Canadian ‘Legacy’ sale estimate tops $4m

A 1996 McIntosh silver dollar trial piece offered in the sale, with an antique finish, it is one of two known examples.

A 1996 McIntosh silver dollar trial piece offered in the sale, with an antique finish, it is one of two known examples.

The total estimated value of the late June Canadian “Legacy” sale in Toronto exceeds $4.25 million, according to the auctioneers.

The 3,000-plus lot sale, jointly conducted by Moore Numismatic Auctions and Canadian Coin Auctions, represents the first offering for the new partnership, announced this spring at the Ontario Numismatic Association convention in Windsor, Ont.

The sale was to be held in three sessions at the Toronto Hilton Hotel, one per day at 5:30 p.m. from June 26-28.

The nearly 1,000-lot first session was to open with 168 lots of pre-Confederation tokens, followed by more than 360 lots of post-Confederation tokens. Hudson’s Bay Company tokens, Communion tokens and Thomas Church tokens were also offered. Also listed in the session were LeRoux medals, Governor General’s medals, exhibition and Confederation medals, masonic medals, numismatic medals, military medals, with other militaria. The session concluded with U.S. coins and medals, ancient Roman and Greek coinage, world coinage and world banknotes, including notes with special serial numbers and world bank-note errors.

Session two was to feature more than 1,050 lots of Canadian, Newfoundland and Maritime decimal coinage, as well as gold coinage, bulk lots, Proof-Like sets and highlights from the Robert Kril collection of major error coinage.

A few of the highlights included an 1859 large cent, struck in brass, and graded by PCGS as Very Fine-20, one of the finest surviving examples. Two rare 2005P, non-magnetic cents in gem condition were also featured in the copper section of the sale along with more than 100 other lots, most in premium condition.

The silver five-cents section of the sale offered dozens of high-grade pieces. Key dates include an 1875H Large Date in Mint State-63, and two 1921 five cents, one in VF-20 and another in AU-50. The 10-, 25- and 50-cents sections of the auction continue the same trend, with multiple examples and key date coins in high grade. The sale included the “King of Canadian coins,” a 1921-dated 50-cent piece in ICCS Very Good-8.

The silver dollars included Specimen examples of the 1939, 1945, 1947 Pointed, 1951 and 1952, all in premium condition, along with other rarities, including a 1966 Small Beads dollar. A 1996 McIntosh silver dollar trial piece offered in the sale, with an antique finish, it is one of two known examples.

The Maritime and Newfoundland material in the auction is “particularly exceptional,” according to the auctioneers, who added that the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick copper coinage was “the finest ever offered at one time in a Canadian sale,” with nearly every date graded MS-65 or -66. The Newfoundland portion featured more than 10 Victorian pieces in premium condition. The session also featured a major section of error coinage, including highlights from the Kril collection.

Session three was dedicated to Canadian paper money, and featured Greene’s banknote collection.

“The number of rarities is, quite frankly, overwhelming,” said auctioneer Charles Moore.

The session began with a number of rare copper printing plates for early 19th-century Canadian bank cheques, including plates for the Merchants Bank, the Ontario Bank and the United Empire Bank, as well as for early private Ontario banks. Several lots of United States notes followed, highlighted by a rare 1795 $1,000 Treasury Certificate, which was estimated to bring $20,000. The Provincial Issues of Canada are highlighted by Newfoundland Cash Notes, with every issue and denomination from 1901 to 1909 offered in sets in premium condition.

The Dominion of Canada section concluded with five “exceptionally rare” Bank Legals, with denominations from $1,000 to $50,000. Catalogue values range from $20,000 to $40,000 for individual Bank Legals, “although based on current interest, auction prices realized are expected to be higher,” Moore said.

More than 350 lots of Bank of Canada notes were next on the block, with error notes, serial No. 1 notes, solid and radar notes in abundance, followed by an extensive offering of the 1935, 1937 and 1954 issues. All of the ten 1954 Devil’s Face, asterisk notes were on the auction block, along with scarce multicoloured issues, including a newly discovered 1974 $2, with *RD prefix.

For more information, visit moorecoins.com or cdncoin.com.

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