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首席收藏网 > 数据中心 > Stack's Bowers and Ponterio > SBP-苏富比2017年3月波格集藏V

Lot:5096 1794 Liberty Cap Cent. S-26. Sheldon-26. Head of 1794. Rarity-2. Mint State-66 RB (PCGS).

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外国钱币

USD 120000 - 160000

SBP-苏富比2017年3月波格集藏V

2017-04-01 07:30:00

2017-04-01 12:30:00

USD 211500

SBP

成交

I went to the Helfenstein sale intending to make about two or three expensive bids but as the opening bids were higher than the top-most figure I could or would pay it was a shut-out. - Dorothy Paschal to Dr. Robert Carter, September 18, 1964, as published in the July 1990 issue of Penny-WiseAmong the freshest and most lustrous of all the magnificent Liberty Cap cents in the Pogue Collection, this piece has been sold at auction just twice since its discovery before 1960. Cartwheel luster spins, swiftly and tirelessly, around both sides, enlivening the abundant original red as it passes. Gently faded down from full mint color over the past two centuries, the surfaces have assumed an overall tone of red-tinged steel, unmottled and even, though the red remains boldest around devices and peripheries. The essence of this coin is found in the originality of its color and surface, which have been allowed to mellow organically, subjected to no manipulation that would serve to either embellish or detract from its sedate beauty.Neither worn nor blemished, this coins quality will please every perfectionist. A thin scratch left of the date, a single horizontal hairline in the field beyond Libertys chin, and an ancient speck at the juncture with Libertys hair above the cap are the only flaws on the obverse; none deserve the mention theyve just received. The reverse is, if anything, even more perfect, with a single speck within the top of the E in CENT, a minuscule nick on the rim within a denticle above E of AMERICA, and one identifiable nick at the end of a denticle left of the fraction. The strike and centering are superb. A natural flaw hides near the tip of Libertys cap, but the strike was firm enough to obliterate most of the planchet texture that is often found inside the denticles.Sheldon-26 represents the third marriage of this fine style obverse. The first appears to be the variety known as 1794 NC-8, of which just three specimens are known. Following 1794 NC-8, this obverse was severely clashed during its Sheldon-25 marriage, which necessitated significant repair before the Sheldon-26 marriage. While the most significant clashes were seen near the cap, the repairs removed not only the clashes, but also separated several lower locks from the bulk of Libertys hair. The moniker "Severed Hair" has been attached to this variety for over a century, but it could just as easily be called the Floating Cap, as the section of the pole behind Libertys head has likewise been polished away.The die state on this piece is advanced for Sheldon-26, showing a series of heavy clashes on the reverse. The fact that such clashes plagued so many varieties in this family of dies suggests difficulty with the presss planchet feeding functionality; die clashes are most likely to occur when the planchet feeder does not drop a planchet into the coining chamber, as expected, leading the pressmen to swing the presss arm and strike the fragile faces of dies into each other instead. At least two sets of clashes are boldly evident on the reverse, most obvious at the left side of the wreath where the reverse die came into contact with the portion of the obverse including the highest relief of Libertys hair. These impacts damaged the reverse die severely enough to create two large cracks, one through the first S of STATES that ends in a low spot above C of CENT that manifests as a bulge on a struck coin. The other crack runs through E of STATES to the leaf below, showing less depth, or relief on the struck coin than the other crack, but a serious crack nonetheless. Breen called this Die State VII, near the end of the useful life of this die, which ended up collapsing completely at the center, taking all central details with it in Breens Die State VIII.This cent found its way to Louis Helfenstein in the late 1950s or early 1960s, soon after it first emerged from the woodwork. Those years after the publication of Penny Whimsy were an era of significant change within the close knit large cent community. The men of the pre-war generation had passed: Hines, Newcomb, Wurtzbach, Clapp, T. James Clarke, Homer Downing, and others. The marketplace for cents, both in terms of collector interest and available information, had changed enough that the initial edition of Dr. Sheldons book, Early American Cents, required substantial updating, which Sheldon undertook with two new co-authors, Walter Breen and Dorothy Paschal.C. Douglas Smith, who sold this coin to Helfenstein about 1960, described his late friend in some detail in the July 1978 issue of Penny-Wise.Lou right away got interested in collecting large cents, and he early decided to collect just the top quality large cents. As far as prices went, he just decided to buy any coin he liked and the heck with the price, and he had enough money to do it. In a very few years, he formed an excellent collection because he only bought Mint State coins. At that time, he would pay more than most people and he had pretty good opportunities because he was right in New York.Helfensteins approach did not sit well with everyone, including Dr. Sheldons co-author and close friend, Mrs. Paschal. "Helfenstein was not a collector in my opinion - he was merely a speculator who started buying gem coins a few years ago - half a dozen years or so," Paschal wrote in 1964 to contemporary collector Dr. Robert Carter. Lester Merkins catalog was groundbreaking: it was the first to use color photography, the first to photograph nearly every lot, and the first to use the sort of artful cover layout that would become de rigeur of most numismatic auctions in later decades. Still, the novelty of it perturbed Paschal and many of her contemporaries. "No doubt the descriptions are a mush of superlatives further glorified by color photographs on the front cover - a new process," Paschal complained. "They are trying to put the Stack Bros. in the shade on advertising and to give that Helfenstein fellow a 500% profit on his so-called collection which was never much more than an investment for profit. He has never been interested in varieties - only gems of the common varieties. Of course all of this is good for business if you look upon cent gathering as such."One of the sources of frustration, even the principal source, was the rapidly escalating price of gem large cents. Early American Cents had set forth a rather simple formula by which anyone could value a cent: grade the coin on the 1 to 70 point scale, look up the "basal value" given for each die variety, and multiply them. Sheldon also allowed a "pedigree premium" for particularly famous specimens, but boldly noted "even with its pedigree premium a cent is never worth more than twice its book value." By these numbers, a perfect gem Mint State 1794 Sheldon-26 like this one should have been worth $87.50, representing a 70 grade and a basal value of $1.25. In Penny Whimsy, Sheldon proudly noted how well this system held up, pointing out that the 1952 sale of the Homer Downing cents realized $20,200 against "book ratings" that "totaled almost exactly $20,000." He went on to rue the "inflationary disease" that had set in since 1949 and rejiggered his mathematical formula into a nonlinear complexity that priced most cents at Condition times Basal Value but, allowing for increased interest in gems and otherwise special examples, suggested that coins in the Condition Census were worth an additional premium of 1.5 to 4 times as much, depending upon where they ranked and whether they were Mint State or not.By Dr. Sheldons math, this coin should have been worth a maximum value of 70 (Condition) x $1.50 (Basal Value) x 4 (Premium for being finest known and fully Mint State), or $420. In 1964, it brought $3,000 in the Helfenstein sale.Rather than excite those who already had immense collections of large cents, this new market disappointed them, as it frustrated their efforts to buy even more. The barn doors had been flung open, largely by the success of Dr. Sheldons remarkable books. By 1967, a national club focusing on large cents had been established; Early American Coppers flourishes still. Soon thereafter, in failing health, Dr. Sheldon agreed to sell his collection intact to Ted Naftzger. In time, Naftzger ended up with this cent too.It is impossible to imagine a finer, more attractive, or more original 1794 cent than this one. This coin has been ranked in the top three of the variety in each successive census listing by Bland and Noyes. The Eliasberg coin, last offered in April 2013, has been graded an identical MS-66 RB by PCGS and ranked higher than the present coin in the Bland census; your cataloger thinks the choice between that one and this one is easy, and our consignor apparently agrees, having passed up no fewer than four opportunities to replace this one with that one. Other candidates for the top three include the Garrett-Adams coin, listed second by Noyes in 1991 and fourth by Bland, which sold in the 2008 Husak sale graded MS-65 BN (PCGS). The Sternberg-Sheldon-EAC 1989 coin was ranked first by Noyes in 1991, second by Bland, and tied for first in the composite 2005 Noyes-Bland-Demeo census. That coin was last sold publicly in 1995; it currently resides in a PCGS MS-66 BN holder.This coin has sold at auction just once since the Helfenstein sale in 1964. The only 1794 cent ever assigned a higher grade by PCGS appears in the previous lot.

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