1861-S Paquet $20 Leads Prices Realized in Heritage’s $13 Million Long Beach Signature® Auction

An 1861-S double eagle rarity, featuring the reverse designed by Anthony C, Paquet, lead the prices realized in Heritage’s Official Auction of the February 2009 Long Beach Coin Expo. Lot 3020, the 1861-S Paquet $20 certified by NGC as AU 58, realized $161,000. With its radically different styling, as well as the story of its meteoric withdrawal from production and release, has made this rarity among the most favored and storied coins in US numismatics.

Other NGC-certified gold rarities from all denominations also starred in the auction, which contained some 6,500 lots from 280 consignors. The auction, presented by Heritage Auction Galleries, took place February 5–8 in Long Beach, California. Prices Realized have been posted by Heritage Auction Galleries on their HA.com Web site. The $13 million figure is expected to increase substantially as Post Auction Buys and the non-floor session continues.

“Long Beach was especially rich in gold rarities, across all series,” enthused Heritage President Greg Rohan. “Exceptional coins were contributed by our anchors. The Grand Lake Collection was especially rich in gold pre-Civil War issues — especially the coins of Dahlonega and Charlotte. The four-generation Pasadena Collection started with a box of coins set aside by the owner of a general store in Pennsylvania. Part One of the Ed Lepordo Collection featured a complete type set (1793 to date), impressive Large cents and other series from two dozen NGC Registry sets. Additional selections from The Jack Lee Estate Collection were also included.”

Bidder usage of the HERITAGE Live!™ bidding system, allowing global bidders to directly compete in the floor bidding via the Internet, continued to rise; of the 4,500 bidders participating in Long Beach, 16 percent of those successful participated through HERITAGE Live!

For more information about Heritage’s auctions, and a complete record of prices realized, along with full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, please visit www.HA.com.

To reserve your copy of any Heritage auction catalog, please contact Client Services at 1-800-872-6467, ext. 1150, or visit www.HA.com/Catalog to order by e-mail.

media contact:
Kelley Norwine
KelleyN@HA.com
1-800-872-6467 Ext. 1583

Heritage Auction Galleries
3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor
Dallas, TX 75219

Please direct photography requests to:
Cindy Brenner
CindyB@HA.com
1-800-872-6467 Ext. 1289

 This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.