Sale in April 2002 by H. Aldridge & Son The Devizes Auctioneers & Valuers in Wiltshire. It was indeed featured on the catalogue cover. There are more Titanic "relics" than people think, as nowadays anything even tangentially related is considered a "Titanic artifact" -- those who did survive had personal effects, souvenirs, mementos, etc. they had managed to secret away such as the famous "fifty-thousand-pound rug" consisting of a scrap section of unused green first class carpet that was carried off before the ship sank and later used by the survivor as upholstery for a footstool for his wife then hacked up and sold in chunks and pieces.
Half dollar sale was 31 March 2012, as above, lot #335.
Sold again raw in April 2014 for just under $21K w/the BP. Either the buyer, or the current seller who bought it from the buyer, had it graded by NGC. There is a provenance gap here.
There was also an 1889
Morgan dollar (lot 402) from the same auction house, July 2012, also belonging to Mr. Gill.
After spending £13 for his 2nd class ticket (about £1362 5s 4d in 2016, or just under USD$1700) Mr. Gill's wife had given him $4.60 in American coins (that they had acquired through her father's business but been unable to exchange in GB) and $43 in paper currency - as money to help him get started in America.
By comparison, a BA Business Class nonstop from London to NYC starts around $2800 one-way. Sure, it's much faster than a cruise ship, but probably not nearly as scenic, nor as comfortable.
Seller is now asking almost 5 times what he paid for it, despite the market being down greatly since April 2014. In addition 2012 being the 100th anniversary of the disaster was the recent peak of collector and investor interest in the ship's relics.
I think the seller is somewhat full of himself and is selling a $30 coin and a markup of $98.9k worth of history. I think the $21K auction sale was fairly priced and maybe even a bit overvalued. The provenance gap between 2014-2017 is slightly annoying, original bidder in 2014 was anonymous, and seller does not state how he acquired it from that anonymous bidder, although perhaps some research could find that out.
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Posted 03/24/2017 6:05 pm
