Rare coin owned by Charles Mapes up for auction

RENO (AP) - An extremely rare 1870 gold coin from the collection of late Reno hotel-casino owner Charles Mapes is up for auction.

Paul Song of Bonhams & Butterfields estimates the high-grade 1870-CC Liberty Double Eagle coin is conservatively worth $150,000 to $180,000.

The $20 coin, minted in Carson City, was the largest denomination of all United States-issued gold pieces. It has been in the Mapes collection since it was purchased at a 1961 auction in New York.

It's among gold coins from the estate of Helen and Charles Mapes that Bonhams and Butterfields will auction off Sept. 4 in Los Angeles.

Charles Mapes died in 1999 at the age of 78. His Mapes Hotel, which attracted the rich and famous during its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, closed in 1982.