#44-Pagani, Gehrig, and the Half Eagle
"Our goal is to keep on investing on everything that evokes emotion, which is art." -Horacio Pagani
Hope you are having a great weekend!
Can art and science walk hand in hand? Leonardo da Vinci was convinced it was possible and he dedicated himself to combining the two.
As a young boy, Horacio Pagani read about Leonardo’s marriage of art and science and it guided him to create the most amazing hyper-car brand in the world - Pagani Automobili.
Check out my latest episode on Horacio, and his journey to create his first hyper car - the Pagani Zonda C12.
Or, here’s the Apple Podcast link -
Hope you enjoy it!
Three Thoughts -
Here’s a few interesting things I learned this week while searching for the world’s greatest collectibles.
#1 - The 1822 Capped Half Eagle
One of my favorite traits of the World's Greatest Collectibles is they only come up for sale once or twice in a generation.
The 1822 Capped Half Eagle gold coin absolutely qualifies. As auction house Stack's Bowers described it, "One of America's most noteworthy historic collectibles in any form."
The amazing coin sold for $8.4 million at auction in 2021, but that only begins to tell the story.
It changed hands just three times in 120 years, and was owned by the greatest coin collectors to ever live.
Virgil Brand - Louis Eliasberg - Brent Pogue -
It's the only 1822 Capped Half Eagle privately owned. The two others rest at the Smithsonian.
Official U.S. Mint records showed 17,796 half eagle's struck in 1822, but almost all of them were dated 1820 or 1821. The three existing coins from 1822 may have been erroneously struck in 1823 or 1824, nobody knows for sure.
Not until 1906 did collectors realize the extreme rarity of this coin, that's how long it took to solve the mystery. And there's no telling when, or if, the coin will ever sell again.
If you've wondered why someone might pay millions for a tiny little old coin, the 1822 Capped Half Eagle perfectly illustrates.
#2 - Lou Gehrig, Instant Legend
Sports news traveled slow in 1920. But there was talk of a, "Babe Ruth of high schools in New York."
As baseball fans realized this young slugger, only 17 years old, was traveling with his team from New York to play the best high school team in Chicago, anticipation began to grow.
Ten thousand people filled "Cubs' Park," the stadium now called Wrigley Field, to watch two high school teams play.
Only a junior in high school, young Lou Gehrig stepped to the plate to show the country what it means to go "instant legend."
With Gehrig’s team-leading 8-6 in the ninth inning, Gehrig launched a grand slam home run out of the stadium. The ball bounced off Sheffield Avenue and rolled onto the front porch of a nearby house.
The legend was born. Headlines of Gehrig's mammoth home run hit the New York Times and Chicago Tribune the next day.
Only a few years later in 1923, Gehrig would team up with Babe Ruth and deliver the Yankee's first of four world series titles as part of the most dominant lineup in baseball history.
So, I'm trying to decide which Lou Gehrig baseball card is the greatest. The 1933 Goudey #160 is said to be rarer, but there are two PSA 9s and zero PSA 10 cards. One of the PSA 9s sold for $576,000 in 2019.
The 1933 Goudey #92 has only one single PSA 10 in existence. That card last sold for $274,000 over 17 years ago in 2007.
So what is the premier Gehrig card? (1925 Exhibits?) I'm sure there is someone out there who can help me with this debate.
#3 - Owning a McLaren F1
What makes the McLaren F1 one of the greatest car ever built?
What’s it like to own one of these amazing cars?
A Road and Track interview mentioned this amazing anecdote from car enthusiast, Matt Farah -
“My favorite McLaren F1 story is from Ralph Lauren. About the year 2000. One of his three F1s. The car wasn’t running right, so he plugs it into the wall. The car dials McLaren. Two guys in tweed jackets come over from England, they show up at his house. They go, “okay, give us the keys.” They come back and go, “You’re not shifting high enough,” and fly back to England. That was it, the whole problem. That’s what owning a McLaren F1 is like.”
BONUS -
Don’t forget to spend some time this week in a relaxing state of mind, possibly exploring an interesting artifact or work of art.
Give your body and mind a short rest from the daily grind and demands of everyday life.
And here’s another similar quote, from one of my favorite philosophers -
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.' - Ferris Bueller
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Thanks for reading, and have a great week!