A coin that generated some heat  in Heritage’s Nov. 11 to 14 U.S. Coins Signature Auction was a high-graded example of the sole silver dollar commemorative in the classic 1892 to 1954 series: a Lafayette Monument dollar certified Mint State 66+ by Professional Coin Grading Service and bearing a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker.

The cataloger observed, “This specimen displays vibrant, satiny mint luster beneath mottled russet, amber, blue-green, lilac-gray, and golden toning,” before concluding, “The preservation is outstanding.”

The obverse depicts the busts of George Washington and Marquis de La Fayette, known in the United States as Lafayette, a French aristocrat who fought in the American Revolution and later, the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830 in France.

The coin sold for $30,000, a strong price considering that a comparably graded one without a CAC sticker (and perhaps more mottled toning) sold for $13,800 at a Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction this summer.

In total, 50,000 1900-dated dollars were authorized (and struck in 1899), but many were melted, since the $2 per-coin price tag was a significant commitment for buyers at the time for a collectible silver dollar, leaving a final mintage of 36,026.

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