Auction Details
This is the official auction of the February Torex® Coin Show held at the Radisson Admiral Hotel, 249 Queen’s Quay West in downtown Toronto, Canada. The auction consists of 1895 lots from 82 consignors with a total catalogue value of over $2.5 million, and it will be conducted by the Canadian Coinoisseur in two sessions, beginning at 5:30pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday 24th and Saturday the 25th of February, with simultaneous live and online bidding. Lot viewing is in the Windsong Room of the hotel from noon to 9:00pm on Thursday the 23rd of February, then from 10:00am to 4:30pm on the Friday and Saturday.
Featured in the sale is the Point Grey Collection, which was assembled beginning in the early 1990s by a gentleman whose collecting criteria were few; he wanted the finest known pieces and the pieces with the greatest eye appeal. His collection is not large in quantity, but it is immense in terms of quality. The few dozen pieces he assembled catalogue well in excess of one million dollars.
The First Session, at 5:30 pm on Friday the 24th begins with 71 lots of Paper Money, including two major printing errors. Then after a short section of Ancient Coins are over 50 World Crowns and Minors. Included among these are many European pieces from the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, many of them certified MS-65 and higher. Outstanding in this section are a Swiss-Aargau 10 Batz in ICG MS-69, a 1698 English Half Crown in NGC MS-64, a 1662 English Crown in Good Very Fine, an 1804 British Bank Dollar in PCGS MS-62, an 1850A French 2 Francs in PCGS SP-65 and a 1904 Prussian 4 Marks Pattern in PCGS PR-63.
After 60-some Bulk lots are 25 lots of Error Coins, including a Victorian Newfoundland first strike brockage, a flip-over double strike in collar Cent, a double reverse brockage Cent and 10 wrong planchet strikes of 5 Cents and 25 Cents pieces. Among the short New Brunswick section are ten mintstate examples, representing all denominations and ranging up to ICCS MS-66.
The Newfoundland section of the sale begins with the finest known 1872H set, all ICCS certified: MS-66 Red, MS-67, MS-68, MS-68 and MS-67, and all accompanied by ICCS Executive Certificates conferring the 5 Cents piece with Great Eye Appeal and the other four pieces with Superb Eye Appeal. Each piece in the set is either the solo highest graded or tied with one other as the highest graded by ICCS, and it contains one-third of all the ICCS MS-68 certificates issued for the entire Canadian and Maritime Decimal series. The pieces will be offered first as individual lots, then an option will be available to buy the complete set as one lot.
The Newfoundland section continues for another 140 lots, over half of which are mintstate. Notable highest graded examples among these are an 1882H 5 Cents in MS-67, an 1876H 10 Cents in MS-67, a 1912 10 Cents in MS-68, a 1919C 10 Cents in MS-67 and a 1904H 20 Cents in MS-67. This last piece is the solo highest by three grades, and it is one of only eight mintstate examples certified by all of the major services combined, and it comes with an ICCS Superb Eye Appeal certificate.
Nearly 120 lots of Canadian Large Cents follow, beginning with six examples of the 1858 and six different varieties of the 1859. Highlights include an 1859 Double Punched #1 in MS-64, a Specimen-65 example of the 1876H, MS-65 Red examples of the 1894, 1904 and 1914, among others, and there is a 1913 in ICCS MS-66 Red. There are 240 lots of Small Cents, ranging from group lots of circulated key dates to ICCS MS-66 Red examples and there are over three dozen lots of Elizabeth red Gems.
About 100 lots of 5 Cents Silver come next in the auction. The vast majority of these lots are circulated better dates and small group lots, both raw and certified, in the $100 to $300 range. There are also many certified mintstate pieces, with Gem examples of the 1900, 1902, 1903 and 1909. And there is a VF example of the 1921. The First Session of the auction concludes with 95 lots of 5 Cents Nickel, Tombac and Steel. Among these are 25 lots of 1925 and 1926 pieces, a fully struck, near Gem 1934 and a nice EF example of the 1951 High Relief. There is a 1967 piece with 150 degree rotated dies.
Session Two of the February Torex Auction begins with more than 200 lots of Tokens from ten different consignors, with seventy-five of the lots from the collection of Brian Cornwell of ICCS. For the auction, these have been kept in his 2x2s with his attribution and grades. Of the remaining lots, well over half have been certified by ICCS. Some highlights are a 1722H 9 Deniers, Breton 506 in Cornwell EF+, an 1838 Side View Half Penny, LC-10A3 in ICCS EF-45, a Bouquet Sou LC-41A in Brass with an un-catalogued coinage alignment, in ICCS G-4, a Leslie 2d in ICCS EF-45 and a Very Choice Proof example of the 1843 New Brunswick Penny. There are over twenty examples of imitation Tiffin and Bust and Harp and Blacksmith Tokens, with several rare varieties, both raw and certified. There are also eleven pairs of printing blocks that were used in the printing of the 1894 Breton Catalogue.
Next in the auction come 26 lots of Specimen, Proof-Like and Year Sets, starting with two very rare 1908 sets with the Small 8 Five Cents. There are Matte and Mirror 1937 sets, a 1950 set in original packaging and a letter from the Bank of Canada, a 1953 Specimen set with case autographed by the then Minister of Finance and two examples of the 1970 VIP Set.
Seventy-eight lots of Canadian and World Gold follow with a 1908C Sovereign in PCGS SP-66, a 1912 Ten Dollars in ICCS MS-66 and an 1881 Newfoundland Two Dollars in PCGS MS-64 as major highlights, and the 1880 Newfoundland Two Dollars in MS-61 and AU-58 will also garner attention. Plus there are some certified MS-63 examples of 17th and 18th century European pieces.
The remainder of the auction is Canadian Decimal Coins, from 10 Cents pieces through Silver Dollars, with a nice mix of lots from the finest known to nice circulated examples and group lots. There is something to satisfy collectors at all levels and to suit most budgets, for instance, the 1858 10 Cents is represented by the finest known survivor, graded ICCS MS-66 with superb eye appeal, by an example in PCGS MS-62, by an uncertified piece in VF and by an example in a group lot. Among the 1870s are an ICCS Proof-64, an ICCS and PCGS MS-64 with superb eye appeal, an ICCS VF-20 and a piece paired with an 1882H, both in ICCS F-15. There are many other notable pieces in this section, including the 1875H in AU-55 and EF-40, a superbly toned 1882H in ICCS MS-65, a rare 1885 Obverse 5 in ICCS MS-60, a 1903 in ICCS MS-65, the finest of only three known 1928 Specimens in PCGS-ICCS SP-67 and a 2000P in ICCS MS-64. For the Elizabeth collector, there are more than a dozen ICCS MS-65s, as well as some Gem Proof-Likes.
The 25 Cents section starts off with an 1870 Reeded Edge Proof example and continues through a nice selection of circulated pieces liberally sprinkled with wonder coins. Of note are an 1874H in PCGS MS-65, the finest known 1880H Narrow 0 Over Wide 0 in ICCS MS-63, an 1891 in NGC and ICCS MS-66 with superb eye appeal and the Norweb examples of the 1899, 1900 and 1910, all in ICCS MS-65. There are 1902, 1903 and 1909 in ICCS MS-64 and the 1905 is represented by MS-66 and MS-63 examples. There is a heavily circulated, but eminently collectible 1906 Small Crown that should be actively bid, as should the 1936 Dot in ICCS MS-64.
There are thirteen mintstate Victorian Fifty Cents pieces in this sale, which is more than there have been in any previous auction of which we are aware. The 1996 Norweb Sale included seven examples, there were two in the 1997-1999 Pittman Collection Sales, nine in the 2002-2003 Mason Collection Sales and nine in the 2003 Belzberg Sale. In addition, there is an incredible group of Edward and George V pieces in MS-64, through MS-67 and a nice example of the 1921. Filling out the hundred and sixty lots are many nice circulated pieces and a group of Elizabeth Gems in MS-65 and higher, including a 1967 Double Struck and a 2000P.
The Silver Dollars begin with a 1935 in PCGS MS-67 and two in MS-66 plus twenty more examples. There is a 1936 in PCGS MS-67, a 1937 Gem Mirror Specimen, a wonderfully toned 1938 in PCGS MS-65 and an outstanding 1947 Maple Leaf in PCGS MS-66 as well as five examples of the ever popular 1948. Among the Proof-Likes is the solo highest graded 1950 in ICCS PL-67, a wonderful 1956 PCGS PL-67 and ICCS PL-66 Ultra Heavy Cameo, a 1957 in PCGS PL-67 with a cameo and two Diving Geese in PL-64, one ICCS and one PCGS. There is also a 1966 Small Beads in ICCS MS-64 Cameo.