The second of three planned Sealed Bid Sales of So-Called Dollars from the Ostheimer Collection will be held in January 2011 at the FUN Convention in Tampa, Florida. Fifty select rarities from the Ostheimer Collection are to be offered by So-Called Dollar specialist Jeff Shevlin. The Ostheimer So-Called Dollar Collection has been off the market for over 45 years. Twenty-five additional rarities will be offered from the Jeff Shevlin Collection.

The first sealed bid sale was held last summer at the Boston ANA Convention. Many extremely rare specimens were offered in this sale, and many record prices were set. [For background on the Ostheimers and this collection see E-Sylum Volume 13, Number 31, August 1, 2010.] Shevlin's website includes an archive of Lots from the first sealed bid sale at the Boston ANA complete with photos, Lot descriptions and prices realized.

E-Sylum readers may be recall a two part article published in 1980 in The Numismatist by Thomas K. DeLorey, "Thomas L. Elder, A Catalogue of His Tokens and Medals. The sealed bid auction in Tampa will include many of these very scarce medals struck by Thomas Elder in the early 1900s.

Rarities being offered in the second sale also include an 1826 silver U.S. Semi-Centennial medal, a complete run of rare 1909 Hudson Fulton Celebration Elder Medals and extensive groupings of Veteran Corps of Artillery and Elder Taft & Wilson "gold Basis" dollars of 1903 (many with only 5-10 struck). All are graded by NGC and most are in the MS-65 to MS-67 grade range.

A number of the examples being offered in January are plate coins in the first and second editions of the Hibler & Kappen book So-Called Dollars. Lot 79 is a beautifully toned Official U.S. Centennial Medal � 1876 (H&K 20) graded NGC MS65PL and is the plate coin in the second edition of the H&K book as well as the plate coin in the Jaeger & Bowers book 100 Greatest Medals and Tokens. As in the first sale, a fair number of the specimens offered in this second sealed bid auction have not been seen by the majority of numismatists and collectors today. A couple of them may even be unique.

Photos and lot descriptions can be viewed online prior to the FUN Convention by clicking on this link: so-calleddollar.com/DollarSite/ForSaleDollars.aspx
?category=220&title=Auctions

Lots will be available for viewing at Table 1135 at the FUN Convention until bidding closes at 5:00PM EST Friday, January 7, 2011. Additional details regarding the sale are available on Jeff Shevlin's website (www.so-calleddollar.com).