DALLAS, TX.- Nearly three dozen bids poured in for the finest-certified 1815 B-1 Quarter Dollar, CACG-Certified MS67 until it sold for $126,000 to lead Heritage’s US Coins Signature ® Auction to $5,654,911 Dec. 14-17.

“The 1815 quarters represented the first Capped Bust design for the denomination by John Reich, the celebrated German-born designer of American coins,” says Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “His designs had appeared earlier on half dollars in 1807 and on dimes in 1809, but this was the beginning of his design on Capped Bust quarters ... and it is the finest known example.”

NGC claims one other MS67 example, but that example has traditionally been ranked second to this one, which originally hailed from the collection of the man commonly known as “Colonel” E.H.R. Green, the London-born millionaire who was close friends with President William McKinley and was among the world’s most revered coin collectors.

Also reaching six figures in the sold-out event was a magnificent 1927-S Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle, MS64, a beautiful Choice example of a coin that always has been popular and was believed in the 1940s to be the fourth-rarest Saint-Gaudens double eagle, behind the 1924-D, 1926-S and the 1926-D; it brought $108,000. But some 1927-S double eagles were used in foreign trade, putting them out of reach during the Gold Recall of 1933. When international trade resumed after World War II, coin dealers found many exported Saint-Gaudens double eagles had survived in European and Latin American banks and were repatriated in the 1950s. Only a relatively small number of 1927-S double eagles ever surfaced in foreign holdings.

A prize among Southern gold collectors for type purposes, an 1853-D Liberty Half Eagle, MS64+ PCGS. CAC drew a record $90,000 — eclipsing the previous standard of $86,500. This example of the coin that is considered the most available half eagle from the Dahlonega Mint is tied with one other MS64+ example at PCGS for the distinction of being the finest certified.

Another popular lot was a 1915-S Panama-Pacific Round Fifty Dollar, MS63+ that prompted more than 30 bids before it sold for $78,000. Called the “King of the Pan-Pac Commemoratives,” this magnificent coin is, along with the octagonal fifty-dollar gold, the crown jewels of the 1915 series. The round Pan-Pac fifties, including this gorgeous example from The Mercury Rising Collection, are especially sought after in any grade.

Three dozen bids came in for an 1864-S Ten Dollar, XF40 before it closed at $57,600. The rarest S-Mint ten and the second-rarest Liberty ten, it hails from a minute original mintage of just 2,500 — a number that shrunk after the coins were released into circulation and circulated heavily in the hard-money economy of the western United States. PCGS CoinFacts estimates the surviving population at just 22-26 examples over all grades.

Other top lots included, but were not limited to:

• A 1908-S Double Eagle, MS65 NGC: $55,200

• An 1855 Gold Dollar, MS66+ NGC. CAC: $50,400

• A 1913 Double Eagle, MS65 PCGS: $50,400