PERSPECTIVES ON THE POGUE VII SALE

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 13, March 29, 2020, Article 14

Last week's issue was massive and one for the record books in other ways thanks to the great input from many supporters and readers including Alan Weinberg, whose fantastic you-are-there report from last week's coronavirus-shutdown-impaired Stack's Bowers auctions was my favorite article by far. Thanks again! -Editor

"I’ve received a number of congratulatory emails regarding the SB auction review. Good job constructing what appeared to be the longest E-Sylum I can recall.

The Monday online session was also astonishingly active with very strong bidding. Got to be cabin fever and a lack of shows as high condition was not a factor there as it was a contributing factor Wednesday thru Friday."

"It takes someone like you put your experiences about the March Stack's Bowers sale, that shows just what efforts we made, the unbelievable experiences you encountered, (even driving at 80+ on a California highway), the running you did from place to place, and then after you were a winner for few lots to take the time and effort to report to all what you encountered, is sincerely appreciated by me and the rest of the crew.

"I hope the readers appreciate the fact that in order to help and serve them that we did everything we could do (plus) to make the sale successful. All the consignors thanked us for what we did and accomplished.

"By the way, this is not the first sale we sold under adverse conditions. For example, we held sales during the worst snow storm in the 1950's (the Schmandt sale), and the day Kennedy was shot (with the advice of the State Department). During the blackout in the 1970's that Stack's did re-schedule, the Black Monday severe drop of of 20% in 1987 and now with the "shut down" of operations this year, it proves our soldiers ready to serve and "make it happen and be successful!"

Linked below are earlier articles about the Schmandt sale and the Blizzard of 1957.

Here's E-Sylum supporter Doug Winter's perspective on the Pogue VII sale from his March 23, 2020 blog. -Editor

You couldn’t have picked a more dire set of circumstances faced by Stack’s Bowers for their various March coin and paper money auctions. After the Covid-19 virus cancelled the Baltimore coin show, the firm grappled with the very difficult questions forced by the crazy and rapidly-getting-crazier events of 2020. To cancel or not to cancel, that was the question.

Possessed with cojones the size of California, the decision was made to move the sale to the West Coast. When I heard this news I was pretty amazed but I totally understood Stack’s Bowers’ position: they were financially committed and with things likely to get worse in the coming weeks, it ultimately made sense to go ahead and sell the coins.

My assumption was that the Pogue Sale would do well no matter the circumstances. The coins were absolutely amazing and there weren’t that many of them. Given the wealth of the Pogue family and the circumstances associated with the collection, it seemed unlikely to me that the family would make the decision to postpone the sale.

As I write this recap, the day after the sale, I am amazed at a number of things. First of all, I’m amazed at the scope of the participation. I’m in self-quarantine (and have been for close to two weeks) so I wasn’t going to attend live (I participated by internet and phone bidding but this is no different from how I’ve approached auctions for at least five years) but the Fear of Gatherings didn’t keep dealers from viewing and bidding live. Secondly, while I’m not surprised by the prices realized, I’m amazed by them. It takes guts to spend $2,500, $25,000 or even $250,000 on a coin after collectors have been dealt a world of hurt by the economic impact of the last few weeks. Kudos to the collectors who saw the opportunity to buy once-in-a-generation coins and overcame the fear we are all feeling right now.

So, you ask, how did the sale do? Coins under $10,000 were exceptionally strong. Coins in the $10,000-50,000 mostly did very well. The only area of weakness in the sale was the ultra-expensive coins, although there were some very expensive coins which did really well.

Here are a dozen rare gold coins from the sale along with my perspectives and what the prices realized mean in today’s ultra-volatile market.

The Pogue Collection contained only a single Dahlonega coin, but what a coin it was: a Gem 1845-D half eagle with a pedigree which included Norweb, Bass, and yours truly. This is one of just four Dahlonega half eagles of any date graded MS65 by PCGS and it is the only piece likely to be available for some time.

This coin had last sold for $80,500 in August 2006 which I regarded as an extremely strong price at the time; I had paid $47,500 for it in partnership with another dealer in 2003 and I then sold it to a West Coast collector.

The coin sold for $96,000 which I regard as a very strong price; I felt the coin was going to bring around $70,000. The fact that it was the only CAC approved Dahlonega half eagle in MS65 (with none finer) gave it a broad sense of demand.

I’ve been in love with this coin since I first saw it, raw, in the James Stack Sr. sale held back in 1994 when it brought $154,000. It’s the single finest No Motto New Orleans eagle in existence and it is one of the two best No Motto eagles of any date (the other, dated 1852 and graded MS66+ by PCGS/CAC, was also in the sale and I purchased it for $288,000).

The owner of the New England Collection of New Orleans gold coinage has wanted this coin for many years and when we learned it was going to be offered in the Pogue sale, he was excited. We had a number of discussions about what the right price was for the coin and who would be the likely competition.

I purchased the coin for $240,000 which I believe was well under market value. The fact that the Tyrant Collection contained a nice PCGS/CAC MS64 likely saved me $100,000+.