Heritage Auction Sets World Record Price For Dime: $632,500

Dallas, Texas: Heritage, the world's largest rare coin dealer and auctioneer, has established a new world-record price for a Dime: the Waldo Bolen specimen of the 1873-CC No-Arrows Dime sold for $632,500. The unique coin is the only one of its kind struck at the Carson City branch of the U.S. Mint. It was sold on April 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Heritage Numismatic Auctions, Inc., at the official auction of the Central States Numismatic Society. The purchaser of this great piece of numismatic history was dealer Jay Parrino of Kansas City.

"The 1873-CC No-Arrows Dime," noted HNAI Director Bob Korver, "was the highlight of Waldo Bolen's complete eleven-piece set of coins minted in Carson City, Nevada that year. Bolen had the pleasure of assembling two of the finest coin collections of the twentieth century. First, he collected a complete set of every dime the U.S. Mint produced, except for the unique 1873-CC No-Arrows specimen, and then he auctioned that collection. When the unique 1873-CC No Arrows Dime finally came on the market, he purchased it in a great demonstration of the collector spirit, just for the pleasure of knowing that he had owned every U.S. dime. Well, Bolen became so enamored of the issue that he then decided to complete an 11-piece 1873-CC set."

According to Heritage Co-Chairman Steve Ivy, "The reason for the two major varieties of 1873 coins (No-Arrows & With-Arrows) comes from Congressional activity - the Mint Act of Feb. 12, 1873. The Act included a peculiar attempt to make U.S. silver coins more metric in weight. To mark this change, arrows flanking the date were placed onto Dimes, Quarters, and Half Dollars in 1873 and 1874. Of course, weight variances in practice were so great that there was no discernible difference between the old coins and the new ones except for the arrows! No-Arrows designs were produced in very limited numbers in early 1873, especially at the branch Mints like Carson City, Nevada."

"Over a period of many years," noted Heritage Executive VP Greg Rohan, "Bolen purchased coins out of some of the finest collections to come on the market. His coins contain pedigrees like Garrett, Eliasberg, and Norweb. The unique No-Arrows Dime was previously purchased by Bolen out of the Eliasberg Collection in 1996 for $550,000, a record at the time. Now that record has been bested by the $632,500 mark set in Milwaukee."

The eleven pieces of the Bolen Collection sold at Heritage's Central States Numismatic Society sale for the following prices:

1873-CC No Arrows Dime (Unique); realized $632,500
1873-CC Arrows Dime; realized $71,875
1873-CC No Arrows Quarter (only 4 known); realized $106,375
1873-CC Arrows Quarter; realized $66,125
1873-CC No Arrows Half; realized $69,000
1873-CC Arrows Half; realized $13,225
1873-CC $1; realized $41,400
1873-CC Trade $1; realized $17,825
1873-CC $5; realized $7,763
1873-CC $10; realized $9,488
1873-CC $20; realized $20,700
Total for 11-piece set: $1,056,275

The total price for all coins auctioned by Heritage Numismatic Auctions that weekend was $3.6 million, bringing Heritage's total public auction sales so far in calendar 1999 up to $32 million.

"The Central States Numismatic Society convention," noted Ivy, "was simply a great venue for the sale of these wonderful coins. Heritage had bidders from cross the country - actually from around the world - come to Milwaukee just to view these coins and participate in the sale. And there is no question that Heritage took maximum advantage of the strong market we are in to deliver record prices for Bolen and our other consignors."

"In addition to the floor bidders at the public auction sessions," interjected Jim Halperin, Heritage Co-Chairman and well-known author of science fiction/futurist novels, "the Heritage auction has bidders around the globe participating via the World Wide Web. This was the first beta-test of our new Interactive Internet (TM) software on our website, www.heritagecoin.com, and it was an unqualified success. We are spending more than one million dollars so that bidders anywhere on earth could view photographic images of these coins, view the current opening bid, and immediately send us their bids. We sent out just 700 pre-registration e-mails. In the first three days, we received Internet bids from over 70 of these bidders, totaling many hundred of thousands of dollars. By the end of the sale, more than $2 million in Internet bids had been recorded, with one hundred lots awarded to bidders who participated through their computers! By August, we hope to notify our entire active list of over 25,000 customers!"

"We are proud of the results from our first combination Interactive Internet and Public auction sale," continued Halperin. "Exclusively Internet auctions have mushroomed over the past two years to include some of the Web's biggest players. Today, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Excite (Nasdaq: XCIT) and Yahoo! Auctions (Nasdaq: YHOO) are all jockeying for positions of dominance. And each has discovered rare coins, an established, high-value collectible with a long tradition of auction sales. Several worldwide general auction houses, including Sotheby Holdings (NYSE: BID) also have small departments devoted to coins, and most are exploring Internet possibilities. At least one highly-knowledgeable collectibles specialist, Greg Manning, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMAI), auctions coins on the Internet without public sessions. While these competitors help increase the popularity of on-line bidding, none offer the major advantage that Heritage has long held as the core of its auction philosophy: taking consignors' coins to the bidders at major coin shows. Heritage has presented more than 200 public rare coin auctions since 1975, in virtually every major city in America; now we are seriously reaching out to the entire numismatic world."

According to Halperin, "As innovative as these proliferating Internet sites are, I believe the real future lies in combining Public/Internet sales with on-site inspection of the lots. That's the only way prices can be maximized for consignors. Internet-only auctions exclude public bidders who've personally inspected the lots; public auctions exclude the demonstrated results of worldwide exposure on the Web. Heritage now accepts bids by mail, fax, e-mail, phone, our Interactive Internet (TM), and on-site bidding, using every technology to find the top buyer for each coin our clients consign. No important collection deserves less."

"The successful sale of the Bolen coins at Heritage's Milwaukee sale," concluded Korver, "was only part of the good news from the Central States show. Heritage was also selected by the CSNS organization to be their official auctioneer for the next three years. We look forward to our sale in Minneapolis next year being even more successful. We also welcome inquiries from consignors who might wish to participate in next year's event. We are just so pleased that Heritage is remaining the official auctioneer of Central States, so that we can continue our great tradition of bringing our consignors' coins to the conventions where America's most important coin buyers gather - conventions like Central States."

With annual sales exceeding $170 million, and auction revenues of approximately $50 million, Heritage is the Official Auctioneer of America's top seven major coin conventions, earning its title of America's Convention Auctioneer.

Heritage is headquartered at 3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor, Dallas Texas, 75219-3941. Heritage's Internet website can be found at: www.heritagecoin.com. Collectors can sign up for free e-listings at the website.