The Most Fascinating Auction I've Ever Attended- and "The One That Got Away"

Well folks, I can't say that I didn't try.

This blog post is based more on my perspective, personally, than it is Peak Rarities as an organization, but it's a captivating story nonetheless. About a month ago, I was tipped off by a friend from the Cu forums who alerted me to a small-town Pennsylvania auction in Bucks County, PA. He sent me a message saying "Uhm, I think you might want to look at these...."

When I first visited the link he sent me, I was utterly gobsmacked by what I was looking at. In the interest of keeping this "post" from becoming a "dissertation", I'm going to ask now that readers please follow the link below to the Auction Page at Brown Bros Auctions to get a general sense of the significance of what was being offered. Whether you thoroughly read everything or just skim along to get the basics, spend some time with that link before you read further.

https://www.brownbrosauction.com/auctions/saturday-morning-june-8-2024/

The quality and overall level of preservation of these items can not be understated. All of these museum-quality artifacts sat undisturbed in a Victorian-style home in York County PA since sometime in the mid-late 1800's. The featured coins you see on the homepage, including the slug, are unlike anything I've ever seen before. These gold coins were mind-numingly fresh in comparison to most early and pioneer gold you can find on today's market, and show no traces of being "improved" over the years like were all used to. Among the coins was the finest Assay Slug I've personally seen, an 1852 K-14 Assay $50 .900 just graded MS-63+ by PCGS. The other noteworthy coins included not one, but two original 1800 $5 Half Eagles in MS-62+ and MS-63, an 1807 $5 Half Eagle in MS-63+, and an 1852 $20 Double Eagle in MS-62+.

I could tell that all of these were recently graded by their sequential certification numbers, and It was quite obvious that they hadn't yet made a trip to CAC. I was confident that the coins that needed to sticker, would sticker. These are all items that Peak Rarities aims to offer its discerning clients, and my initial goal was to keep the information to myself, fly incognito to PA, and quietly buy every coin there for under market. Boy, was I in for a surprise 😀.

Upon my initial phone call to Brown Bros, I made contact with the owner, Blaine Brown. The man had a warm and inviting tone to his voice, and you could tell that he genuinely cared about serving his client's interests to the best of his ability. He had said he had analyzed these items for days, and done a painstaking amount of research to be able to accurately convey their historical significance. The first thought that went through my head was "Man, this poor guy doesn't even realize that he won't get near what they would bring in a widely publicized auction (with internet bidding), such as Heritage or Stacks. I turned out to be wrong again, but I'll get to that soon enough.

In an effort to keep this news from spreading far and wide, I refrained from speaking to anyone about it and I plotted a trip to go see the coins in person before the auction, and subsequently bid live. Blaine had told me that they took phone bids, but as we all know, you have to see a coin in hand to put an accurate number on it. Situations like this are every collector's dream, but unfortunately, I soon learned that an article was published about the slug in the PCGS Rare Coin Market Report, pictured below. I knew that it would no longer be a complete secret, but I still had hope that others might skim the article and not realize they were not yet sold.

I flew to Philly Thursday night with plans to meet with the Blaine and view the coins privately. My Dad tagged along, and we arrived and followed him over to a local bank vault, where I drew the shades, turned on my lamp, and pulled out my loupe. I started evaluating them one by one, taking notes of their flaws and attributes, as I would later need to decide how high I could go on them. They were all fully original and plucked fresh from circulation, and none of them showed signs of the woeful "improvement" that collectors are so used to. Some of them weren't that nice at all, but the ones that mattered were all spectacular. When we pulled out the slug, I was captured like I've never been before. This was the finest Assay Slug I had laid eyes on, and I had to have it. Even among all octagonal slug varieties, It was still in the top 3 or 4 examples known. What was particularly special about the coin was its "freshness", it had full mint floom with shimmering frost. The strike was full and the reverse details were fully struck up. The deep yellow gold/chartreuse color with some highlights of lavender and peach gave this coin a level of appeal that simply melts your heart. This coin was leaps and bounds nicer than your typical Slug in low unc, it was a showstopper.

It's worth noting that some of the coins did appear to have fresh contact marks/slide marks. Blaine did not know how the coins were stored, so for all we know they could have all been raw in a wooden box for over a century. I had the notes I needed, and after that, we stayed for the open house where we were able to view some of the books and ephemera along with the other wares. Later on that night, I spent several hours working on my target prices and projected retail numbers.

The next morning, we arrived at the auction house, which was almost like an old barn house, bright and early at 8:45. The auctioning of the books and ephemera started at 9 am, and the coins were set to go at noon. When we initially walked in, I didn't see any familiar faces so I had a glimmer of hope that news hadn't spread too far. Blaine began auctioning some of the less significant books as I watched the doorway, and my heart sank when I saw Laura and George from Legend Numismatics enter the room. I approached them and we had some banter to the effect of "What are YOU doing here?", "No, what are YOU doing here?" to which Laura replied, "I'm just here for the furniture" 😉... I knew exactly what they were there for, and at that point, I knew I was going to war.

We conversed a bit longer and more local dealers had entered the room. Word had indeed spread far and wide and this wasn't going to be the cupcake auction I had planned on. I went back to take my seat for the Book auctions, and, I was able to score a few notable items that piqued my interest.

1. The first edition copy of "An American Dictionary of the English Language" by Noah Webster, owned by John Gardener and printed in 1838. . 1 of 2500 copies, It was in terrific condition with the original bindings and the often missing frontispiece. A local expert there later told me that it was the finest copy she'd ever seen, and perhaps the finest known. Noah Webster took close to 30 years to finish it, and it's considered to be one of the most comprehensive works of literature of the 19th century. This is the first serious articulation of the English language since we had become a free nation, and shaped the English language as we know it today. I've found auction comps of lesser examples that sold anywhere from $6,000 to $35,000, but I have a feeling this one should be on the higher end of the scale.

https://www.washington.edu/news/2016/05/26/documents-that-changed-the-world-noah-websters-dictionary-1828/#:~:text=Though

2. The Victorian autograph album that was compiled by Judge Thomas Barlow between the years 1805-1896. Some of the signatures and correspondences include, but are not limited to, Thomas Jefferson, Benedict Arnold, James Buchanan, and Henry Clay. I'm going to need to link up with a historian who can help me decipher the rest of them, but the book is an inch and a half thick and includes numerous types of correspondence between many prominent and powerful people. Included with the autograph album is a scrapbook of photographs of the Gardner family and others from that period. The quality of the photos is astonishing considering their age.

3. Graphite Portrait of Judge Thomas Barlow in 1836 by John M Crowley, I thought I needed it since it goes well with the scrapbook.

A lot of the other books went rather cheap, and I would have liked to have had more time to research them, but I had made the trip for the coins, after all. At Noon, Blaine began the coin auction. Laura, George, and I, along with several other prominent dealers were all sitting in a circle. We watched in awe as the first lot, the 1851 $20, sold to a phone bidder for full PCGS guide (without a sticker, mind you). My heart sank, and that pretty much set the bar for the rest of the auction.

Every single coin sold for full CAC retail or more + (without a CAC sticker), way more than I had estimated. Even the more common $5 Half Eagles went for almost double what I had estimated. Laura was able to win a few coins, but she was bidding quite aggressively, and in my opinion, none of them were bargains. Luckily, she has an extensive clientele of collectors who trust her expertise and are willing to pay what it takes to secure the best coins, something Peak Rarities aspires to have one day. There were 3-4 employees of the auction on the phones with Bidders. Surely, this was out of Brown Bro's usual wheelhouse, but I must say they were well prepared and everything went pretty smoothly, all things considered. I was shocked that I wasn't able to win any of the first 16 coins, my expectations of this rural auction house were way off the mark. I must tip my hat to Blaine because he brought top dollar for his consigners, his research was intensive and meticulous.

The slug came across and after some auctioneer introduction fluff, the bid opened at 200,000 (keep in mind, BP is 15%). My palms were sweating through my pants, and this was the most expensive coin I had ever pursued. The bid up to about 280 without my help, and then when one of the audience bidders dropped out, I went toe to toe with Laura and George. I went far and beyond my target range for the coin, and I must admit I might have gotten a bit carried away, but I wanted the coin at all costs. The number became more and more oppressive, and In the end, I had to wave the white flag. I could sense that they weren't prepared to surrender and they already had the coin lined up for someone. Afterward, we all shook hands, paid our bills, and went on our merry way.

I'm a little disheartened that I wasn't able to win the Slug for my collection or any of the other coins for Peak's inventory. At least I made sure they had to work for it, and I'll always have the memory and pictures of this exhilarating experience. I may kick myself in the behind a decade from now, but I take solace in knowing that I gave it everything I had. Luckily, I was able to bring home the coolest Americana I've seen, so that made my trip worthwhile.

It felt good to fly home with some dry powder for once, as I've had some other coins on my radar and several auctions were coming in the following week. Peak is working hard to build inventory for the Summer Fun Show and ANA, and there will always be more coins to buy. Perhaps I'll get another crack at the slug somewhere down the line, but for now, the coin will remain to be my "White Whale", the one that got away.