"Lauder's auction occurred days after Stack's important John Roper sale in NYC, which I attended but couldn't stay over in the City.

"I acquired Loye Lauder's 1792 silver center cent pattern, mint state (raw) for $40K hammer thru agent Bill Anton who attended the auction. I'd given Bill a maximum $77K bid. He wasn't pursuing it himself as he had one. Bill's piece decades later was proven to have a fake, re-engraved inserted silver center plug!

"Interestingly, this LL auction was conducted in a Dutch auction manner. It started at $70K, no bid, $60K, no bids, $50K no bids, $40K and Bill raised his hand. Bam! Got it. Everyone there was stunned. Days later I received a phone call from an attending would-be bidder. He offered a $10K profit. Declined. I was prepared to bid $77K.

"Loye acquired a fair number of her rarer colonial coins from a then-prominent Coin World advertiser who was known to sell bad coins. The most expensive item withdrawn was Loye's GOLD New Jersey St. Patrick farthing, a later cast fake. As I recall, the Norweb sale years later had a similar or the same gold fake withdrawn at that sale, which I attended."

I always say the best part of The E-Sylum is hearing about hobby history directly from people who were there at the time. Thanks for sharing this background with us!

Tony Terranova provided images of his hand-priced version of the Loye sale catalog to the Newman Numismatic Portal. Thanks! -Editor