Finding A Good Brown Ike....... - And Other Adventures.... !

Thank you ! ... (though, I fear sometimes the Mod's just wish I'd hurry up and get to the point ! ....)


And yeah, JB, you're right about the "Milky" coloring....and most were even worse than that, that he had ! .... (and he knew it too.....just said to pick the best ones I liked)
O.G.P. definately does NOT mean = good condition. In fact, I bought some yellow Philly Treasury envelopes that had never been opened, thinking I'd land some nice Franklins and other coins.........well.....one Franklin in particular had some BAD problems !......not gonna do that again until I actually "see" it first !

My '76 Proof also was in excellent condition too JB ! ..(both my copy and my original one)....and even the Uncirc. '76 Set had a very nice Ike in it too !

Upgrading an Ike Dansco looks like it will be a "future" challange once I complete it apparantly !

eaglefoot,

At least you had an opportunity to peruse a number of them at one place.
I made a purchase of a '74 and will have to wait until it arrives, prior to giving an opinion on the coin. Here is what I had to go by;





I also got a blue pack '74, and one each of the 3 piece bicentennial proof and mint sets, I guess I went a little "Ike Crazy" but oh well!

Nothing wrong with that! Let us know when you get your treasures arrive.


Even with the haze, I get a good cameo on my dollars when viewing them at an angle. The fields are still very shiny; with the right lighting and background, the cameo is stronger than I would expect.

OK I'll let you judge... besides a bit of brown slightly unattractive toning around the edge I think he is a keeper.

HOLY WOW !! .......That's a great lookin Ike Coin ! ....

But I'm MOST impressed with the photo's ! ....
What beautiful clear close shots there !! ..... Nice job !

The 76's don't have the haze because of the different packaging. I firmly believe that the have seen on so many brown Ikes DOES come from the government packaging. I also think a lot of it comes from being baked. I remember back in the early seventies helping at coin shows and I would see dealers packing up and putting their coins including mint sets, proof sets, brown Ikes etc into the trucks of their cars. (Back then they didn't have mini vans or SUV's and very few people drove vans, almost all dealers drove cars) Did you ever consider how HOT it gets in the trunk of a car? It can easily exceed 140 degrees. And every time one of those sets or Ikes didn't get sold to a collector, it would go back in the truck and get baked for several more hours as the dealers drove to shows and back. So take a pristine brown Ike and say it goes through ten shows before it found a home. It could have received 60 hours of 140 degree heat by the time it was purchased. (I'm assuming a three hour travel time average) Just what kind of out gassing would occur in the packaging materials?

Condor101 - that's a great angle on what could explain some of this. The brown boxes were unique to that series. And if I remember correcly, the Brown Ikes had a high, high price

Ha Ha. Much like our modern coinage (the 2001-S Sac proof, the Type 2 or 1 proofs of '79 and '81, UNC rooseys for $30 and more, etc.)

I guess every era had the problem with "the modern series". Didn't want to pay full price.

Of course, if you bought those Brown Ikes back in the mid-1970's for the price they were asking, then you're still waiting to break even - despite the higher silver prices.

Oh what a roller-coaster we are on...

Eaglefoot,
Great read thank you for sharing.
Looking for Very Nice Brown Ike's is definitely a challenge.
Heck any high grade Ike is a prize. Anything above MS66 on the Copper-Nickel clads and the prices quickly get into the thousands of dollars.
They are difficult at best to find in Great Condition.
I have been working on my Dansco for a little two years now.
And as people begin to realize how hard they are to find more people
will start collecting them driving prices up more.
Bar none the Ike's have been the most challenging and most fun series
I have ever collected. With all the varieties in the series and more being discovered all the time I am just having a blast.
I used to do Morgan and Peace dollar VAM's and found the Ike DIVA's
(Designated Ike VAriety) far more fun due to the fact that there are many that have not been found. Because until recently no one REALLY looked at Ike's now there is Very intensive research on the entire series. And a new book on Ike's hopefully will be released at the end of this summer with a lot of recent discoveries. four that I can think of off the top of my head just in the last year. A hand full
of Denver re-punched mint marks on different years.

Enjoy the Hunt.
It is a Blast

Terry