High-end rarities struggled a bit at Stack's 74th anniversary auction held in Baltimore, Nov. 9 to 11.

One of the highlights, an 1861 Confederate cent encapsulated in an ANACS holder as Genuine and graded by Stack's as choice Proof, sold for $112,700 (inclusive of Stack's 15 percent buyer's fee).

The Stack's catalog entry for the lot tells the story of how Q. David Bowers, who consigned the coin, came to acquire it and notes that just 12 to 15 are known.

The cent came from the John J. Ford Jr. Collection and was sold at Stack's Part 10 of the Ford Collection auction in 2005 for a hammer price of $110,000. After Bowers paid the buyer's fee, plus 5 percent to his agent, his acquisition cost was $132,000.

Under normal consignment terms in the recent Stack's auction, Bowers would receive approximately $93,000 after commission. The result of the transaction would be a loss of nearly $40,000.

But at least it sold. Many of the most expensive coins failed to meet their reserves, especially high-grade condition rarities in classic series like Barber quarter dollars, and the success of the expensive Proof gold coins was hit-and-miss.

Five separate Gobrecht dollars were offered, each failing to find a buyer.

A new discovery presented a valuing challenge, if only for lack of comparable transactions. Proof Peace dollars are rare; those from 1922 prohibitively so.

A Proof 1922 Peace dollar, struck in high relief with a satin finish – perhaps unique and with the characteristic striking weakness in the obverse centers common to the 1921 Peace dollars – sold for $44,850.

A very strong price was realized for an unusual 1848 Coronet, cal. $2.50 quarter eagle graded Very Good 10 that sold for $25,300 – just a little less than a Very Fine 30 example sold for a few months ago at auction.

Some of the prominent gold $20 double eagles failed to find buyers, including the star lot, a 1907 Saint-Gaudens, Ultra High Relief double eagle graded Proof 58. It sold at Sotheby's in 1992 for $143,000 and then again by Stack's in 2005 for $425,000, but failed to find a buyer when offered at auction Nov. 10.