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A rare US$10,000 bill from the Great Depression has sold at auction for US$480,000, as the star lot in an auction of currency and coins.
The uncirculated US$10,000 Federal Reserve Note from 1934 set an auction record, according to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, which announced the results of last week’s sale in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday.
“Large-denomination notes always have drawn the interest of collectors of all levels,” Dustin Johnston, vice president of currency at Heritage Auctions, said in a statement.
Among the auction’s other highlights: an 1879 “Flowing Hair Stella” US$4 coin that brought in US$216,000; and an 1870 Double Eagle US$20 coin—one of just five or six “survivors” from an original mintage of just 35—that commanded US$456,000.
The sale also included a sought-after 1899 Liberty Head double eagle US$20 coin, which fetched a record US$468,000.
“It takes an extraordinary coin to rise to the top of an auction with such consistent high quality, and this 1899 double eagle is that kind of coin,” Todd Imhof, executive vice president of Heritage Auctions, said in a statement. “It is such an exceptional rarity. Of the survivors, this example carries the highest grade, and that includes the one that is in the Smithsonian Institution. The winning bidder acquired an exceptional trophy-level coin that immediately becomes a collection centerpiece.”
The Heritage Auctions sale brought in a total of US$15.5 million, the company said—US$8.2 million for coins, and US$7.3 million for currency.
At the same time, “a few items were a little softer than expected,” Todd Imhof, a partner and executive vice president at Heritage Auctions, says. “I suspect the biggest collectors are feeling a bit punch-drunk after the last couple years of absorbing an unprecedented number of serious offerings, and many are being a bit more particular and focused on their acquisitions. I think we will see a bit of a bifurcated marketplace in the months ahead, with most areas of the rare coin market being stable, but ‘trophy coins’ continuing to enjoy very aggressive bidding.”
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The market for high-grade, rare U.S. coins is “soaring,” according to a report from the Professional Numismatists Guild. In 2021, a record 22 rare coins sold at auction for US$1 million or more, and hundreds of other collectible coins and banknotes set new records, the association said.
“This cyclical marketplace was due for a good run,” Imhof says. “The pandemic saw numerous collectors revisit their hobbies, and there has been a rise in both precious metal prices and inflation, which often benefits tangible assets like rare coins.”
Last year, Heritage Auctions sold more than US$347 million in U.S. rare coins, according to an analysis by CDN Publishing, which produces the Greysheet numismatic market price guides. CDN estimated the U.S. rare coin market at US$6 billion in 2022, estimating that US$560 million in such coins were sold at auction that year.
Baltimore auction house Stack’s Bowers also smashed records at an April 2023 sale of rare and historic currency. A 1792 cent in copper brought US$576,000. An uncirculated US$20 coin from 1854 earned US$552,000, more than 60% above the prior all-time record, according to the auction house.
And in June 2023, Stack’s Bowers sold a US$1,000 bill from 1891—known as the “Marcy Note” for its portrait of a former New York State governor—for a record US$2.6 million.
