Lot Number 1
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1801 - O.101, T-2 R.3 PCGS XF 45
A wonderful coin with a magnificent provenance. Jim Pryor found it in Stack’s session of Auction `80, July 1980, where lot 1282 was plated and described as “very choice XF…with excellent surfaces [and] superb russet toning with pale iridescence on its periphery…vastly underrated in this condition.” The Pryor provenance is noted on the PCGS label. Dale Friend was front and center at the January 1996 Bowers & Merena sale of Pryor’s unparalleled collection of half-dollars. This coin was lot 4 in the sale. My notes echoed Mark Borckardt’s description, “Slightly prooflike [with] pale blue and golden rose luster.” Gehring Prouty had his eye on the coin and commissioned me to bid for him. Alas, Dale Friend prevailed at a then sturdy $3,520. When Dale located a PCGS AU 53 specimen of the date he parted with the Pryor coin allowing Buddy Byers to add it to his cabinet, alongside such rarities as the Eliasberg 1817/4 and the F.C.C. Boyd proof 1838-O half-dollars. In October 2006 Stack’s offered Byer’s assemblage of rare and high grade bust halves. This was lot 1003: “An exemplary coin for the grade, with traces of prooflike reflectivity which survived brief circulation.” It brought $8,500. During the August 2011 ANA Convention Steve Nomura spotted the coin in the bourse case of Joe O’Connor. Negotiations were brief and fruitful. Estimate: $8,000 to $10,000
