A Look Back at 2019 Auctions
What’s it worth? That’s probably the most frequently asked question by anyone who owns coins, stamps, antiques, or anything else with potential value. And the answer is likely to be to look at previous auction sales of the item(s) if they are available.
The reason for this answer is that auction sales tell you what a buyer is willing to pay for a particular item. With that thought in mind, in this article I’m going to survey major auction sales to get an idea of what a variety of mostly big-ticket items were worth in 2019.
Million-Dollar Sellers and Other Top Lots
If you’ve read my auction articles in the past 19 years, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that I begin the survey with a list of million-dollar sellers. For 2019, I’m going to include other top lots with the million-dollar sellers.
In terms of big-money numismatic items, the year opened with a bang. In Heritage auctions at the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) show in Orlando, four million-dollar items crossed the auction block. The most expensive of the four was an NGC-certified PR-66 example of the incredibly rare 1885 Trade dollar, with a mintage of just five pieces.
The coin was purchased by the duo of John Brush, President of DLRC (David Lawrence Rare Coins), and Dell Loy Hansen. Hansen, with the aid of Brush, has been working for the past couple of years to
