Q. David Bowers
"Without referring to any records or publications, I believe that I can safely say in my 40 years of experience I cannot recall any serious drop in he values of type coins as a whole. Coins in a given series may drop when that series as a whole drops, but for all of the types to drop or even most of them? Never."
On Wednesday, October 21st, 1959, at 8:00 in he evening, at the Park-Sheraton Hotel in New York City, Abe Kosoff conducted the sale of the )r. James O. Sloss Collection of United States Large Cents. Although the catalogue was a modest me and described just 356 lots, it attracted wide attention among large cent specialists and grossed $69,318.35.
In the introduction, the cataloguer noted: 'Another sale of large cents; it seems to make sense to send cents to A.K. Since 1943, when Oscar J. Pearl turned his 'coppers' over to us, most of the name' collections of cents have come our way. Thank you, Jim Sloss, for following the path to our door. We hope you like the gentle treatment given to your old friends."
The auction commenced with Lot 1, a Chain AMERI cent, Sheldon-1, described as AU-50, which fetched $1,900, followed by a Chain AMERICA cent, S-2, the Beckwith-Newcomb piece described by Dr. Sheldon as MS-60, at $5,500, far over the pre-sale estimate of $3,000.
Then came a specimen of another variety of the Chain AMERICA cent, S-3, in MS-60 grade at $1,600. In short order, an S-4 cent in AU-50 grade fetched $1,400, the Miller-Newcomb-Clarke S-5, which Abe Kosoff had sold in 1956 for $1,650, brought $2,500, and an MS-60 S-9 cent fetched $725. Other early cents included numerous pieces with illustrious pedigrees.
The greatest attention at the sale, and the greatest price, was reserved for Lot 50, which was described as: "The King of Cents-The Hines of 1799. S-189. This is the famous Hines coin, the acknowledged KING OF CENTS, the most desirable and most famous of the large coppers. As an AU-50 it is head and shoulders superior to any other specimens. The American Numismatic Society specimen has claims to VF-35, and that is their best example of S-189. It is most difficult to estimate the value of this outstanding offering. The pedigree, the condition, the rarity-these added to the aura built around the Hines 1799 create a situation which may very well result in a runaway price. I can think of several coins in the $10,000 class which are less desirable than this superb rarity. Since an estimate is expected, I shall use a figure at which its most recent owner valued it. $8,000."
As it turned out, the estimate was conservative, and the piece fetched $10,500. Among later date cents there were many interesting pieces, including an MS-65 example of the famous 1817 15-star issue (Newcomb-16) which fetched $115 against a $95 estimate, a prooflike 1823/2 overdate, MS-60, at $1,100, and an MS-60 1857 cent, Newcomb-L, at $100.