1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Round MS64 NGC. CAC.... Commemorative Gold

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Lot: 1270
Auction: 1116

1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Round MS64 NGC. CAC....

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Sold for:	Sign-in or Join (free & quick) (includes BP) Bid Source: Internet
Ended:	Sep 17, 2008
	Printable Version of Prices Realized for this Auction

Buyer's Premium:	15% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot)
Auction Name:	*2008 September Long Beach, CA US Coin Signature Auction #1116*
Description:	Heritage Numismatic Auctions offers U.S. and World coins, medals, and tokens in our Signature Auctions & Final Session Sales, held in conjunction with some of the largest numismatic conventions. These sales feature award-winning cataloging and photography. Call or e-mail one of our Consignment Directors to learn about selling through Heritage.
Auction Type:	Signature: Heritage Live: After Internet bidding closes, live bidding will take place through www.HA.com/Live. Your secret maximum bid placed prior to the live event will compete against the live bids. To maximize your chances of winning, enter realistic secret maximum bids on our site. Many of our proxy bidders are successful at winning lots in these auctions, and usually below their secret maximum. You can also place last minute bids directly with us by e-mailing Bid@HA.com or calling 1-866-835-3243. (Important note: Due to software and Internet latency, live bids may not register in time, so enter realistic proxy bids.) This lot is in: Signature Floor Session (Live Floor, Live Phone, Mail, Fax, Internet, and Heritage Live) (lots 1-4546) Internet bidding ends at 10:00PM CT the night before the floor session for this lot. During the live auction event, bidding in person is encouraged, and Heritage Live includes streaming audio and often video during the event.
Item Activity:	6 Internet/mail bidders, 874 page views

Description

1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific 50 Dollar Round MS64 NGC. CAC. As described elsewhere herein, although outside sculptor-designers were engaged to model concepts for the various medals and coins proposed for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Charles Barber ended up, rightly or wrongly, with some of the final designs. They include both sides of the half dollar and the obverse of the gold quarter eagle, with a figure of Columbia riding a seahorse through the waves and holding a caduceus. According to Taxay, "Assistant engraver George Morgan prepared the reverse, modeling one of his usual unsightly eagles. Regarding [Treasury Secretary William G.] McAdoo's objection to Minerva and Poseidon [originally proposed by Charles Keck for the gold dollar], it is noteworthy that Barber's own allegorical design was heartily approved."
Expediency was definitely a factor in the decisions--both those rejected and those approved--as the actual Panama-Pacific Exposition opened on Feb. 20, 1915, in San Francisco, and closed on Dec. 20 of that same year. President Woodrow Wilson, pressing a gold key in Arlington, Virginia, caused doors and mechanical exhibits at the San Francisco exposition to operate.
Only on March 22 were the final designs for the Panama-Pacific coinage approved--more than a month after the exposition had already opened. While numismatists of the present day can overlook the Pan-Pac half dollar design of Charles Barber in the company of so many other silver commemorative halves that came before and after, we can only thank our lucky stars that designer Robert Aitken's fifty dollar commemorative designs remained largely intact. Taxay says of the Barber commemorative, "Barber's half dollar depicts a figure of Columbia scattering flowers. Behind her is a child holding an overflowing cornucopia, in front the Golden Gate bridge surmounted by a setting sun. Though not unattractive, the design is indefinitely modeled and has an unfinished appearance. The reverse features an heraldic eagle and at best is commonplace."
Imagine if Barber had attempted to "dash off" a fifty dollar design in both round and octagonal versions. American numismatics would have lost one of the most unusual coinage designs ever executed. It is certainly appropriate to question whether the design is derivative rather than original, but there is little question about its superlative execution.
It is worth noting that designer Aitken also won the commission for the official medals of the Pan-Pac Exposition, now collected as so-called dollars, listed in Hibler-Kappen as HK-399 through HK-401, produced in silver, bronze, and gilt. On those medals a full-length, nude Mercury, sporting a winged hat (a la "Mercury" dime), opens the locks of the Panama Canal, with the ship Argo, the symbol of navigation, passing through and reflecting the setting sun off of her sails. On the reverse two female figures entwine about a globe, representing the joining of Earth's two hemispheres.
Finally, it must be noted that Aitken's wonderful designs not only continued, with their classical allusions, a renaissance that began with Augustus Saint-Gaudens' gold coinage designs in 1907, but, being struck in San Francisco, they also celebrated the renaissance of the "City by the Bay" itself and its recovery from the devastating Great Earthquake and Fire of less than a decade earlier.
The present specimen of the Round variety is actually somewhat rarer than the Octagonal pieces, due to greater meltings of the former after they remained unsold at the exposition. This piece offers bold cartwheel luster that is unusually rich for the issue, along with delightful yellow-gold coloration and a relative absence of distracting marks. A high-end and thoroughly delightful example.(Registry values: N10218) (#7451)

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Lot	Bidding Ends	Grade	Service	Current Bid
Auction 1121, Lot 4211	Thursday, January 8, 2009	MS64	PCGS	$75,000.00
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Previous Prices from Heritage Auctions
Lot	Date	Grade	Service	Realized
Auction 460, Lot 1043	Saturday, February 16, 2008	64	NGC	$80,500.00
Auction 460, Lot 1040	Saturday, February 16, 2008	64	NGC	$1,021.20
Auction 370, Lot 61401	Friday, November 30, 2007	64	NGC	$94,875.00
Auction 422, Lot 3849	Saturday, January 6, 2007	64	PCGS	$78,775.00
Auction 394, Lot 3649	Saturday, January 7, 2006	64	NGC	$97,750.00
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