LOT Heritage Rare Coin Galleries  /  2007 Jan (FUN) Heritage Signature Coin #422  / 

3439

1898 $2 1/2 PR68 Ultra Cameo NGC.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:35,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 2.00 USD
1898 $2 1/2 PR68 Ultra Cameo NGC.
<B>1898 $2 1/2 PR68 Ultra Cameo NGC.</B></I> Ex: Pittman. With this lot, Heritage is pleased to begin our offering of a complete 1898 gold proof set, from the quarter eagle through the double eagle, all to be auctioned individually and each graded from PR66 to PR68 by NGC with the Ultra Cameo designation. The legendary John Jay Pittman is one of numismatics' foremost success stories. His tale is an instructive one that bears repeating. Pittman was for many years a chemical engineer at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. Pittman managed to raise a family on a salary of from $10,000 to $15,000 per year. He took half of his salary to buy coins, concentrating mostly on what few others desired at the time. Proof U.S. gold coins were one of his specialties, but he was equally fond of foreign coins, including those of Canada, Cuba, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Sweden. Unafraid to take a gamble, Pittman, realizing that the coins in the 1954 auction of the deposed Egyptian King Farouk's collection would likely go for quite reasonable prices, is said to have taken a second mortgage on his home to make the trip to Cairo and bid on the coins, which turned out to be among his most significant acquisitions. A perfect demonstration of "buying straw hats in winter," Pittman invested about $100,000 during his lifetime on coins. He always bought the highest-graded, most historically significant coins he could--proof gold before 1858 was a particular favorite--and he held what he bought for many years, leaving the rest up to a free-market economy and the law of supply and demand. Pittman passed away in 1996, and David Akers oversaw the sale of his collection in two parts in 1997 and 1998. <I>John Jay Pittman's collection, in total, fetched upwards of $30 million.</B></I> One coin alone--an 1833 half eagle for which Pittman paid $635 in the King Farouk auction--brought $467,500.<BR> Regarding this specific piece, the Garrett-Guth <I>Gold Encyclopedia</B></I> records, "A single 1898 quarter eagle has the distinction of receiving a PF-69 grade, which is the highest-graded Proof gold coin in the 19th century. Also among the finest examples seen is the John Jay Pittman coin, which was sold for $46,750 in 1998. That coin was sold uncertified, and it is very possible that it was later graded PF-69. Pittman purchased the coin in 1956 for $54. That is nearly 1,000 times the original purchase price!"<BR> The phenomenal PR68 Ultra Cameo piece certified by NGC in the present lot, formerly in the Pittman collection, is one of six PR68 pieces at NGC, which has also graded one PR68 <img border='0' src='http://www.heritagecoins.com/images/star.gif' width=10 height=10> piece and one PR69, all Ultra Cameo (11/06). The latter is apparently a different coin from the present piece, despite Garrett and Guth's conjecture. However, they are absolutely correct in their assertion that this example is among the finest specimens known. The pristine surfaces on either side offer the desirable black-on-gold contrast so admired in high grade proof gold, with thickly frosted devices providing a stark contrast to the profoundly mirrored, orange peel fields.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coin/Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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