Heritage Sells the Mississippi Collection. Traditionally, the Heritage February Long Beach sale is small in comparison to most other coin auctions conducted by this firm. This is because Long Beach closely follows the FUN show held in January, which has become the biggest and best show and auction in the coin year. Given the choice of consigning to the vibrant FUN atmosphere as opposed to the moribund Long Beach gloom, most collectors and dealers wisely choose the Florida option.
Upon receiving my Long Beach February 2025 sale catalog, I was stunned by its size and scope. A quick perusal showed close to 200 lots of Liberty Head double eagles, many from the Mississippi Collection. Except for the withdrawn 1854-O (and the rare Proof-only issues which had all been sold in the 2025 FUN auction), the set was complete and mostly in very high grades.
I was especially interested in the rarer Type One issues as this is a weak area in the better-date gold market right now. Would the market—which was already saturated with higher grade Type Ones from Fairmont and the 2025 FUN sale—be able to absorb these new coins? My pre-sale guess was no, the market couldn’t, and that prices would be trend on the low side.
Let’s look at some of the highlight coins and determine how my pre-sale prognostications were.
LOT 3365: 1850-O $20, PCGS/CAC MS61
Very few collectors realize just how rare this date is in real Mint State. I know of just three or four, of which this specific coin was probably the nicest. Graded MS61 by PCGS and approved by CAC, it had last sold in the Heritage 6/2014, sale where it set a record for the date at $111,625.
I expected this coin to sell in the $75,000-85,000 range, and was very surprised when it set a new price record at $132,000. (Note: all auction results include the 20% buyer’s premium.)
Given the fact that this is a population 1/0 coin at both PCGS and CAC, the rarity of this coin in this grade plus the fact the coin itself was really nice make the record price a little more understandable as I reflect on the auction after it ended. Still, 132k is a lot of money for a coin which can be bought in nice AU55 for $15,000-20,000.
LOT 3369: 1852 $20, PCGS/CAC MS64
The 1852 double eagle is very common in all circulated grades, and it is available from time to time in Uncirculated grades trough MS62. A properly graded MS64 such as the Mississippi coin is very rare, and the current PCGS population of just five in this grade with two finer (MS64+ and MS65) makes this a true condition rarity.
I was bidding for a client on this coin, and prior to sale we had discussed me going up $75,000 with a stretch if necessary.
This coin set an auction record for the grade when I purchased it for $102,000. In its last appearance, back in 8/2012, it had sold for $82,250. However, with the $84,000 sale of an NGC/CAC example in the Stack’s Bowers 11/2023, I knew that this nice PCGS coin would bring at least 15% more.
LOT 3374: 1853-O $20, NGC MS61
This is another overlooked Type One from New Orleans. It is exceedingly rare in Uncirculated with just two or three known.
I didn’t like this coin in 2025 any better than I did when I passed on it in the 4/2014 and 1/2002 Heritage sales it had appeared in, and its price realized of just $43,200 shows me that no one else fell for the Old NGC “MS61” trick. This scrubby AU58 had sold for $64,625 in 2014, and I strongly doubt we will see it bringing that kind of money any time soon.
As I would find throughout the sale, coins with problems or coins that were blatantly overgraded performed poorly while nice coins did considerably better.
LOT 3384: 1856-O $20, PCGS AU58
It had been well over a decade since a comparably high-grade 1856-O double eagle had sold at auction, and I was extremely interested to see what this coin would bring. Given that there were two APRs of over $1,000,000 for inferior quality 1870-CC double eagles in the last three years, I thought this coin had the potential to bring $500,000-600,000++.
It’s hard to call a half million dollar coin undervalued, but in the World of Double Eagles, the 1856-O is exactly that. Not only was the Mississippi example reasonably cosmetic for the issue (I called it a solid AU55 coin), but it is demonstrably rarer than the 1870-CC, both in terms of overall and high grade rarity. But the fact that the 1870-CC is a first-year-of-issue trophy coin from the most desirable Western mint, it has raced past the 1854-O and 1856-O double eagles—both in popularity and price.
The coin opened at $512,500 and it sold for a hammer price of $575,000, or $690,000 including the 20% auction fees.
I think this coin was an excellent deal as according to some very basic value comparisons, a decent PCGS AU58 should be an easy-peezy $1 million dollar+ item.
To the buyer: contact me for a lot more insider information on this issue and this specific coin.
LOT 3389: 1857-O $20, NGC MS62PL
As I performed my due diligence on this coin, I recalled that it had sold for a ton back in its 4/2014 auction appearance. When I saw that the number was $176,250, I gulped and stated to no one in particular “this coin will bring $50k less than what it brought a decade+ ago.”
I was perhaps a bit too enthusiastic in my pre-sale comments regarding the size of the loss as it was “only” $44,250, and this coin sold for a stronger-than-expected $132,000. I hated it as an MS62, but liked it as an MS60. And you could lose the PL designation; I’d be fine with that.
Here was another coin that proved that Type One buyers have become more sophisticated in the last decade and that they tend to buy the coin, not the holder.
LOT 3400: 1860 $20.00, NGC MS64 ex S.S. Republic
I am not a big fan of coins from this shipwreck. To my eyes, they were over-conserved and as a result, they totally lack character. This 1860, however, was a blazer with just a few too many scuffs to grade MS65, but with enough overall eye appeal to wind-up in a PCGS MS64+ holder some time down the road.
The coin sold for $66,000 which seems like a decent price until you learn that it brought $54,625 back in 2011, and that a nicer non-shipwreck NGC/CAC MS64 1860 $20 sold for $120,000 as Stack’s Bowers 4/2022: 4065.
Had the coin been in a PCGS/CAC MS64, I think it could have sold for 15-20% more.
LOT 3404: 1861 $20.00, PCGS MS65
I felt that the color was a little bit enhanced on this coin yet it still sold for $96,000. That’s the second highest APR ever for an MS65 1861 double eagle. And that’s a strong result.
I guess I see the appeal of this date in MS65, but I would personally rather buy a nice PCGS MS64 at 50% less and use the $40,000-50,000 I saved to purchase another one or two good coins.
LOTS 3412/3413: 1862 $20.00, PCGS MS62 and 1862-S $20.00, NGC/CAC MS63
The 1862-P was an old friend as I had handled it at least twice since I bought it out of the Bass III sale in 2000 for $17,825. Fast forward to 2014, and the same coin sold for $70,500. Since that transaction, two higher grade (MS63+) coins have broken the $100,000 barrier, but the Bass coin remains strongly in the Condition Census for the issue.
I estimated that this coin would sell for around $55,000-65,000, and I regard the price realized of $63,000 for the Mississippi coin to be solid.
While I was 99% certain that the 1862-P wouldn’t sell at an irresistibly low number, the same couldn’t be said for the NGC/CAC 1862-S in MS63.
It had last sold as Heritage 3/2011: 4295, where it brought a record-setting $57,500. It has remained the sole MS63 approved by CAC with none finer.
This coin didn’t fall through the cracks as I expected, and it final price realized of $78,000 is extremely strong in my opinion.
LOT 3425: 1866-S No Motto $20.00, NGC MS61
Although this coin was an obvious upgrade from a PCGS AU58, I still liked it due to its crisp strike and vibrant luster. The last time an MS61 1866-S No Motto $20 was available, it brought $152,750. This was back in 2016 and I loved that coin.
Fairmont contained no less than 17 different examples of this variety, and while there were no Uncirculated 1866-S No Motto double eagles, this formerly very elusive issue has become far easier to locate than it was a few years back.
The coin still sold for $132,000 all-in, which is around 20-30% more than I expected.
After the sale of the Mississippi Collection, I was able to reach some conclusions regarding the Type One double eagle market as of March 2025. A few are as follows:
- This series is stronger than it was a year ago, and I’m certain that a lot of this has to do with the price of gold flirting with the $3,000/oz. level.
- The buyer of the 1856-O made a savvy purchase. This coin is a lock to crack the $1,000,000 level the next time it is offered for sale.
- Top-end Type One collectors seem more sophisticated than they were a decade ago, and this is almost certainly due to the fact that they now identify as collectors. In 2010-2015, most end-users were clearly investors.
- Type One collectors have had access to remarkable original coins since 2018 due to the dispersal of the Fairmont hoard, and with the template for great quality so readily accessible, it is no wonder that crusty coins are now far more desirable—and expensive—than scrubbed, overgraded pieces.
- On coins priced in the $3,000-10,000 range, NGC Type Ones with CAC approval bring about the same prices as do PCGS/CAC as long as they have good overall eye appeal. Expensive NGC Type Ones which are not original or are blatantly overgraded sell a discount of 20-50%.
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