So far, in this century, the greatest U.S. coin collection to have been publicly auctioned is that of the Pogue family. The seventh installment of the collection was auctioned by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in Santa Ana, California, on March 20, 2020, shortly after the coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported to be infecting U.S. citizens at an alarming rate, resulting in an unprecedented crisis and widespread lockdown.
Regarding the coronavirus and the Pogue VII event, two points are extremely important. First, the results of the Pogue VII auction provide crucial circumstantial evidence that prices for gem-quality 19th century U.S. coins had not fallen since the outbreak and reports of COVID-19 in the U.S. Second, the Pogue VII sale itself was very successful as retail-level or even beyond retail prices were realized for a substantial percentage of the coins. To a large extent, successful bidders were paying collector-level prices rather than dealers buying for inventory or telemarketing firms.
Factual evidence and logical analysis suggest that the prices realized for most coins in the Pogue VII session would not have been higher if the coronavirus had never existed. It is impossible to know this for certain, but there is little in economics or life in general that can be known for certain. I am making a case that the consequences of the virus did not have a dampening effect on most of the prices realized or on the thrust of the Pogue VII session overall.