World War I-era love letter from U.S. soldier to his girl goes up for auction

Photo courtesy Hansons Auctioneers and Valuers LTD

Let's hear it for old-fashioned amour.

The most romantic tweet in the world couldn't hold a candle to this 100-year-old letter written by an American World War I soldier named Charles.

The letter, which included a pressed French poppy, is going up for auction at Hansons Auctioneers and Valuers in Derbyshire, U.K. Written on American YMCA paper, headlined "On Active Service with the American Expeditionary Force," the letter is as tender as it is mysterious. 

Text as follows:

Dearest Girl, I love you so, for your prayers and your love. If prayers will aide and they will God will take care of everything. Of course it is hard to understand this war in regards to the Lords will and means of protecting his people – but I guess it was not intended that we should understand.

In the meantime I must stop – sweet girl, I will be so careful and you must be good and write very often. Tell me everything as you do and let the French poppy which I am enclosing represent my kisses for you – dearest girl, all my love. Remember me to mother – yours Chas (more kisses).

On the auction's description page, auctioneer Charles Hanson said little is known about the author and even less is known about the woman it was sent to.

"We can be fairly sure — that the French poppy picked up by an American serviceman represents a latter battle of WWI, perhaps when victory was in sight," he wrote.

Historians believe that more than 8.5 million people were killed during World War I, including 116,000 Americans. There is no way to know if Charles was one of the many who lost their lives or if he made it home to his "dearest girl."

Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter (@mikekrumboltz).

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Rare gold coin sells for $2.75 million at auction

The 1880 Coiled Hair Stella is one of the rarest known coins in the world (Bonhams)

An extremely rare coin sold for $2.75 million during an auction on Monday, greatly exceeding expectations and making it one of the all-time biggest such sales in U.S. history.

Mining.com reports that the “Coiled Hair Stella” coin was minted in 1880 featuring a profile image of Lady Liberty. The coin contains about six grams of pure gold and was never released into circulation. On the back of the coin an inscription reads, “ONE STELLA” and “400 CENTS.”

"The 1880 $4 Coiled Hair Stella is one of the so-called white whales of the coin collecting world. They are so rare, they come on the market maybe once or twice, at most, every decade," Paul Song, director of rare coins at Bonhams, which auctioned the coin in Los Angeles, told Reuters.

“They are so rare, they come on the market maybe once or twice, at most, every decade,” Song said. “That particular gold coin, there's only 10 or 12 now, and most of these are in public institutions or private collections.”

The $2.75 million selling price is reportedly more than 66.6 percent higher than earlier estimates and places it in the top 10 of all-time U.S. gold coin sales.

Three other Stellas were sold at the same auction, though were of slightly different designs are were considered less valuable, according to Numismatic News. The entire 27-coin collection was worth an estimated $8 million before auction.

“That may not be a Monet painting, but in my world, that’s pretty amazing,” Song told Reuters.

Fox News adds that the coin was designed by former United States Mint engraver George T. Morgan. The idea at the time was for the U.S. to have its own international coinage in order to improve trade with European nations. And while Congress voted against approving the coin, an estimated 12 to15 sample coins were still produced.

“Few collectors have ever seen one, let alone had the chance to own such a numismatic treasure,” explains auction site Stack’s Bowers. “It has been years since a Coiled Hair Stella appeared for sale, and this one is as beautiful as it is rare, with nice cameo contrast nicely complementing the superb aesthetic quality. In short, it would be virtually impossible to replace the quality and rarity seen here, and it may be years before another Coiled Hair Stella is offered.”

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US Marshals auction scammer's diamond, other loot

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Want to own a 5-carat diamond from a Texas scammer?

The jumbo jewel and other treasures confiscated by the U.S. Marshals Service are up for auction in Las Vegas this weekend.

Buyers can preview the gold and silver bullion, coins, jewelry and watches from federal crime cases between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The auction itself starts at 10 a.m. Saturday and will be simulcast on the Internet.

Among the other items are 6.6 pounds of gold pellets from a Southern California resident caught up in a $100 million Medicare fraud scheme. The starting bid for that collection is $120,000.

The Marshals Service auctions items from cases a few times a year. Proceeds benefit victims of crimes and supplement law enforcement programs.

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Gandhi blood sample up for auction in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Two microscope slides bearing the blood of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi are to go on sale in London on Tuesday and are expected to fetch from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds ($15,200-$22,800).

The slides were obtained in 1924 when the father of the Indian independence movement was recovering from an appendectomy near Mumbai. He was thought to have donated the blood to the family he was staying with at the time.

"To Gandhi devotees, it has the same status as a sacred relic to a Christian," said Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at Mullock's auctioneers which is selling the item.

"It is an artefact which is revered by disciples of Gandhi, particularly in India and therefore that is the sort of person who would go for it," he added.

The slides are part of a larger collection of items obtained by Mullock's, which include the former leader's sandals, shawl and bed linen.

Demand for Gandhi memorabilia has been steadily growing since Mullock's sold soil samples and blades of bloody grass purportedly from the spot where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, for 10,000 pounds ($15,200) last year.

($1 = 0.6582 British pounds)

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Opulent Hotel Crillon bids farewell to treasures at Paris auction

By Tara Oakes

PARIS (Reuters) - One of the grandest luxury hotels in Paris will put most of its of furniture and fine wines under the hammer next week to help raise funds for a lengthy restoration.

The sumptuous Hotel Crillon, hushed after the departure of its last guests in March, has been transformed into a buyer's wonderland as it closes its doors for a two-year renovation.

Full suites of furniture are on display ahead of a series of auctions scheduled for April 18-22, with about 3,500 lots including carpets and curtains expected to raise hundreds of thousands of euros.

Buyers seeking to recreate a little bit of the hotel in their homes can even stock up on reception counters, staff uniforms and bathrobes.

"A sale like this is a unique moment, a real cherry on the cake," auctioneer Stephane Aubert from auction house Artcurial said.

Such vast hotel sales are rare, with once-in-a-lifetime treasures available.

A highlight is the hotel's mirror-encrusted bar designed by 20th-century French sculptor Cesar, who gave his name to the annual French film awards where, similar to the Oscars, miniature reproductions of one of his works are distributed.

The artist's signature is inscribed on the twinkling glass front of the bar - protected beneath a perspex panel ever since a cleaner unwittingly took the first version for graffiti and scrubbed it off. Cesar was able to return and sign again before his death in 1998.

Dominating one side of Place de la Concorde, the Crillon has housed the great and the good since its construction as a private home under French King Louis XV in 1758.

The ill-fated Queen Marie Antoinette took music lessons on its first floor only to be guillotined years later in the shadow of the palace's grand neoclassical façade.

Since its conversion into a hotel in 1909, it has welcomed U.S. pop singer Madonna, former president Bill Clinton and was the site of the formal founding of the League of Nations.

U.S. composer Leonard Bernstein regularly set up home in a top floor suite with a view onto the Arc de Triomphe. One anonymous client rents that same suite every year to watch the finale of the Tour de France with friends and an unspecified amount of champagne.

Bidders with deep pockets can fork out for the piano Bernstein is believed to have used during his stays, while fans of lesser means can still hope to go home with light fittings and rugs.

A large part of the Crillon's vast wine and spirit cellar is likely to be snapped up by connoisseurs, including a rare Louis XIII Black Pearl Remy Martin cognac with a list price of 7,000 euros ($9,200). Mini-bars and chairs customized by artists are also being auctioned for two French charities.

Profits raised from the auction will fund a sweeping modernization to bring the hotel up to date while preserving its character, with work due to last until 2015.

The Ritz in Paris is also out of action for a revamp, with both hotels aiming to reinvigorate their classic grandeur and poach customers tempted by high-end newcomers such as the Shangri-La opened in Paris in 2010.

A sad tale of a grand old dame selling off her jewels? Not at all, according to Aubert.

"It's part of the story of these objects that they go and have a new life," he said, eyeing up his favorite lots - the silver-plated cocktail shakers from the bar.

($1 = 0.7642 euros)

(Reporting by Tara Oakes; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

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Chinese Bowl found at garage sale fetches over $ 2.2 million at auction

By Clare Hutchison London (Reuters)-ten dresses worn by Princess Diana ended, including a velvet, Midnight-blue dress that famously danced with John Travolta at the White House in 1985, recovered more than $ 1.2 million at an auction in London on Tuesday. The creation of Victor Edelstein worn at the gala dinner of the United States was the top lot of the sale, held by fashion specialist Kerry Taylor auctions, sell for $ 362,470, within pre-sale estimates. ...

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Captain Cook's pistol fetches $ 227,000 at auction

SYDNEY (Reuters)-a gun owned by British Explorer Captain James Cook, who first claimed Australia for Great Britain almost two and a half century ago, sold on Thursday for a $ 219,600 ($ 227,100), above the maximum set by auctioneers estimate.

The brass gun, a gun Holster Flint continental of the 18th century with a 13-hole barrel made from Dutch gunmaker Godefroi Corbau Le Jeune, had a presale estimate of $ 100,000 to $ 200, 000.

One of the few rare personal effects left by explorer, the gun went to a private buyer in Victoria, Australia, said Cassandra Hilber, Leski auctions.

"There was a lot of interest as well as from New Zealand," he added.

Cook reached the coast of Australia in April 1770, the first European recorded to meet the East coast of the continent, having mapped the coasts of New Zealand. In August, he planted the British flag on possession island in Northern Queensland.

It is not known if Cook was carrying the gun when they first stepped on Australian soil.

Cook made two exploratory expeditions to the Pacific and was killed in Hawaii in 1779.

The gun remained in the family Cook for more than two centuries before being purchased by former Lord Mayor of Melbourne Ron Walker at an auction in Edinburgh in 2003.

(Australian dollars $ 1 = 0.9669)

(Reporting by Thuy Ngo and Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

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