Heritage Long Beach Expo World & Ancient Coins Realize $5,920,824

The Heritage Long Beach Expo that ended the first week of September had some interesting items. One of the choice highlights of this sale was a Republic of Cuba 1915 20 pesos gold proof. This example was graded PR-62 Cameo by NGC and it is a really lovely coin. Including the buyer’s premium, it realized $37,200. Back in 1999 when David Akers was auctioning John Jay Pittman’s collection, both a 1915 and

1916 proof of this type were offered. At that time the 1915 graded “very choice proof ” realized $11,500, and the 1916 graded “nearly choice proof ” brought $43,125. Back in the day, numeric grading standards were not fully in use with everyone.

There are two things you need to know about these early 20 pesos. First, there are approximately 20 or so known examples of the 1915 proof and maybe 10 examples of the 1916 proof strike. Second, these, and especially all the smaller gold denominations in the series, are often found mishandled and exhibiting traces of fingerprints or other handling. The smaller gold denominations come in 1-, 2-, 4-, 5- and 10-peso denominations for