Two-Piece Lot of 1936 50C Albany Half Dollars With Rare Presentation Boxes, MS66 PCGS. Each coin is beautifully preserved a... (Total: 2 coins)

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Two-Piece Lot of 1936 50C Albany Half Dollars With Rare Presentation Boxes, MS66 PCGS. Each coin is beautifully preserved and lustrous with warm russet-gold and champagne toning over unabraded surfaces and sharp design elements. The coins are accompanied by their original National Commercial Bank and Trust Company boxes, which are very rare in their own right, and all the more so still intact with their original coins. When ANR sold this boxed pair in 2005, the coins were raw, but they have since been certified, each as MS66 PCGS, and stand alongside their boxes. The condition of the boxes is the same as when they were described two decades ago; the white box has some superficial tears on the cover that efface small portions of the blue ink bank stamp, while the red is lightly worn but in better condition with its bank stamp intact. Both boxes remain structurally intact.

The boxed pair is accompanied by a photograph of the two boxes with a handwritten letter by Anthony Swiatek, which reads:

"John: You are looking at the only Albany coin - White Box with ink logo to ever surface. The red is the second Albany box to enter the marketplace. I own the 1st, as seen in my paperback book. There has been rumor of a 3rd for the last seven years. Both boxes - enlarged - are from The Helen Carmody Collection."

More recently, Swiatek referenced this boxed pair in his Encyclopedia (2012):

"Rarer are the cardboard boxes that housed a single coin. These were distributed by and imprinted with 'The National Commercial Bank and Trust Company of Albany' in a red box with a red velour interior and a slit pouch for the coin. The bank's coat of arms is imprinted gold ink on the top cover, as well as a white box with a blue velour interior (in blue ink). Today, it is this special type of holder that determines the worth of a coin-holder offering. The above boxes housing and MS-64 and an MS-65 coin brought $4,370 as a pair in the American Numismatic Rarities auction on March 8, 2005."

Obviously, the grades given for the coins in the ANR catalog were conservative, and the boxes remain incredibly rare pieces today.
Ex: Helen Carmody Collection; The Richard Jewell Collection (American Numismatic Rarities, 3/2005), lot 3.
From The Hillspoint Collection.