An Esteemed Sale

For the first time in 30 years, Stack’s Bowers Galleries will hold two auctions of the James A. Stack Sr. Collection in December 2025 and February 2026. The assemblage of over 200 coins is expected to bring upwards of $20 million, with several individual pieces valued in excess of $1 million. In the weeks leading up to the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money in Oklahoma City, Stack’s Bowers Galleries will reveal freshly graded pieces in the collection via email announcements and social media posts. Visitors to the World’s Fair of Money can view a display of the collection at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries booth (table 701).

Included in the assemblage is Stack’s 1798 Small Eagle $5 gold piece, which was last sold in B. Max Mehl’s 1946 auction of the William Cutler Atwater Collection. It is the last of five privately owned specimens to come to market in the 21st century. Other rarities include a 1911-D Indian Head $10 gold piece, graded Mint State (MS)-66 by Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), and a toned 1795 Flowing Hair “3 Leaves” type silver dollar graded PCGS MS-64. There are no fewer than 28 Territorial gold coins, and nearly all have provenances to numismatic auctions from the 1910s to the 1940s. Half of the Territorial specimens originate from Hillyer Ryder’s collection, including the first Territorial gold coin: an 1830 Templeton Reid $2.50 gold piece graded PCGS About Uncirculated-58.

A Historic Collection

James A. Stack Sr. began his collection in the late 1930s with the goal of building as complete an assemblage of U.S. coins as he could. His collection eventually grew to include many rarities, such as an 1802 half dime, an 1894-S dime, an 1838-O half dollar, the finest-known 1870-S silver dollar, and an 1815 half eagle—all of which Stack’s Rare Coins (the predecessor firm to Stack’s Bowers Galleries) sold in previous auctions. He even acquired a 1933 double eagle (gold $20) in 1944, though he surrendered it to the Secret Service in 1945. While building his collection, Stack kept a low profile and often purchased coins through his friends and the founders of Stack’s Rare Coins, Joseph B. and Morton Stack (no relation). 

Stack eventually divided his collection evenly amongst his three children. He stipulated that his collection be held intact and distributed among his grandchildren upon his death after his youngest grandchild turned 25. Thus, none of his coins re-entered the marketplace until the Stack’s Bowers Galleries March 1975 auction, which showcased his holdings of U.S. quarters and half dollars. Other auctions of the James A. Stack Sr. collection were held in the 1980s and ’90s.