The past few months have been non-stop at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries offices worldwide, as we prepared the four upcoming auctions now listed online. On StacksBowers.com or through our iOS app, you can now access 9,192 total lots with a combined value in excess of $35 million. Or, you may have received one or more of the six catalogs (1,882 total pages of rare coins and currency!) that we have prepared for the auctions. There is something for every collector interest and budget: ~5,800 US coin lots, ~1,100 US currency lots, ~1,000 world currency lots and ~1,300 world coin lots, encompassing items that will realize less than $100 to the legendary Dexter 1804 silver dollar estimated at $3,000,000 to $5,000,000.
This past week, collectors and dealers met at the ANA National Money Show in Orlando. Our team set up shop to preview upcoming auction highlights and to trade rare coins and banknotes. During this show we saw further evidence of the “firming” market I mentioned in my report two weeks ago. We also saw tremendous enthusiasm at our Orange County, California headquarters, where we hosted a full house of collectors and dealers viewing lots for our upcoming D. Brent Pogue Collection Part V sale, our official auction of the Whitman Baltimore Expo and our Collector’s Choice Online Auction. We expect the same excitement when the coins travel to our New York City store to be previewed in the next couple of weeks.
Globally, demand for collectibles is strong as we approach the end of the first quarter of 2017. This was evidenced by last week’s London art auctions with the chief auction houses – Sotheby’s, Christies and Phillips – selling $837.7 million, easily passing their $593 million combined low estimate and last year’s $620 million series total. These promising results, along with many record-setting sales, have prompted headlines like “A Bulletproof Art Market.”
In my opinion, the current numismatic and collectibles market strength is driven by continued stock market highs and general consumer confidence that is at its highest point since March 2007. The US economic outlook is encouraging, driven by the pro-growth policies of the new administration. There are similar encouraging sentiments in Asia and the collectors I have spoken with say vintage coin market values have increased by more than 20% since late last year.
Overall, our clients feel wealthy again and they feel that their wealth is safe and will grow. This all bodes well for collectibles and specifically for rare coins and currency.
I believe that you will see strong prices globally across all our categories (US coins, US currency, world currency and world coins) in our upcoming auctions mentioned above. These results should encourage sellers to bring their coins and currency to market to capitalize on strong prices after holding back last year.
If you would like to discuss consigning your collection, duplicates or an individual rarity, just give me a call. We have a tremendous auction line up prepared for the remainder of 2017 and we would be honored to work with you.
All the best,
Brian Kendrella
