set with this coin. This set contains nine coins (five quarter eagles and four half eagles), and it is likely the only complete set in existence with every coin approved by CAC and graded by PCGS.