Strong Heritage Auction results tonight - New York

[Zebo]

1924 SA Sovereign MS64 $21,150

1927 SA Sovereign MS66 $6,462.50

1928 SA Sovereign MS66 $4,700

 

Someone's SA Sovereign registry set just took a big jump forward

 

 

[JCM-Houston]

With a few exceptions I thought the prices were ok on the British, there were a bunch of things that went really cheap I thought, like the 1943 Specimen British Florin. I picked up a couple of new British halfpennies for my set:

 

1772 in 65:

 

 

1788 P-966 Brown Gilt pattern in PF66:

 

 

I really thought about that Specimen Florin but decided I have to keep some money for the next two auctions, there are a few nive halfpennies coming up I would like to bid on.

[Zebo]

Nice pickups - I was priced out on what I was after. I didn't look T all of the British coins - maybe I should have. I did pick up a nice farthing off another site, however.

[World Colonial]

I collect SA coins and consider the 1927 and 1928 absurdly overpriced. The 1924 was not particularly a good deal either.

[Zebo]

Agree - very over the top on these.

[World Colonial]

I'm not a Sovereign collector but I suspect that every one of those coins were bought by someone in SA who collects Union generically. I do not see anyone else buying the 1927 or 1928 coins at anywhere near those prices. In my opinion, whoever bought those two is "buried" in them.

 

The 1924 is a somewhat better value but in the context of Union coinage at least, I do not consider it anywhere near as scarce as many probably think of it. The mintage is reported as slightly over 3600 but I suspect that the number of higher grade survivors is a lot more than many of the actually scarcer Union dates. The last time I checked the combined census, I believe there were somewhere in the vicinity of 40. Depending upon the number of duplicates, I suspect that there are at least 100 potentially available which is really not that few for a coin at this price level, even if this one is in the better grades.

[JCM-Houston]

I was unfortunately traveling in the UK and Belgium this week so was unable to use the live bidding at Heritage (was in the air for both days), I left plenty of bids and although on a couple of these I think the grading was a little enthusiastic I'm ok with the prices paid,, these are all ex-Newman.

 

1687 James II tin Halfpenny, this was the major coin I wanted out of all the sales, Z had kindly posted the slab pics previously. Although an ugly coin these are incredibly difficult in relatively high grade as the tin perished away to dust very quickly. 1687 is the most common date for the series being rated only Rare by Peck, Spink gives a 2012 value at GBP 775 in VF and GBP 3850 in EF to give an idea of degree of difficulty in high grade :

 

 

1850 Vicky Sixpence in 65:

 

 

1868 Sixpence with die number 5 in 64:

 

 

1884 Sixpence in 66:

 

 

1900 Sixpence in 65:

 

 

 

 

[VDB Coins]

Very, very nice pickups JCM, congratulations. I particularly like the look of the 1850 6d -- well, and the 1868 with die number as well!

 

On the tin James II halfpenny what is the copper-colored bit in the center? Clearly related to the minting process of these, which I'm unfamiliar with. And how do you grade it -- or do you bother?

 

Again, quite nice lot, thanks for sharing.

 

Best Regards,

 

George

[JCM-Houston]

Thanks VDB, the tin farthings and halfpennies were made with a square copper plug in the center, to give them some semblance of value as the tin was of course nearly worthless even in those days.

 

As for grade it's very tough, I would normally just call this an EF as I don't think it's reasonable to try to distinguish numerical grades on them. Besides the corrosion issues most of the have they were also normally weakly struck.

[VDB Coins]

Ah I see, thanks for sharing that. I looked at the knockout example in my Spink book and yours is quite well detailed.

 

Best Regards,

 

George

[RWB]

Picked up some nice French patterns and a couple of British ones - but missed the ones I really wanted --- hammer was just too high.