1799 Early Dollar: Found In "Junk Silver" Box @ B&m

That's where my junk box went!

Fantasic findings Benji!

You stink man. I want to know where that magical junk box is so that I can cherrypick it.




edited for a more family friendly approach

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I wonder if this is the same junk box the AU (later MS-63 or 65 I forget what they are calling it now) 1870-S Half Dime came from?

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Can someone fill me in on this story?

quote:

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wonder if this is the same junk box the AU (later MS-63 or 65 I forget what they are calling it now) 1870-S Half Dime came from?

Can someone fill me in on this story?

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Back in the 80's when the unique 1870-S Half Dime came to light the story was that it was found in a Chicago area dealers junk box. Well the coin grades a nice AU-55 with good color and no problems, I don't know too many dealers who consign AU-Unc Half Dimes to the junk box. They must have a real high end clientele.

I had a chance to examine the 70-s at the 1991 ANA convention in Chicago. It was raw at the time and is a no question AU with definite slight signs of wear. Since then it has been slabbed at least once, possibly twice, and the last I heard it was graded MS-64. Just another case of a legendary coin being overgraded simply because it IS a legendary coin.

Yes it is still unique, but no it was most likely made legitimitely. In 1870 when they were building the second San Francisco Mint they had a cornerstone setting dedication and they placed in the cornerstone a complete set of all of the coins that the San Francisco mint strikes. (San Francisco did not strike minor coins so no cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, or nickel five cent were included in the cornerstone.)

So the cornerstone included all of the coins from the 1/2 dime through double eagle. Now according to mint records, four of those denomination were never struck officially, the Half Dime, quarter, silver dollar, and three dollar gold. Yet today three of those coins are known to esist, the Half Dime unique, silver dollar eleven known, and three dollar gold unique. The quarter is not known to exist, but researchers have found references to it being struck for the cornerstone in mint records.

If you were going to strike a coin for a cornerstone how would you do it? Trying to start and stop the press after one cycle would seem to me to be a bit iffy, and that first startup strike may not be a good one because it may not be up to pressure. So what I would do is put several planchets in the feeder tube, run the press for say a half dozen cycles or so and have a small group of coins to chose from so I could put the best one in the cornerstone. They probably started with the silver dollar because there are more of them known. After that they realized they didn't have to let the press run that many cycles. So then they did the short runs, and after selecting the cornerstone piece they probably gave the extra pieces to one or more of the VIP's. The Mint Superintendant kept the 1870-S three dollar gold piece and probably had it on his watch fob for awhile. (It shows some scratches and at one time had a link welded to the top of the coin. Traces of the jewelry removal are visible on the edge. Or would be if you were to take it out of its slab. Yes NGC slabbed a damaged jewelry piece.) But anyway, the production of the 1870-S Half Dime was almost certainly done with official sanction.

Very nice "junk box" like that. I remember when someone found a 1916-D in a junk box. I think Coin World covered the story.

Sure common date MS Mercury dimes for a dollar I can believe, but a junk box that has AU-MS Seated half dimes worth $250 for commons? That is one high end junk box.

No, I saw the coin not too long after it was discovered and it was a nice original no problems AU at that time. The slight wear was clearly evident. "Conservation" should not boosted the grade. Hype and oneupmanship between the grading services? That's another matter.