Last week I reported on the auction of half cents and early large cents from the Jules Reiver Collection, sold by Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers in Dallas.

Reiver focused on varieties and die states, and he amassed more than 5,000 different examples of coins from various series – a feat that will most probably never be duplicated in this many series again.

The set of auction catalogs represents a great reference work, something Reiver would have wanted (he died in 2004) and would assuredly be proud of after his more than 70 years of building this collection.

Heritage's cataloging of the Reiver Collection provided early copper information in the same way it did for the Rasmussen auction of early coppers a year ago. Heritage listed both the certification service grade and the grading standards used by Early American Coppers, a club for collectors of such coins.

In "market grading" half cents and large cents, certification services grade in much the same way they grade other series of coins – by wear and eye-appeal. In contrast, the EAC standards take into consideration wear and planchet quality to arrive at a net grade that's often a couple of adjectival grades lower than the coin's market grade.

Last year Coin Values tried to strike a balance between the two grading systems. However, over time we have concluded that the best way for us to serve collectors is to value early coppers at market grading levels, and let the Early American Coppers specialists continue using their system on their own.

There's nothing wrong with using two systems. That's just the way the early coppers market has evolved. I'm an EAC member, and I see the wisdom in the way EAC has graded for decades.

However, the market served by Coin Values is broader than for just these specialists. Therefore, in the very near future we expect extensive changes in our valuations for early coppers, with prices possibly being adjusted both higher and lower. Some changes may be significant.

The silver portion of the Reiver Collection included dozens of coins that sold in a range from $20,000 to nearly $50,000 each. However, a few pieces brought much higher prices.

A 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar graded Very Fine 25 by Numismatic Guaranty Corp. sold for $161,000 and an MS-61 1796 Draped Bust dollar brought $172,500 (the highest price in the auction).

Although many pieces brought high prices, many other coins sold for prices that more collectors would find affordable (less than $1,000). Some sold for less than $100.

The total collection brought an astonishing $8.5 million for 4,642 lots, or about an average of $1,848 each.

Nearly 3,000 people bid in the auction, with close to 90 percent of them bidding via the Internet!

However, in comparison, the 143 successful floor bidders walked away with just more than half the value of the sale – about $4.4 million.