The Business of Numismatics: October 2025 Greysheet Editor's Letter

The Heritage ANA U.S. Coins Signature auction realized a total of $51.15 million, and while the Stack’s Bowers Showcase sale is still ongoing as I write this, they have sold numerous big-ticket items.

The Heritage sale featured six million-dollar plus lots and a full 72 lots that sold for more than $100,000. The top lots were dominated by gold patterns, which is something one does not see every day. Truly spectacular pieces, the top lot was an 1880 Coiled Hair $4 Stella (Judd-1660) certified NGC/CAC PR67 that sold for $2.28 million. Second place was the stunning and famous 1879 $20 Quintuple Stella (Judd-1643) graded PCGS PR64DCAM, selling for $2.16 million. It is a bit surprising that the larger and slightly more rare coin sold for less, but the popularity of Stellas is very high. In third at $2.04 million was the $10 Bickford pattern (Judd-1373), PCGS PR65DCAM, one of only two extant that just eclipsed the price of the other known example that was sold in 2022. The next highest-priced lot was the famous key-date 1921 Saint-Gaudens, PCGS MS66 making it tied for finest known. A coin that last sold for $747,500 in 2012, it appreciated 109% when selling for $1.56 million. A couple of other select results that stood out was the $576,000 paid for an 1800 Capped Bust eagle in the unique grade of NGC Specimen-66. Curiously for such an important coin, the provenance is unknown and had been off the market for many years. The Cecil Calvert Maryland Map medal (Betts-35) is an incredibly important piece that extends beyond numismatics. As the first Indian Peace medal and being unique in private hands the $312,000 price shows have far advance the market for early American medals has become.

Stack’s Bowers featured a plethora of six-figure lots in their on U.S. Global Showcase auction, with three of the top five highest priced lots being Morgan dollars. A staple of our hobby and the rare coin market in this country Morgan silver dollars are accessible to all yet can achieve high six-figure prices when the circumstances are right. Such was the case for the top lot in the Stack’s sale, a conditionally rare 1901 Morgan dollar certified PCGS MS66, which sold for $720,000. This very coin last appeared in public auction in 2015, where it sold for $585,500, representing a solid 23% increase. Another very well-known condition rarity in the Morgan dollar series is the 1884-S, and a famous example, the beautifully toned PCGS/CAC MS67 formerly in the Jack Lee and Stone Collections brought $600,000. This compares favorably to the most famous coin of this date, the MS68 Miller coin that sold for $750,000 in November 2020. The fifth highest price lot in the sale was yet another condition rarity, a PCGS/CAC MS67 1892-S sold for $456,000. This particular example, still housed in a very early PCGS holder, had been off the market since 1987. The other PCGS/CAC MS67, the Eliasberg coin, sold for $470,000 in 2017. While these are just a few of the many strong results across both sales, as I mentioned in the outset the rare coin market is in a healthy place.

The three denominations of Barber coinage are featured among this month’s pricing updates, with numerous better dates seeing price increases. Among the Barber halves in particular, multiple S-Mint dates have increased. As we digest the recent huge amounts of auction data that it is incoming, there will surely be more to come in multiple series.

Sincerely,

Patrick Ian Perez, patrickp@whitmanbrands.com