Coins from the collection of Texas billionaire D. Brent Pogue will certainly attract fierce bidding.
Let the hyperventilating begin before the bidding even does: On May 24, two of the most coveted coins in the United States — the finest known 1804 silver dollar, and the rare and legendary 1822 half eagle — go up for auction. It’s part IV of the D. Brent Pogue Collection auction presided over by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in cooperation with Sotheby’s at Sotheby’s International Headquarters in New York City. The coins have been in a Dallas bank vault for years, the crème de la crème of a collection put together over decades by Texas billionaire D. Brent Pogue.
You’ll find the Pogue family on just about any Dallas movers-and-shakers list: most powerful, most influential, most expensive home, etc. You might as well add most astute coin collector: Since he started collecting in the 1970s, the real estate mogul has assembled one of the most extensive private collections in the country. Both the 1804 silver dollar and 1822 half eagle (of which there are only three, the other two being at the Smithsonian) were once included in the famous Virgil M. Brand Collection. You don’t have to be a numismatist to get excited about these two rarities appearing at auction for the first time together. They’ll be accompanied by a group of some of the finest and rarest coins produced in the United States in the first part of the 19th century.
The Sultan of Muscat-Childs-Pogue 1804 silver dollar has been graded Proof-68 by PCGS, and is the single finest example of what has long been regarded as the King of American coins. Its provenance begins with its 1835 delivery as a diplomatic gift from the United States to Said bin Sultan Al-Said, the Sultan of Muscat and Oman. Since appearing in a London auction in 1917, the 1804 dollar given to the Sultan of Muscat has sold at auction only once, in 1999, when the Pogue family acquired it, at a world record price for any coin ever sold at auction at the time. The Pogue 1804 silver dollar remains one of the five most valuable coins in the world.
The 1822 half eagle has been unobtainable since the Pogue family purchased this example from the Eliasberg Collection in October 1982. Although there are two other examples, both are owned by the United States government and are part of the National Coin Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. The appearance of the Brand-Eliasberg-Pogue example on May 24 will mark only the second time in more than a century that collectors have had the chance to compete at auction for this magnificent rarity.
To learn more, bid, and possibly buy, or participate as an interested observer, visit Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ website.