A PR67 cameo 1880 flowing hair stella has sold for $750,000 in Heritage Auctions’ NYINC world coin sale on January 7-8.
That’s a huge increase on the $132,000 paid for this same coin in 2000, however it failed to meet the record $959,400 achieved by another PR67 specimen at Bonhams in 2013.
Only 18 1880 flowing hair stellas are known to have survived
These two are the joint finest of the 18 recorded survivors. As the production of the issue wasn’t properly documented, no one can be sure exactly how many stellas were minted in 1880.
All we know is there weren’t many. Experts estimate around 25.
An enormous 217.9 gram gold ingot produced in Vila Rica, Brazil in 1814 made $264,000.
That figure would have been higher had it retained its original “guia”, the certificate that states the ingot’s value.
Such ingots were made in Brazil from the 1770s until the mid-1830s. The country was rich in gold. A huge number of prospectors travelled from Europe to the mining centres in the Espinhaco mountains.
These ingots were made at a number of mints around the country, with the present specimen one of 43 survivors to have been produced at Vila Rica.
These ingots are extremely rare today. Just over 200 are left, with around half available on the private market.
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