1927
See also : Spain II Miro US painting < 1940 Eastern Europe Women artists Children Old cars Mercedes-Benz Patek Philippe Development of Patek Philippe Switzerland < 1940 20th century coins Sport memorabilia Sport rewards and medals Baseball Babe Ruth
1927 The Blue Period of Joan Miro
2012 SOLD 23.5 M£ including premium
Miro was the most abstract of the surrealists and the most surreal of the abstract. His use of geometric shapes is as hermetic as the artistic grammar of Kandinsky. The title of the work invites the viewer to a certain vision that is never the only possible interpretation.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19. Here is the link to the catalog.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky, preceding by 70 years the shelters for aliens by Cai Guo-Qiang.
Forgotten for 40 years in the estate of a great collector, Peinture (étoile bleue) got a nice media success when it reappeared in Paris. It was sold € 11.6 million including premium by Aguttes on December 21, 2007. Certainly this is a masterpiece by Miro, but its new estimate, £ 15M, is ambitious.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
In 2007, the Parisian observers rightly considered Peinture (étoile bleue) as a masterpiece of Miro. The result, quoted above, was then the highest price recorded for the artist at auction.
And in 2012, Sotheby's has largely won their challenge: £ 23.5 million including premium.
This artist always original and often difficult enters the short list of the most outstanding painters of the twentieth century.
Painted in 1927, Peinture (étoile bleue), is typical and can rightly be considered as an outstanding work of the artist. It is for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19. Here is the link to the catalog.
Never a visible star was blue, but the universe of Miro is completely dreamlike. The artwork, an oil on canvas 115 x 89 cm, is actually azure dark blue, anticipating over thirty years Klein's IKB.
The vertical format invites to gravity, but the opposite occurs. The forms that sail in this space are completely free and far between, like galaxies in the sky, preceding by 70 years the shelters for aliens by Cai Guo-Qiang.
Forgotten for 40 years in the estate of a great collector, Peinture (étoile bleue) got a nice media success when it reappeared in Paris. It was sold € 11.6 million including premium by Aguttes on December 21, 2007. Certainly this is a masterpiece by Miro, but its new estimate, £ 15M, is ambitious.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
In 2007, the Parisian observers rightly considered Peinture (étoile bleue) as a masterpiece of Miro. The result, quoted above, was then the highest price recorded for the artist at auction.
And in 2012, Sotheby's has largely won their challenge: £ 23.5 million including premium.
This artist always original and often difficult enters the short list of the most outstanding painters of the twentieth century.
1927 The Neo-Plasticism of Mondrian
2014 SOLD 15.2 M£ including premium
In the early years of abstract art, Piet Mondrian had pushed cubism to its limits by excluding color and by limiting the form to strictly horizontal and vertical lines that interrupt to define rectangles of varying proportions.
Around 1922 pure colors fill some rectangles. Executed on a gray background, the composition with blue, red, yellow and black from the Saint-Laurent collection, oil on canvas 80 x 50 cm, was sold for € 21.5 million including premium by Christie's on 23 February 2009.
The inevitable edge of the canvas disrupts the will of the artist to reach infinity. He seeks a solution by a diamond position of the canvas.
In 1926, Mondrian develops and publishes his neo-plasticist theory. The black lines are more sparse. The rectangles of pure colors are limited to two or three, but their presence near the edge, already in place in 1922, now takes the major role by creating the illusion that they are the starting point of an unlimited area. Therefore the overall size of the canvas is not significant. It again becomes rectangular.
On June 23 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted in 1927, lot 14 estimated £ 13M. The rectangles are grey excepted one red which is stuck between two horizontal lines and the very small blue escaping to infinity from the bottom left.
White background responds better than gray to Mondrian's quest for purity. Painted in the same year, a small composition with three colors 38 x 35 cm was sold for £ 9.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on June 19, 2013.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This abstract painting from one of the best periods of Mondrian was sold for £ 15.2 million including premium.
Around 1922 pure colors fill some rectangles. Executed on a gray background, the composition with blue, red, yellow and black from the Saint-Laurent collection, oil on canvas 80 x 50 cm, was sold for € 21.5 million including premium by Christie's on 23 February 2009.
The inevitable edge of the canvas disrupts the will of the artist to reach infinity. He seeks a solution by a diamond position of the canvas.
In 1926, Mondrian develops and publishes his neo-plasticist theory. The black lines are more sparse. The rectangles of pure colors are limited to two or three, but their presence near the edge, already in place in 1922, now takes the major role by creating the illusion that they are the starting point of an unlimited area. Therefore the overall size of the canvas is not significant. It again becomes rectangular.
On June 23 in London, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted in 1927, lot 14 estimated £ 13M. The rectangles are grey excepted one red which is stuck between two horizontal lines and the very small blue escaping to infinity from the bottom left.
White background responds better than gray to Mondrian's quest for purity. Painted in the same year, a small composition with three colors 38 x 35 cm was sold for £ 9.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on June 19, 2013.
I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This abstract painting from one of the best periods of Mondrian was sold for £ 15.2 million including premium.
1927 The Glory of the Pastry Cook
2013 SOLD 18 M$ including premium
The portrait of apprentice pastry cooks is a recurring theme for Soutine. These boys engaged in a job that they have not chosen are a mirror of the difficulties of his own life. These young people are already ugly and sad. Their uniform reveals their lower class profession for the service of the rich.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine. This masterpiece is estimated $ 16M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This engaging work is probably one of the best paintings by Soutine available on the art market. It was sold $ 18M including premium.
One of the first versions astonishes Paul Guillaume and Dr. Barnes, ensuring the lasting fame of the artist, a fame of which he so rarely profited because of his ever dissatisfied nature.
On May 8 in New York, Christie's sells the sixth and final portrait of pastry cooks, painted circa 1927. This oil on canvas, 76 x 70 cm, is extraordinary for its emotional intensity and technical quality.
The malaise of the boy is visible from his sickly eye, pouting mouth and clumsy hands clutching the hips.
The artwork is at the intersection of Modigliani's ideal compositions, Picasso's pauperism in the blue period and Monet's chromatic subtlety within the white, and of course the nervousness of the brushwork is proper to Soutine. This masterpiece is estimated $ 16M.
I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This engaging work is probably one of the best paintings by Soutine available on the art market. It was sold $ 18M including premium.
1927 The Sofa of the Roaring Twenties
2019 SOLD for $ 13.4M including premium
Tamara de Lempicka appreciated that success is the result of personal initiative. She began her career as a portrait artist in Paris, including a worldly escapade in Milan in 1925, while making clear statements on her bisexual desires. Some freedom brought by Hollywood made this kind of attitude already possible.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells La Tunique rose, oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm painted in the same year, lot 43 estimated $ 6M. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth.
Her husband's name is Tadeusz Lempicki. Some of Tamara's early paintings are signed T. de Lempitzki, probably to mark her manly tendencies. She looks for the most beautiful women and invites them to pose on her couch, naked or dressed.
Tamara meets Rafaëla at the Bois de Boulogne. She will tell later that she had seen how passers-by stared at the young woman. Rafaëla is pretty and chubby, with her hair styled in the fashion of Louise Brooks. Her portraits by Tamara are carnal, in the signature neat lines of the artist, revealing a love empathy between the two women.
Le Rêve, oil on canvas 81 x 59 cm painted in 1927, is also titled Rafaëla sur fond vert. The shirtless model sits with her arms crossed over her chest and her head resting on the back of the sofa. Like the best nudes of Modigliani, she waits peacefully for the artist's instructions. It was sold for $ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's on November 2, 2011.
On November 12 in New York, Sotheby's sells La Tunique rose, oil on canvas 73 x 116 cm painted in the same year, lot 43 estimated $ 6M. Reclining on the same green sofa, Rafaëla wears a little dress no more covering than a night suit. The expression is nice, with a contrast between the shadow on the eyes and the light on the red mouth.
1927 The Sublime Austerity of Piet Mondrian
2013 SOLD 9.3 M£ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Without desiring it, Piet Mondrian is a distant successor to the Iconoclasts. This mystic finds inspiration in theosophy.The artist can express the mystery of the world by abandoning completely the figuration.
Unlike Miro, Mondrian does not invite the viewer to interpret. He seeks his own way, which is as unresolved and endless as that of Kafka's surveyor.
Malevich had understood that the quintessence of art is pure white. Mondrian adds strictly horizontal and vertical thick black lines. Their meetings can generate an interrupt, but the strictly orthogonal angles attract no fantasy.
The world is not made up of black and white but of colors. The three basic pure colors are enough to announce all its diversity. Red, yellow and blue each one fills a dedicated area bounded by black lines.
Here comes finally the diversity. Mondrian is not a geometer and his progress is empirical. His quest to the sublimeleads him to vary the position and size of the colored areas from one artwork to another.
A small oil on canvas, 38 x 35 cm, painted in 1927 is estimated £ 4.5 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19.
Of same size, yellow and red are on the left of the same vertical. The violent and haunting red escapes by two sides, top and left. The lower line prevents the yellow to reach the bottom edge but allows the intrusion of the long blue stripe. Twenty years before Pollock, the impressions offered in Mondrian's art have already no limitations.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was too shy for this typical painting of the most famous Mondrian style. It was sold for £ 9.3 million including premium.
Without desiring it, Piet Mondrian is a distant successor to the Iconoclasts. This mystic finds inspiration in theosophy.The artist can express the mystery of the world by abandoning completely the figuration.
Unlike Miro, Mondrian does not invite the viewer to interpret. He seeks his own way, which is as unresolved and endless as that of Kafka's surveyor.
Malevich had understood that the quintessence of art is pure white. Mondrian adds strictly horizontal and vertical thick black lines. Their meetings can generate an interrupt, but the strictly orthogonal angles attract no fantasy.
The world is not made up of black and white but of colors. The three basic pure colors are enough to announce all its diversity. Red, yellow and blue each one fills a dedicated area bounded by black lines.
Here comes finally the diversity. Mondrian is not a geometer and his progress is empirical. His quest to the sublimeleads him to vary the position and size of the colored areas from one artwork to another.
A small oil on canvas, 38 x 35 cm, painted in 1927 is estimated £ 4.5 million, for sale by Sotheby's in London on June 19.
Of same size, yellow and red are on the left of the same vertical. The violent and haunting red escapes by two sides, top and left. The lower line prevents the yellow to reach the bottom edge but allows the intrusion of the long blue stripe. Twenty years before Pollock, the impressions offered in Mondrian's art have already no limitations.
POST SALE COMMENT
The estimate was too shy for this typical painting of the most famous Mondrian style. It was sold for £ 9.3 million including premium.
1927 The Lady of the Weeds
2015 SOLD for $ 9M including premium
It was not enough for Georgia O'Keeffe to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
A painting of petunias executed in 1926 still marks an aesthetic reference to photography by showing side by side a pale pink flower and a dark purple flower that is somehow its negative. This oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm was sold for $ 4.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010.
Georgia's favorite flower is the calla lily, whose name means beautiful in its etymology. She is sometimes nicknamed the Lady of the Lily by her friends.
An oil on canvas 81 x 43 cm painted in 1927 is starring a calla lily with its white petals opening on a yellow pistil. It is estimated $ 8M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 20, lot 14. Georgia particularly enjoyed that artwork which she kept in her personal collection.
She discovers Taos two years later. A datura painted in very large size in 1934, 122 x 107 cm, was sold for $ 44.4M including premium by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
A painting of petunias executed in 1926 still marks an aesthetic reference to photography by showing side by side a pale pink flower and a dark purple flower that is somehow its negative. This oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm was sold for $ 4.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010.
Georgia's favorite flower is the calla lily, whose name means beautiful in its etymology. She is sometimes nicknamed the Lady of the Lily by her friends.
An oil on canvas 81 x 43 cm painted in 1927 is starring a calla lily with its white petals opening on a yellow pistil. It is estimated $ 8M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 20, lot 14. Georgia particularly enjoyed that artwork which she kept in her personal collection.
She discovers Taos two years later. A datura painted in very large size in 1934, 122 x 107 cm, was sold for $ 44.4M including premium by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014.
1927 Lempicka undresses the Modern Woman
2011 SOLD 8.5 M$ including premium
With her skill for doing the portraits of her contemporaries, Tamara de Lempicka can however not be attached to any school of painting, and even better she probably inspired Picasso.
The oil on canvas, 81 x 59 cm, for sale on November 2 by Sotheby's in New York, provides (with the assistance of the catalog) the keys of the art of Lempicka.
A young woman naked to the waist is comfortably nestled in a green sofa. The gaze is strong and straight. She looks confident like a nude of Modigliani, and her arms resting on the chest are a charming gesture, not a protection.
Lempicka was 29 when she painted this work in 1927. She loved women, and was able to establish communication with her model.
The 1920s have witnessed the dramatic expansion of the films. The image of the ideal woman interested, or perhaps obsessed, Lempicka. Her characters with sharp lines and with hairstyles typical of her time are the mirror views of the emerging Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks.
This painting is estimated $ 5M.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This beautiful nude by Lempicka is also a symbol of the "Roaring Twenties" in Paris. It deserves its very good price: $ 8.5 million including premium.
The oil on canvas, 81 x 59 cm, for sale on November 2 by Sotheby's in New York, provides (with the assistance of the catalog) the keys of the art of Lempicka.
A young woman naked to the waist is comfortably nestled in a green sofa. The gaze is strong and straight. She looks confident like a nude of Modigliani, and her arms resting on the chest are a charming gesture, not a protection.
Lempicka was 29 when she painted this work in 1927. She loved women, and was able to establish communication with her model.
The 1920s have witnessed the dramatic expansion of the films. The image of the ideal woman interested, or perhaps obsessed, Lempicka. Her characters with sharp lines and with hairstyles typical of her time are the mirror views of the emerging Greta Garbo and Louise Brooks.
This painting is estimated $ 5M.
I invite you to play the video shared on the web by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This beautiful nude by Lempicka is also a symbol of the "Roaring Twenties" in Paris. It deserves its very good price: $ 8.5 million including premium.
1927 Mercedes-Benz S 26/180
2011 SOLD for $ 5M including premium by Gooding
1927 Patek Philippe 130 in Stainless Steel
2015 SOLD for CHF 4.6M including premium by Phillips
1927 Max Ernst and the Disasters of War
2011 SOLD 2.5 M€ including premium
PRE SALE DISCUSSION
Max Ernst was disgusted by the First World War. In 1927, his hybrid forms, neither men, nor trees, nor rocks, are nightmares reminiscent of the still fresh horrors. The technique of frottage (rubbing pencil) generates a blur exalting interpretation.
Like Goya, he had a biting irony. Like Goya, his art was militant.
Entitled La Carmagnole, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm is an infernal dance. The title is remarkably chosen by reference to the revolutionary dance that symbolizes so well the illusory hopes and the brutality of the men of 1789.
This painting is for sale on December 8 by Sotheby's in Paris. The estimate, € 1.5 million, may seem too low. Here is the link to the catalog.
In the same style, on the same year, Ernst also painted the Horde, considered as one of his masterpieces. This altogether bestial scene displays standing brutes along with victims on the ground with wide holes in the head, like a terrible link between Goya and Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and disturbing painting was worth better than its estimate. It was sold € 2.5 million including premium.
Max Ernst was disgusted by the First World War. In 1927, his hybrid forms, neither men, nor trees, nor rocks, are nightmares reminiscent of the still fresh horrors. The technique of frottage (rubbing pencil) generates a blur exalting interpretation.
Like Goya, he had a biting irony. Like Goya, his art was militant.
Entitled La Carmagnole, an oil on canvas 73 x 93 cm is an infernal dance. The title is remarkably chosen by reference to the revolutionary dance that symbolizes so well the illusory hopes and the brutality of the men of 1789.
This painting is for sale on December 8 by Sotheby's in Paris. The estimate, € 1.5 million, may seem too low. Here is the link to the catalog.
In the same style, on the same year, Ernst also painted the Horde, considered as one of his masterpieces. This altogether bestial scene displays standing brutes along with victims on the ground with wide holes in the head, like a terrible link between Goya and Guernica.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding and disturbing painting was worth better than its estimate. It was sold € 2.5 million including premium.
1927 The Ring of the Champion
2017 SOLD for $ 2.1M including premium
The championship ring is a tradition in American team sports. This reward is not comparable to a sports medal but to the celebration and commemoration of a victory. It is generally offered by the winning club of a major championship without limit of quantity : the players receive it but also the managers, the coaches, the sponsors.
This tradition gradually took hold in the 1920s in Major League Baseball for the benefit of the winning team of the World Series. The first rings linked to the MLB were awarded in 1922 to the New York Giants.
In 1923 when the New York Yankees won the World Series the memory offered to them was not a ring but a pocket watch. The watch of Babe Ruth was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on February 22, 2014.
The next victory of the Yankees in the World Series was in 1927. It was also a sporting feat : they had won all four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That year as a whole was exceptional for Babe Ruth who scored 60 home runs in this single season, a record in the MLB competitions.
The Yankees have now joined the new tradition. The World Series ring in 14K yellow gold presented to Babe Ruth in 1927 is listed as lot 1 in the online sale organized by Lelands closing on June 30. A slight chip to the diamond is announced. Here is the link to Lelands.com.
The price of a ring at auction depends on the prestige of the sporting achievement that has been rewarded. When the basketball player 'Dr J' Erving sold his collection in November 2011 by SCP Auctions, his 1974 ABA championship ring was sold for $ 460K while the best of his other rings did not reach $ 250K.
This tradition gradually took hold in the 1920s in Major League Baseball for the benefit of the winning team of the World Series. The first rings linked to the MLB were awarded in 1922 to the New York Giants.
In 1923 when the New York Yankees won the World Series the memory offered to them was not a ring but a pocket watch. The watch of Babe Ruth was sold for $ 720K including premium by Heritage on February 22, 2014.
The next victory of the Yankees in the World Series was in 1927. It was also a sporting feat : they had won all four games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That year as a whole was exceptional for Babe Ruth who scored 60 home runs in this single season, a record in the MLB competitions.
The Yankees have now joined the new tradition. The World Series ring in 14K yellow gold presented to Babe Ruth in 1927 is listed as lot 1 in the online sale organized by Lelands closing on June 30. A slight chip to the diamond is announced. Here is the link to Lelands.com.
The price of a ring at auction depends on the prestige of the sporting achievement that has been rewarded. When the basketball player 'Dr J' Erving sold his collection in November 2011 by SCP Auctions, his 1974 ABA championship ring was sold for $ 460K while the best of his other rings did not reach $ 250K.
Babe Ruth's 1927 Murderer's Row World Series ring is to auction for the first time https://t.co/hw6lFGkZSO #Yankees #BabeRuth pic.twitter.com/jWGgNRy2oi
— Paul Fraser (@PFCollectibles) May 24, 2017
1927 Reserves of Gold in Denver
2014 SOLD 2 M$ including premium
Since 1906, the Denver Mint produced silver and gold coins, including the $ 20 double eagle gold coin. These pieces are printed with a D above the year to distinguish them from the productions of San Francisco (S) and Philadelphia (blank).
During the 1920s, the government met increasing difficulties to maintain the fixed exchange rate between dollar and gold. Americans lost confidence in paper money and emptied the reserves of their banks for hoarding, making a huge financial mass unavailable for economic activities.
The government had no incentive to increase the circulation of gold, for the above reason and also because the USA, being a leading gold producing country, managed at that time a policy of export lending.
The Denver plant continued to produce double eagles but released few of them. The 180 000 pieces with the 1927 year mark remained in stock, with the exception of very small quantities mainly sold at face value to rare collectors. A similar policy was applied in San Francisco, as if Philadelphia had actually become the only center that minted double eagles for circulation.
In 1933, President Roosevelt banned the ownership of gold. In 1934, the Gold Reserve Act devalued the dollar by 40% compared to gold for increasing the earnings at export. Federal coin stocks were melted.
With thirteen units listed and only eleven of them recently located, 1927-D is the rarest double eagle regular variety. All these coins are uncirculated. The piece in the best condition, graded MS67 by PCGS, was sold for $ 1.9 million including premium by Heritage in November 2005.
No less than eight other units are graded MS66. One of them, discussed in this column, was sold for $ 1.5 million including premium by Heritage on 7 January 2010.
Another 1927-D graded MS66 by NGC is for sale by Heritage in Orlando on January 9. It did not get a better grade because of slight marks of contact, but the color and especially the quality of the strike are remarkable. Here is the link to the catalog.
The weakest lines including the parallel columns of the Capitol and the claws and feathers of the eagle are perfectly carved. The trace of the crack in its die through the beak of the eagle has a rare sharpness. An anomaly of this type is not considered as a defect by grading experts and sometimes helps to establish manufacturing chronologies of the coins.
Four days before the sale, the online bidding exceeds $ 1.5 million including premium.
POST SALE COMMENT
This specimen is one of the most appealing in this very rare variant. It was sold for $ 2M including premium.
During the 1920s, the government met increasing difficulties to maintain the fixed exchange rate between dollar and gold. Americans lost confidence in paper money and emptied the reserves of their banks for hoarding, making a huge financial mass unavailable for economic activities.
The government had no incentive to increase the circulation of gold, for the above reason and also because the USA, being a leading gold producing country, managed at that time a policy of export lending.
The Denver plant continued to produce double eagles but released few of them. The 180 000 pieces with the 1927 year mark remained in stock, with the exception of very small quantities mainly sold at face value to rare collectors. A similar policy was applied in San Francisco, as if Philadelphia had actually become the only center that minted double eagles for circulation.
In 1933, President Roosevelt banned the ownership of gold. In 1934, the Gold Reserve Act devalued the dollar by 40% compared to gold for increasing the earnings at export. Federal coin stocks were melted.
With thirteen units listed and only eleven of them recently located, 1927-D is the rarest double eagle regular variety. All these coins are uncirculated. The piece in the best condition, graded MS67 by PCGS, was sold for $ 1.9 million including premium by Heritage in November 2005.
No less than eight other units are graded MS66. One of them, discussed in this column, was sold for $ 1.5 million including premium by Heritage on 7 January 2010.
Another 1927-D graded MS66 by NGC is for sale by Heritage in Orlando on January 9. It did not get a better grade because of slight marks of contact, but the color and especially the quality of the strike are remarkable. Here is the link to the catalog.
The weakest lines including the parallel columns of the Capitol and the claws and feathers of the eagle are perfectly carved. The trace of the crack in its die through the beak of the eagle has a rare sharpness. An anomaly of this type is not considered as a defect by grading experts and sometimes helps to establish manufacturing chronologies of the coins.
Four days before the sale, the online bidding exceeds $ 1.5 million including premium.
POST SALE COMMENT
This specimen is one of the most appealing in this very rare variant. It was sold for $ 2M including premium.
Fast fact: On this date in 1906, the Denver Mint struck its first coins. Did you know a 1927-D Double Eagle, graded NGC MS 66, sold at an @HeritageAuction sale for $1.99 million in 2014? Explorer the Double Eagles at https://t.co/elSMH797GV. #coin #coins #coincollecting #denver pic.twitter.com/teQTbJT42E
— NGC (@NGCcoin) February 1, 2018
