But I did get a couple...

Part 2 of the Gardner collection sale was conducted Monday by Heritage. A couple posts ago (going back to late June) I mentioned that I would pursue one of the half dimes. I decided that now is the time to spend some money on top quality coins to add to my set, so I got my wife's approval to spend way more (at one time) than I previously have.

The target was the 1846, PCGS graded MS62, and sporting a Gold CAC sticker. Mr. Gardner also had one of the two MS63 specimens, which was sold in part 1 of the sale in June. He clearly regarded the MS62 as the better coin - he had it in his #1 registry set, and the MS63 was in his second set. I expected it to sell for more than the MS63, which went for about $23,500. It did.

The bid got up to $28,000 ($32,900 with buyer's premium) before the live auction session. I was the underbidder at that point, and decided that was too much to continue. So I turned my attention to other coins in the sale. I made what I thought were strong bids on a few others that I still need for my set.

On Monday afternoon, I took some time off work to participate in the live auction on-line. I decided to bid on an 1841-O, and ended up as the underbidder. When the 1846 came up, there was no action, and I was tempted to go one more bid, but did not. It would be more than I was originally willing to pay, and I still had a lot of money on the table from those earlier absentee bids.

As the sale progressed, those earlier bids were eclipsed and I entered live bids on a few more as they came up. When the dust had settled, I was the underbidder on eight different coins, and was left farther behind on a few more. But I did hang on to get the last two MS half dimes in the sale, the 1871 and 1871-S.

Even though I ended up spending far less than I was prepared to spend in that sale, I probably will not count all of the difference as savings. A dealer is bringing a coin to the Baltimore show for me to examine... I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.

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