Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

 

Photograph of a 1913 Liberty
Head V nickel released by Blanchard
& Co. in New Orleans on Thursday.

  NEW ORLEANS -- A 1913 Liberty Head nick-el minted under myste­rious circumstances, owned by royalty and celebrated in an episode of TV's Hawaii Five-O sold Thursday for $3 million US.

  "Many argue this is the most important coin in our history," said Bruce Smith of Blanchard and Co., which brokered the sale.

  Neither buyer nor seller was identified.

  At least two other coins have sold for more, both at auction. In 1999, an 1804 silver dollar sold for $4.14 mil-lion. Two years ago, a 1933 $20 gold piece went for $7.59 million.

  The $3-million coin is one of only five Liberty Head nickels minted in 1913. The design had been discontinued in 1912 and the mint was switching over to the Indian Head nickel.

  The mint sometimes ran off coins as tests and the coins may have been struck that way, Smith said. They sur­faced in 1920 in the pos­session of Samuel Brown, a former mint employee, and have soared in value ever since.

  The coin sold by Blanchard is consid­ered the second-best in quality and the one with the most colourful history.

  Called the Olsen Specimen for a previ­ous owner, it once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt, an avid coin collector.

  It was also owned by Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and was the subject of a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O, titled The $100,000 Nickel.

Associated Press

B.C. stamps should fetch $1 million US

COLLECTIBLES--Collection of pre-Confederation stamps set to be auctioned in New York

BY JOHN MACKIE

VANCOUVER SUN

            THE PROVINCE--A legendary collection of pre-Confederation stamps from British Columbia and Vancouver Island is going to be auctioned off Tuesday in New York, and sales are expected to top $1 million US.

  The 370 lots include exceptionally rare stamps, proofs and "covers" (envelopes) bearing both stamps and express company marks, which are collectible in their own right.

  The sale offers a fascinating glimpse into a little-known era between the Fraser and Cariboo gold rush and Confederation.

  Eighteen separate stamps were issued between 1860 and 1871, when B.C. joined Canada. The earliest stamps bear the legend "British Columbia and Vancouver's Island," because they were separate colonies until 1866. The early stamps also bear a profile of a relatively youthful Queen Victoria, who was 41 in 1860.

  The cover letters have all sorts of historical quirks. Lot no. 273, for example, bears stamps and addresses on both sides of the cover — one for getting out of Canada, one for getting to its destination in the U.S.

Shown above is Lot 1 of 370 lots
that are to be auctioned off in New
York. These 'five-cent rose' stamps
were issue by B.C. and
Vancouver Island.

Collection assembled by two legends in the field

  This is because in the 1860s, there was no cross-Canada mail service — because there was no postal delivery through the mountains. Most mail was taken by express companies from the gold fields to New Westminster or Victoria, then by ship to San Francisco.

  The cover was sent by someone who couldn't spell (it's addressed to "Pioner City, Idiho Teritory") from Richfield, B.C., a gold-mining town near Barkerville that no longer exists.

  It features a pair of British Columbia stamps and a pair of American stamps, and bears the marks of three express companies, two Canadian (Barnard's Cariboo Express, and Dietz & Nelson's B.C. and V. Express) and one American (Wells Fargo and Co.).

  "The Cariboo Express [and Dietz] got it out of inland, the British Columbia stamps got it out of the country, then it got to the United States," explains Keith Harmer of H.R. Harmer Philatelic Auctioneers, which is conducting the sale.

  "Because it had to get to Idaho territory, which wasn't even a state at that time, now it had to go by Wells Fargo. So you have three express companies and two different countries involved.

  "You know something? That could bring $45,000 [US, about $60,000 Cdn], that cover."

  Another interesting cover is Lot 199, which has 10 blue Vancouver Island stamps and is addressed to The Bank of

Lot 1 includes an 1860 die proof of a
stamp from B.C. and Vancouver Island. 

British Columbia, 5 East India Avenue, Leadenhall Street, London (estimated value, $2,700 to $4,100). Lot 181 is addressed to Aylmer, Canada West — pre-Confederation Ontario (estimate $2,000 to $2,700).

  Lot 24 is a pair of rose-coloured five-cent British Columbia and Vancouver's Island stamps, arranged vertically. The catalogue states that it is the only known unused multiple of "this most famous of British North America rarities," and notes it is listed in stamp catalogues at $60,000, although it will probably go higher. Lot 51 is an uncut sheet of 24 blue 10 cent Vancouver Island stamps, which has a catalogue value of about $47,000.

  The collection was assembled by two of the most legendary names in American stamp collecting, the father/daughter team of Alfred F. Lichtenstein and Louise Boyd Dale.

  Lichtenstein was the founder of the Philatelic Foundation in the U.S., and is the namesake of the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award, which Harmers calls "the most prestigious award in philately." His daughter carried on his collection after he died in 1947.

  After Dale died in 1967, their British North America stamp collection (featuring rare Canadian and colonial stamps) brought $3 million U.S. at a Harmers auction.

Lot 273 features a Barnard's Cariboo
Express stamp from British Columbia
and Vancouver Island.

  Harmer said the 1969 auction was so big — there were 5,000 lots — that at first, most collectors didn't realize there was. no B.C. material. Later on, the missing B.C. collection became the stuff of legend, a near-mythic collection that many thought had been donated to an institution and would never hit the market.

  It turns out Louise Boyd Dale had given the collection to her son John, who has now decided to auction it off. There has only been one collection to come on the market to rival it — the 373-lot Gerald E. Wellburn collection, which was auctioned for $800,000 Cdn in 1988.

  The Wellburn Collection was so famous, the auctioneer, Eaton & Sons, issued a limited edition coffee table book featuring it. Brian Grant Duff has it for sale for $150 at the Bay Coins and Stamps in the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver.

  Grant Duff said the Dale/Lichtenstein collection is just as famous, and will

attract the elite of the stamp world.       

  "It's one of the great events of a lifetime for many collectors," he said.

  "Much of this material is held privately or in institutional collections, and trades hands once a generation, if that."           

  Catalogues for the auction are $15 US, and can be obtained by e-mailing the auctioneers at hrharmer@hrharmer.com. If you want to bid, call Harmers at 212-532-3700.

$6.6 million US paid for rarest of coins

   NEW YORK — An anonymous buyer submitted the winning $6.6-million US bid at an auc­tion of the U.S. double eagle gold coin still in existence, eclipsing by $2.5 million the previous record for the sale of a coin. The coin never went into cir­culation because then-presi­dent Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to take the country off the gold standard.

only known 1933

New $5 note will feature scenes of youngsters playing in winter

   Cold hard Canadian cash is getting a cold new Canadian look. Icy winter sports will be the theme decorating the back side of the new five-dollar bill being unveiled today by the Bank of Canada in Montreal. But an image of the bill was dis­played Monday on eBay, where the bill was being offered for auction.

   While the fiver's front will still feature the stern counte­nance of the early 20th century prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier, the back will contain the all-Canadian scene of youngsters playing shinny on a frozen pond, another child riding a toboggan and what appears to be a father holding his daughter's hand as they go skating out of doors.

   The unveiling will take place at the old Montreal Forum, for­mer home of the NHL's Mon­treal Canadiens franchise. For­mer Habs star Jean Beliveau, Kim St-Pierre, a goalie for Canada's Olympic gold-medal-winning women's hockey team, and Myriam Bedard, an Olympic gold medallist in biathlon, are expected to be on hand when Finance Minster Paul Martin and David Dodge, the governor of the Bank of Canada, introduce the bill.

Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen

Rare bills featured at Bank of Canada auction

ROYAL TRIBUTE: A $25 Canadian bank note from 1935.

   (VANCOUVER SUN) --- Some of the rarest and most intriguing currency in Canadi­an history goes on the auction block Saturday in Toronto.

   With the millennium winding down, the Bank of Canada has decided it's time to clean out its archives.

   About 8,000 bank notes and "specimen" notes are up for grabs, including a $25 bill from 1935, a $500 bill from the same year, and a complete set of 1954 "Devil's Face" currency.

   There is a note bearing the likeness of Queen Elizabeth when she was Princess Eliza­beth, a note with King Edward VIII when he was the Prince of Wales, and "Banque Du Cana­da" notes with all-French text.

   "It's basically a once in a life-time opportunity for collec­tors," said Brian Grant Duff of Vancouver's All Nations Stamp and Coin Shop.

   "It's the first time a central bank has auctioned a portion of their holdings. When similar auctions have happened, like the Christie's American Ban­knote Company archives auc­tion a few years ago, it's been the printers that have sold the material, and not the banks. So it's an unprecedented auction."

   A little history is in order. The Bank of Canada started issuing paper currency in 1935, and took over the entire paper currency market in 1944. Up to that point, individual banks like the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank produced their own currency. Just to complicate matters, the federal government produced paper currency for the Province of Canada from 1841 to 1870 and for the Dominion of Canada from 1870 to 1934.

   The notes in the auction are from 1935 to 1979, and each one comes with a story. The 1935 $500 bill, for example, is a "specimen" note, a type that almost never leaves the bank's archives. (The word "speci­men" is printed or punched into the face of the note.)

   "Specimen bank notes are ex­ceedingly rare, because they're printed as examples for banks to use," Grant Duff explained. "Clients of the bank who are trying to understand what a bank note should look like nor­mally get these. They don't nor­mally fall into collectors' hands."

   The 1935 $25 note is the only $25 bill in Bank of Canada his­tory (a specimen is being auc­tioned). It was struck to com­memorate the 25th anniversary of King George V and Queen Mary's ascension to the throne (they're featured on the front).

   The bank printed two sets of notes in 1954, after some imagi­native souls argued that you could see a "devil's face" leering from behind Queen Elizabeth's curls.

   "If you use your imagination, it looks like a little hook nose, or a gargoyle or a demonic face," Grant Duff said. "No one would care today, but back in 1954 there was a tremendous hue and cry about `how dare they put the devil's face in the Queen's hair!' "

   Auctioneer Charles Moore expects about 150-200 bidders to attend the auction at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, and another 500 to place bids by mail, e-mail, the Internet (at http://www.coinuniverse.com) or phone.

   Moore estimates the auction will bring in at least $600,000, but the final tally could be much higher. Five "specimens" of the 1935 $500 bill are estimated at $1,500 apiece. But there are only 46 examples of the 1935 $500 note outstanding, and only 14 are known to still exist. The new Charlton's Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money lists the note at $27,500 for an English copy, and $35,000 for a French one, if they're in "extremely fine" condition.