Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ and Sotheby’s May 19 auction of 128 coins from the D. Brent Pogue Collection was the first of seven auctions that will place hundreds of rare coins in the marketplace. Here are three coins that represent different facets of the diversity and quality of his holdings. 

The Coin
1794 Flowing Hair half dollar, Mint state 64

The Price
$763,750

The Story 
Pogue’s 1794 Flowing Hair half dollar graded PCGS MS-64 is considered the finest half dollar from the first year of the denomination. It is highly unusual in that it has cartwheel luster on both sides, combined with a bold strike and tremendous eye appeal. 

Interestingly, Stack’s Bowers notes that throughout its history this half dollar has sold for roughly one-fifth of what the finest known Amon-Carter 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar has brought. In 1945 this half dollar traded for $210 while two years later the Amon-Carter 1794 dollar sold for $1,250. In the mid-1980s this repeated itself with the half dollar trading at $55,000 and the dollar selling for $264,000. 

The Amon-Carter dollar — graded PCGS Specimen 66 — sold for just over $10 million at Stack’s Bowers 2013 Americana sale.

At the Pogue sale, the finest 1794 half dollar brought $763,750, breaking the historic ratio by bringing less than a tenth of its more famous finest known 1794 silver dollar counterpart.

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