Harry W. Bass' - 1907 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle For Sale At Heritage In August

One of the highest-graded examples of a 1907 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle, PR69, tied for the finest known, will be up for grabs Aug. 10 when it is offered through Heritage Auctions, an Event Auctioneer Partner of the ANA's World Fair of Money, in The Harry W. Bass Jr. Core Collection, Part IV US coins Signature® Auction.



As was the case with the first three auctions of coins from the Bass Core Collection, proceeds from this event will benefit the dozens of Dallas-based nonprofits supported by the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation, with a particular emphasis on early childhood education and literacy in Dallas.

"Harry Bass Jr. spent nearly his entire life in Dallas, after his family moved there when he was very young," says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. "He spent much of his adult life assembling one of the most extraordinary numismatic collections anywhere — at the time of his death, it was easily one of the largest and most in-depth trove of U.S. Federal gold coins ever assembled.

"His knowledge and love of numismatics is matched only by his loyalty to his adopted hometown. Thanks to the generosity of the Harry W. Bass Jr., Foundation, Dallas-area nonprofits will be benefiting from the $62.6 million already raised in the previous three auctions - a total that will increase through this extraordinary auction."

The 1907 Ultra High Relief double eagle was the first to be offered publicly when it crossed the auction block in 1920. The 1907 Ultra High Relief double eagle has few peers when it comes to rarity, demand and aesthetic appearance. Held in the private collection of Washington, D.C., collector John H. Clapp until his death in 1940, it was sold along with the rest of Clapp's collection to Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr., in 1942 for more than $100,000 in what was, at the time, one of the largest recorded numismatic transactions. Eliasberg kept it until his death in 1976, after which it was sold to Bass in 1982 for $242,000. Since then, it has remained out of public reach . until now.