Contursi pays record price for fabled set
Coin World
By Paul Gilkes
Monday, November 14, 2005
The legendary King of Siam Proof set was acquired Nov. 1 in a cash deal by Steven L. Contursi, president of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Dana Point, Calif., for a record $8.5 million.
"I watched this extraordinary set sell at two auctions over the years, and I always wanted to own it because it’s a national treasure,"
Contursi said. "It is history, adventure and artistic beauty."
Contursi said he’s been working on the transaction for several months.
Contursi plans to publicly exhibit the King of Siam set at the Long Beach (Calif.) Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo scheduled for Feb. 9 to 11. The $8.5 million selling price is the highest price paid for a numismatic coin or set.
The highest price paid for a sin gle coin was the $7,590,020 paid July 30, 2002, by an unidentified buyer for the only example of 1933 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagle declared legal for private ownership. The largest single numismatic transaction came in early 2000 when the California Gold Group paid what its owners said was more than $100 million to the Columbus-America Discovery Group for its majority share of the SS Central America gold treasure.
Earlier this year, Contursi paid $3 million to buy the first gold coin made in the United States, a 1787 Brasher doubloon. The Contursi piece is unique, being the only example with Ephraim Brasher’s EB counterstamp on the eagle’s breast rather than on one of the eagle’s wings.
Contursi also owns what he pro motes as the first silver dollar struck by the United States Mint – a 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar.
Contursi purchased the silver dollar in March 2003 for an undisclosed sum in a private transaction. Various numismatists have examined the Contursi dollar and other examples of the coin, and state that they believe the physical evidence suggests the coin was the first U.S. silver dollar. No official documentary evidence has been found that supports that belief.
The sale of the King of Siam set to Contursi was brokered by Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles in their Beverly Hills, Calif., offices on behalf of an anonymous seller described as "a West Coast business executive." The owner purchased it for a price reported to be more than $4 million, four years ago.
The $8.5 million selling price was $1.5 million below the price the Goldbergs had advertised the set for on behalf of their client.
Ira Goldberg and his cousin, Larry Goldberg, issued a joint statement about their role as brokers: "It has been our dream to handle the sale of the King of Siam Proof set ever since its existence was first made known to the numismatic world in 1962. We are proud that we’ve sold it three different times over the past 15 years, twice at public auctions and now by private treaty. This was the most exciting sale because it shattered the previous record. It’s the No. 1 numismatic treasure."
The set was originally given as a diplomatic gift on behalf of U.S. President Andrew Jackson to the King of Siam (now Thailand) in 1836. More than 120 years after it was officially presented, the set resurfaced, owned by a London dealer.
To fulfill a State Department request for sets of presentation coins, Mint officials produced Proof examples of coins circulating in 1834, but turned to 1804 for the dollar and $10 eagle, the last year in which each of those two denominations had been struck (silver dollars struck in 1804 were dated 1803, while a few 1804 eagles were struck that year). The government had ordered a halt to the production of the two denominations in 1804.
The original set contained openings for 11 pieces, but only nine were filled when the set was revealed in 1962, with two spaces vacant. More than a decade ago, a gold 18-millimeter Andrew Jackson inaugural medalet and an 1834 Capped Bust half dime were added to the set under speculation examples had been part of the original set.
The set as sold to Contursi includes 11 pieces, all graded by Professional Coin Grading Service:
1804 Capped Bust, Heraldic Eagle, Plain 4, gold $10 eagle, Proof 64 cameo.
1834 Classic Head gold $5 half eagle, Proof 65 cameo.
1834 Classic Head gold $2.50 quarter eagle, Proof 64 cameo.
1804 Draped Bust silver dollar, Proof 67 (Class 1, of the style struck circa 1834).
1834 Capped Bust, Lettered Edge half dollar, Proof 65.
1834 Capped Bust quarter dollar, Proof 65.
1834 Capped Bust dime, Proof 67.
1834 Capped Bust half dime, Proof 66.
1834 Coronet cent, Proof 66 red and brown.
1834 Classic Head half cent, Proof 66 red and brown.
1833 Andrew Jackson gold medal, Proof 63 cameo.
The pieces in the King of Siam set were graded and encapsulated by PCGS in June 2004, the second time the grading service examined the coins.
The set was first graded by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America in 1989. PCGS graded the coins in the set in 1990. NGC graded coins in the set again in 2001, with PCGS grading the coins again three years later. Some of the coins changed in grade by one grade point, while others stayed the same as a result of PCGS’s 2004 assessment. Arguably the most high profile coin, the Class 1 1804 Draped Bust dollar, was graded Proof 65 by NGC in 1989. PCGS agreed with that assessment in 1990. Eleven years later, NGC boosted the grade a full two points to Proof 67 and PCGS now agrees.
Also, in 1989, NGC rated the 1834 Coronet cent as Proof 65 brown and PCGS agreed in 1990. When NGC graded the same coin in 2001, the coin garnered a Proof 66 red and brown designation and now PCGS agrees.
The King of Siam set is also accompanied by the original, custom-made yellow leather and blue velvet case that housed the coins when Edmund Roberts, a presidential envoy from the U.S. State Department, presented it during an overseas trade mission on behalf of President Jackson to King Ph’ra Nang Klao (Rama III) of Siam in April 1836. The coins in the set were housed in a custom-made plush purple velvet lined Moroccan leather, wood box.
The king’s son, Rama IV, was the subject of Margaret Landon’s book, Anna and the King of Siam, and the famous 1950s Broadway musical and movie, The King and I, and the 1999 film Anna and the King, starring Jodie Foster in the title role.
The coins in the King of Siam set were minted sometime in late 1834. Roberts took the set with him on a voyage aboard the USS Peacock in 1835 and arrived in Siam in the spring of 1836.
The whereabouts of a second set, produced for the Sultan of Muscat (now called Oman, a small nation on the Arabian peninsula), is unknown.
The Proof 1834 Capped Bust half dime and the Jackson medalet were added to fill the two vacant compartments in the wooden case soon after Spectrum Numismatics International, Santa Ana, Calif., and its principal owner, Dwight Manley, acquired the set at a Superior Galleries Inc. Feb. 2, 1993, auction for $1.65 million plus a 10 percent buyer’s fee. The set had been placed on the auction block by Unigold’s Iraj Sayah and Los Angeles businessman Terry Brand, who paid $3.19 million, including the buyer’s fee, when Superior offered the set at auction in 1990.
Directly after buying the King of Siam Proof set, Manley paid $28,600, which included a 10 percent buyer’s fee, to acquire a PCGS Proof 66 1834 Capped Bust half dime he believed to be the missing example from the set, although no documentation substantiates the claim. The coin is pedigreed to Louis Eliasberg.
Subsequent to the Feb. 2, 1993, Superior auction, Manley said he secured the Jackson medalet through private sources in New York. Although no documentation substantiates the contention the medalet is the one missing from the set or whether a medalet was ever part of the set, Manley said numismatists Carl W.A. Carlson and Anthony Terranova conducted exhaustive research to conclude the medalet is indeed the missing piece from the set.
The medalet was among the gold, silver and copper pieces struck by the U.S. Mint’s chief coiner, Adam Eckfeldt, to honor Andrew Jackson’s second inauguration. The obverse bears a bust of Jackson. The reverse is inscribed and. JACKSON INAUGURATED PRESIDT. AROUND THE CENTRAL INSCRIPTION, U.S. / SECOND TERM / MAR. IV. / 1833.
Included in the sale of the set through the Goldbergs to Contursi is the Peacock’s original log from the ship’s 1835 voyage.
The King of Siam set has captured the imagination of collectors since it was revealed. Its discovery helped clarify the history of the 1804 Draped Bust dollar.
"In the annals of American numismatics, nothing can compare with the legendary presentation set of United States coins that was given to the King of Siam," says Kenneth E. Bressett, a former president of the American Numismatic Association and coauthor with Eric P. Newman of a reference book about the set, The Fantastic 1804 Dollar.
Bressett served as a consultant to Contursi in this transaction.
"No other group of coins can boast of a more absolute pedigree, or such an illustrious past," Bressett says. "Measured in terms of collector appeal, rarity, romance and value, this set is unparalleled and will forever hold its place as one of the most desirable numismatic items in the world. New price records have been broken with each sale of comparable individual items that are included in this set, and it is likely that all records may be shattered with the sale of this monumental set."
It is believed the King of Siam’s son, Rama IV, later gave the coin set to his British governess, Anna Leonowens, who died in 1915. More than 120 years after the set’s presentation to the king, two descendants of Leonowens sold the coins to an unidentified source in the late 1950s from whom they were later acquired by London dealer David Spink. The existence of the King of Siam set was announced to an astounded numismatic world in 1962, according to Bressett.
The Bressett-Newman book The Fantastic 1804 Dollar was literally on the press when production had to be interrupted to accommodate inclusion of the new example of the coin and the information that confirmed the two authors’ speculations about the 1804 dollar’s origins.
Bressett explains that publication of the book was scheduled for August 1962, coinciding with the joint convention in Detroit of the American Numismatic Association and Canadian Numismatic Association. During the show, Bressett said he attended an educational talk by David Spink and James Risk during which it was announced a new example of Class I Proof 1804 Draped Bust dollar had been discovered. The coin was in its original presentation case along with other coins that could be pedigreed to the set presented as a diplomatic gesture to the King of Siam on behalf of President Andrew Jackson.
Although Mint records show that 19,570 silver dollars were struck in 1804, only 14 examples of dollars with that date were known before the King of Siam set was revealed with a 15th piece.
Numismatists theorized about the rarity of the pieces, with some suggesting that the majority of the pieces had been lost or melted.
When the collector community became aware of 1804 dollars in the mid-19 th century, several prominent collectors acquired examples from the Mint (pieces struck circa 1834 but not used in presentation sets). Later in the century, Mint officials unofficially restruck the dollar and sold additional pieces to prominent collectors and dealers.
Three distinct classes are known, with the 1834 pieces called "original" by the earlier collectors, or "Class I" by later collectors. The pieces struck for the collector market later in the 19th century are today known as Class II and Class III pieces. The Class II and Class III coins were struck from a different reverse die than used for the 1834 strikes, although the same obverse die was used for all three classes. The edge devices are also used to distinguish the three classes.
That none of the dollars dated 1804 was actually produced that year was a suspicion for Newman and Bressett, based on their examination of the coins and other silver dollars of the early 19th century before production ended in 1803. Their research led them to speculate the Class I pieces were not struck in 1804. The King of Siam set proved them right.
The revelation resulted in the authors postponing final publication of their book until October 1962 to facilitate inclusion of the new discovery
Set image by Lyle Engleson/courtesy of Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles.
1804 dollar images images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
THE FABLED King of Siam Proof set is shown, left, in its original case. The gold Andrew Jackson medal and 1834 Capped Bust half dime were not part of the set as it resurfaced in 1962, but were later additions. The centerpiece of the set is the Class I (original) 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar, shown above.
Image courtesy of Rare Coin Wholesalers.
THE BUYERS, and the seller’s representatives, examine the legendary King of Siam set and the original 1835 log of the USS Peacock, which transported the coins on a diplomatic trade mission. Standing (left to right): Larry Goldberg and Ira Goldberg of Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles, Beverly Hills, Calif. Seated (left to right): Steven L. Contursi of Rare Coin Wholesalers, Dana Point, Calif.
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
THE 1804 Capped Bust gold $10 eagle included in the King of Siam set was actually struck in 1834. It bears a Plain 4 in the date, while 1804 Capped Bust eagles actually struck in 1804 bear a Crosslet 4.
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
1834 Classic Head quaretr eagle, Proof 64 cameo
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
AMONG THE COINS in the King of Siam Proof set is this 1834 Coronet cent. PCGS graded the cent Proof 66 red and brown.
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
THE KING OF SIAM SET contains nine original coins, including this Proof 67 1834 Capped Bust dime. The set came to the attention of a London coin dealer in the 1950s.
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
1834 Capped Head half eagle, Proof 65 cameo 
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
1834 Capped Bust quarter dollar, Proof 65
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
1834 Classic Head half cent, Proof 66 red and brown
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
1834 Capped Bust half dollar, Proof 65
Images courtesy of Professional Coin Grading Service.
THE GOLD Andrew Jackson medal and 1834 Capped Bust half dime were not part of the King of Siam set when it resurfaced in 1962, but were added in 1993 by a previous owner.