The Admiral Collection, featuring one of the finest collections of Coronet gold $10 eagles ever assembled, set records at Heritage’s Feb. 22 to 26 Long Beach Expo auction. An 1875 eagle topped bidding, followed by two New Orleans Mint issues, both certified by Professional Coin Grading Service and carrying green Certified Acceptance Corp. stickers: an 1842-O Coronet eagle graded Mint State 63 and an 1897-O eagle graded MS-67 that brought $288,000 and $264,000, respectively.

Here is an About Uncirculated example that shows the collecting challenges inherent in this long-running series, with a result that indicates the strong demand for choice representatives.

Wendell Wolka concludes his series of columns on allegorical figures depicted on obsolete notes with tips on identifying several figures by their accessories. Also in this issue, we take a look at a few of the dozens of abbreviations in numismatics.

The Lot:

1877-CC Coronet gold $10 eagle, AU-58, 

The Price:

$102,000

The Story:

The Admiral Collection’s 1877-CC Coronet gold eagle grades PCGS AU-58 and it is both the finest certified at PCGS and the top-graded certified example to sell at public auction.

Just 50 to 75 are thought to survive from an original mintage of 3,322 coins, and most are well-worn. Neither PCGS nor NGC has graded a Mint State example — it seems that few were saved by collectors at the time of issue since collecting coins by Mint mark was not yet popular — and its reputation as a rarity in the series is growing. Carson City Mint expert Rusty Goe has called the issue “a late bloomer in terms of valuation,” and said for About Uncirculated examples, “the goal is to find examples with light golden-orange or burnt-orange color that aren’t victims of over-dipping and that don’t display heavy abrasions.”

The offered example is generally well struck, save some flatness in the central obverse, with warm, flashy orange-gold surfaces and pleasing reddish-copper color along the obverse border between stars 11 and 13. The gold coin sold for $102,000, establishing an auction record for an issue and far surpassing the previous record, set by Heritage Auctions in 2016 for a PCGS AU-53 example that brought $49,350.

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