As the New Year quickly approaches, so does our annual January New York International Numismatic Convention auction taking place at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel, located 111 East 48 Street at Lexington Avenue. Showcase auction sessions are scheduled at the hotel for January 12 and 13and are filled with many rare, interesting and numismatically significant treasures. This week we feature a highly unusual and extremely rare U.S. coin found in lot 53273: A Great Britain Octagonal Countermark on a 1798 Small Eagle Reverse Draped Bust Dollar. This piece hails from the famed Howard D. Gibbs Collection sold by Hans M.F. Schulman, as well as from the Dr. Bruno Mantegazza, A-Tokyo and other notable collections.
It is one of only six confirmed examples for this host country bearing the octagonal British countermark, several of which are permanently impounded in institutional collections such as the Bank of England and British Museum. Though the Bank of England and British Museum collections contain examples of the Small Eagle reverse featuring the earlier oval countermark, the British Museum example is an electrotype of a 1795 Flowing Hair Dollar. Usually, these countermarks were applied to Spanish colonial Dollars (8 Reales); occasionally they appear on coins of the Spanish mainland or other European countries with few other host types known. To our knowledge the present piece is the only known Dollar that offers this combination of the earlier Small Eagle reverse and Octagonal countermark. It should be considered unique and highly desirable.
Though we are no longer accepting consignments for the NYINC auction, we are always seeking coins, medals, and paper money for future auctions, and are currently accepting consignments for our spring 2024 Hong Kong auction and our August 2024 Global Showcase auction. Additionally, we are accepting consignments for our Collectors Choice Online (CCO) auctions, the next of which will be in February. If you would like to learn more about consigning, whether a singular item or an entire collection, please contact one of our consignment directors, [email protected], today and we will assist you in achieving the best possible return on your material.
