Heritage’s third auction of Pennsylvania collector Gene Gardner’s collection of U.S. coins brought $13,787,486 in New York City on May 12. Here is a highlight from that auction:

A top lot in the sale was Gardner’s 1870-S Seated Liberty dollar graded PCGS Extremely Fine 40. The legendary rarity — which Heritage notes is one of just nine confirmed examples — brought $505,250. While it last sold at Heritage’s Jan. 12, 2014, Florida United Numismatists auction for $763,750, it had previously sold for $503,125 at a May 3, 2009, Heritage auction and the price it brought on May 12 was in line with the $470,000 that a similarly graded NGC example brought in Heritage’s Jan. 12 FUN auction earlier this year.

A rarity with perhaps less name-brand recognition in the Gardner sale was an 1870-CC Seated Liberty quarter dollar graded PCGS AU-55 with green CAC sticker that sold for $188,000.

It is one of the finest known from a low mintage of 8,340 pieces. The rarity was last sold as part of Stack’s Bowers Galleries August 2012 sale of the Battle Born Collection of Carson City Mint coins, where it brought $184,000.

The fourth and final Gardner auction is scheduled for October 2015 and will be devoted to his duplicates, upgrades and specialty pieces that are not otherwise part of his core sets.

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