The world’s most valuable coin is in a PCGS holder. Many of the world’s rarest coins are, too. For remarkable, rare, exceptionally valuable coins, the benefits of thirdparty grading are obvious, often obviating debates about authenticity and grade.
PCGS Manager of Numismatic Research and Programs Charles Morgan has observed industry trends for years, and his assessment of PCGS’s role in authenticating, grading, and encapsulating top-end rarities is this: “PCGS has set the gold standard for authentication and grading for 40 years.” Morgan goes on to say, “PCGS’s expert graders rigorously verify the coin’s genuineness, protecting buyers and sellers from counterfeits. Our graders are the best in the industry, and each coin graded by PCGS is backed by the PCGS Guarantee of Grade & Authenticity. This guarantee provides an invaluable layer of protection for a significant asset such as a legendary rarity.”
Over the course of four decades, many marquee coins have been encapsulated and graded by PCGS. So, an exhaustive accounting of rare, famous, or exceptionally valuable coins in PCGS holders would require a book-length treatment. Let’s look at five such notable coins.
1913 Liberty Nickel, PCGS PR66
The first coin to sell for more than a million dollars was the Louis Eliasberg specimen of the 1913 Liberty Nickel, which was eventually graded PR66 by PCGS after its initial record-breaking sale. Struck under murky circumstances at the Philadelphia Mint around the time of the design transition for the nickel five cent piece from the Liberty to the Buffalo motif, only five 1913 Liberty Nickels are known. The finest example ended up in the collection of Louis Eliasberg, who assembled one of the most valuable coin collections of the mid-20th century. In 1996, two decades after Eliasberg’s passing, the coin was cataloged Proof-66 and sold for $1.485 million – the world-record price for any individual coin at that time; it was subsequently graded PR66 by PCGS.
After it was graded by PCGS, the Eliasberg specimen continued to realize remarkable prices, first in 2001, when it sold in a Superior Galleries sale for $1.84 million. In 2005, it crossed the block for $4.15 million in a Legend Numismatics sale. Two years later, it reportedly sold in a private transaction for over $5 million. It went up for auction again in 2018, realizing $4,560,000, the highest price for a base-metal coin at the time. The specimen was once owned by collector Dr. William Morton-Smith, whose passion for Liberty Nickels was described this way by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in 2018: “Morton-Smith’s passion for collecting can be traced back over generations, passed on to him when he inherited a beautiful antique colonial desk,” which he found to contain a collection of proof Liberty Nickels once owned by his grandfather. “He spent decades finding important rarities, including completing his grandfather’s proof Liberty Nickel collection when he purchased the Eliasberg coin.
1804 Draped Bust Dollar, PCGS PR68
In the late 1990s, PCGS graded another of the United States’ most famous, valuable coins, the Childs-Pogue example of the 1804 Draped Bust Dollar, which in 1999 sold for more than $4 million, setting what was then a new record price for any individual coin sold at auction. All 1804-dated silver dollars were produced decades after the date they bear; though silver dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1804, they are all thought to be dated 1803. The Childs-Pogue specimen is among eight Class I 1804 Dollars, which were produced for inclusion in sets of United States coinage given as a diplomatic gift to various heads of state around the globe, including the Sultan of Muscat.
The Sultan of Muscat 1804 Dollar resided in numerous notable collections after surfacing in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. In 1999, the coin was certified PR68 by PCGS and auctioned for its then world-record price of $4.14 million with the rest of the Walter H. Childs Collection by Bowers & Merena, entering the Pogue Collection. It sold again in a 2021 Stack’s Bowers Galleries sale for $7.68 million. PCGS co-founder John Dannreuther offered this assessment of the coin’s quality in a July 8, 1999, press release ahead of the Pogue coin’s record-breaking sale: “It’s a 100% original coin, as perfect an early proof coin as one could imagine […] obviously the subsequent owners have treated the coin with the distinction befitting its title, ‘the King of Coins.’”
1652 New England Sixpence, PCGS XF45
The first coinage produced in British North America was quite crude. The New England Coinage of 1652 was produced by silversmith John Hull in what is today Downtown Crossing in Boston, Massachusetts. The coins’ only devices are the letters “NE” that appear in a cartouche on the obverse and the denomination, in Roman numerals, in a cartouche on the reverse. For many years, only two examples were known: a holed example held by the Massachusetts Historical Society and another that disappeared from Yale University Library’s collection at some point in the last century, identified by a 19th-century woodcut. A few years ago, another example appeared, with a provenance connecting it to Boston’s Quincy family. Over the course of several years, many accomplished numismatists analyzed the coin and PCGS determined it was authentic, assigning it an XF45 grade in 2024. PCGS President Stephanie Sabin said of the coin in a September 2024 Coin World article: “This is one of the most important coins in all of American numismatics […] Since before the Civil War, collectors have regarded the 1652 New England Threepence as the single-rarest American colonial coin. And for more than a century it’s been known as entirely unobtainable for private collectors.” She added, “It was an honor to grade this coin, protecting it for future generations before it heads to auction this autumn.” The landmark threepence crossed the block in November of that year for $2.5 million.
1794 Flowing Hair Dollar, PCGS SP66
On January 24, 2013, a 1794 Flowing Hair Dollar certified SP66 by PCGS broke the all-time price record for any coin, realizing $10,016,875 (including buyer’s premium) in a Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction. The coin is the finest known among America’s first silver dollars. A total of 1,758 silver dollars were reportedly struck in 1794, all on a single day; fewer than 200 are known today. Silver plugs were added to examples struck on underweight planchets, including the record-breaking example that traded hands in 2013 and was previously part of the Cardinal Collection Education foundation.
The coin is the only example of the issue to receive the Specimen designation from PCGS. It later sold in a private treaty transaction in 2022 that was facilitated by GreatCollections, taking $12 million. Laura Sperber, the founder of Legend Numismatics, the firm that paid the record-breaking price in 2013, offered this perspective on the role of third-party grading: “As with any coin, third-party grading offers unequalled safety and security. You [know] the coin has not been messed with and is genuine. It also shows you the grade as opinioned by several experts. Buying or selling [a coin in] a third-party holder makes a huge difference.”
1933 Double Eagle, PCGS MS65
Any list of rare, famous, and valuable coins residing in PCGS holders must reckon with the world’s most valuable coin: the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, graded twice by the firm. The coin’s remarkable life story has been the subject of multiple books; PCGS entered the story twice, first in 2002, when a team of PCGS experts examined the coin and determined that it merited an MS65 grade, though the coin was not officially graded and encapsulated at that time. The second time the coin crossed through the custody of PCGS, the coin was formally graded MS65 and encapsulated by the company. GreatCollections President Ian Russell helped coordinate the PCGS encapsulation of the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle in 2021. “We have likely submitted 500,000+ coins to PCGS over the past 10 years, but the standalone highlight was this 1933 $20,” said Russell. “It is the pinnacle of numismatics, and we are grateful to the owner for entrusting it with us.”
Struck at the Philadelphia Mint shortly before Executive Order 6102 and the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 forbade the private ownership of gold bullion, the 1933 Double Eagles wasn’t officially issued. An unknown number of 1933 Double Eagles were secreted from the Mint, likely late in 1930s, and were ensconced in the collections of prominent numismatists by the time a Secret Service investigation revealed the theft in 1944. One of these coins was sold to King Farouk of Egypt and exported (with a license) in March of that year; it was slated to appear in an auction of the king’s extensive holdings held by Sotheby’s in conjunction with the Nasser government that overthrew Farouk, in 1954. The coin vanished before the sale, resurfacing in the mid-1990s.
After some legal wrangling over the coin’s illicit origins, an agreement was reached between the U.S. government and the British coin dealer who uncovered the coin from a source in the Middle East to auction the coin, splitting the price down the middle. It broke the existing world record price for a coin, set by another coin on this list, the Sultan of Muscat 1804 Dollar, realizing $7,590,020 – the final $20 being an administrative fee to re-monetize the coin. When the coin resurfaced at auction again in 2021, it again notched a world-record price when it garnered $18,872,500 on June 8, 2021, upon its sale in a Sotheby’s auction. The PCGS-graded 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle is still the most valuable coin in the world.