Safely back home Alan Weinberg writes:

Harvey Stack wrote to Alan:

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 theBaltimore 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 thequestion.

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 totallyunderstood 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 thecoins.

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 thePogue 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 havebeen 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 leastfive 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 takesguts 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 whosaw 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 theultra-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.

4. LOT 7334: PCGS/CAC MS65 1845-D HALF EAGLE

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. Thisis 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 in2003 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 halfeagle in MS65 (with none finer) gave it a broad sense of demand.

8. LOT 7338: PCGS/CAC MS66 1848-O EAGLE

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 Orleanseagle 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 wasexcited. 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+.

To read the complete article, see:
The Pogue VII Sale: My Perspective Through A Dozen Coins(https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/2020/3/23/the-pogue-vii-sale-my-perspective-through-a-dozen-coins)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
THE SCHMANDT SALE AND THE BLIZZARD OF 1957 (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n08a19.html)
THE SCHMANDT SALE AND THE BLIZZARD OF 1957, PART 2 (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n10a23.html)
AUCTIONS IN A WORLD OF CORONAVIRUS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n12a14.html)