Evaluating the FUN auctions: Some rarities lag prior prices

While the two seven-figure coins offered at Heritage Auctions’ 2012 Florida United Numismatists auctions — a 1793 Flowing Hair, Chain, With Periods cent graded Mint State 65 brown and an 1829 Capped Head half eagle graded Proof 64 — both brought $1.38 million, multiples more than their last times at the auction block, not all lots established record prices.

Coins don’t always appreciate in value, as evidenced by this NGC Mint State 68 1937-S Indian Head 5-cent coin that realized $11,500 at the recent FUN auctions. The same coin had sold for $26,450 at a 2009 auctio

Although some coins from the Dr. and Mrs. Steven L. Duckor Collection of Saint-Gaudens $20 double eagles set records, others performed at or below expectations. For example, a 1931 example graded Mint State 66 that was formerly in the collection of Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. sold within expectations for $126,500. That price was an improvement on the $17,600 that it realized in 1982 when it was offered as part of the Eliasberg estate, and comparable to three 2007 auction offerings where similarly graded examples realized $126,500 to $143,750.

In contrast, the Duckor Collection’s top lot, a 1921 double eagle graded MS-66, realized $747,500 — big money, but less than the $1,092,500 that a peer example brought as part of the Philip Morse Collection in 2005. Duckor’s coin had last appeared at auction in 1984 where it brought $57,500.

Sometimes auction descriptions provide the price that a coin last sold for at auction, seemingly to support a coin’s value. This tactic was used for some lots in the Teton Ranch Collection of often finest-known Numismatic Guaranty Corp. certified Indian Head 5-cent coins. Most of the high-value lots sold for less than the prices achieved at their last public offering as noted in the catalog.

The collection’s top lot, an MS-64 1916 Doubled Die Obverse 5-cent coin, a legendary rarity, realized $172,500. The same coin brought $276,000 when offered at an April 2008 Bowers and Merena auction.

A 1919-S 5-cent piece graded MS-66 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp realized $25,300, a far cry from its last trip to auction in 2008 where it brought $92,000, while an NGC MS-66★ 1918-S 5-cent coin realized $23,000 in contrast to the $51,750 that it brought at a 2009 auction.

Perhaps most the most cautionary result was a 1926-S Indian Head 5-cent coin that sold for $92,000, a seemingly strong price until one considers that at its last offering in April 2008 it brought $322,000, establishing a record price for a 1926-S 5-cent coin.