Auctions
Goldin uncovers rare T206 Honus Wagner card traced to original 1909 cigarette pack
With fewer than 60 authenticated examples known to exist, the century-old 1909-11 T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card is one of the most rare and special cards in the hobby. New discoveries are as rare as the card itself.
But Goldin recently discovered and authenticated a newly surfaced copy of the hobby’s “holy grail.”
The card from the Shields Family Collection is authenticated and graded PSA 1. It is featured in Season 3 of Netflix’s “King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch,” which premiered Dec. 23, and will be up for bid in Goldin’s 2026 Winter Vintage Auction.
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The Wagner card was part of a framed collection owned by Morton Bernstein, a silver manufacturing plant owner who began collecting sports and nature-themed trading cards in the early 1900s. After Morton’s passing, his grandchildren, Dennis and Douglas Shields, preserved the collection, meaning the iconic card had remained privately held by the same family for over a century.
“My brother and I have held onto these for years,” Dennis Shields said through Goldin. “It isn’t for monetary issue; but it was the sentimental value that our grandfather held onto these things all his life, and we held onto them just because we love him.”
While several notable T206 Wagner cards have sold publicly in recent history, the industry had not directly documented an individual card back to its original insertion in a 1909 Sweet Corporal Cigarette pack.
When the family finally decided to release the collection to the public, Goldin Founder and CEO Ken Goldin and Head of Private Sales Frank DiNote arranged a meeting with the family.
“I’ve never been able to trace a Wagner that has stayed in only one family since the day the card came out,” Goldin said. “The Shields’ care and respect for their grandfather’s collection—carefully looked after behind closed doors for 116 years—has preserved one of the hobby’s true grails, and the importance of this cannot be overstated. To me, this is the biggest discovery in the hobby in the past 50 years.”
Once the card was consigned to Goldin, it was transported to PSA, where it was graded a 1. PSA has graded 27 Wagner examples, with the highest grade a 7. Five copies have been graded 1, five 1.5, and 11 as Authentic.
The historic card set a then-sports card record when an SGC 3 example sold at REA in 2021 for $6.6 million. An SGC 2 example broke that record in 2022 when it sold for $7.25 at Goldin.
The grading confirmation was revealed to the family during filming for “King of Collectibles.”
“It’s a momentous day when Honus Wagner walks through the door as a century-old family heirloom; one that PSA graders dream about, and a first for my tenure,” said PSA President Ryan Hoge. “We’re honored to assess and preserve a card that encapsulates the rich history of collecting like no other.”
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the card in Goldin’s Winter Vintage Auction will be donated to Happy Trails for Kids, a nonprofit that provides outdoor experiences for children in foster care.
