What's The Toughest Coin You Have Had To Find? Year, Date Or Condition

If it's going to be scratched the reverse is the place for it.

My hardest to find continue to be:
(1) Trade dollar, type 1 obv and rev, original surfaces, G-XF condition
(2) Draped bust dollar 1798 or 1799, original surfaces, G-XF condition
(3) Hawaii dollar 1883, original surfaces, G-XF condition

Prices of course get pretty ugly, but even finding the pieces has been elusive thus far.
Of everything I have come across, the Trade dollars are cleaned or type 2, the busts are so regularly 1800, and the Hawaii dollars are AU or cleaned...

This was a tough one. Mintage of about 600 in proof and challenging to find a nice example at a reasonable price. This one is PR65 RB.

That's a really nice proof Two Cent Piece Fenton! Right you are those are hard to find nice or at all in fact. Yours is a beauty too.

Every single coin I would ever want (with two exceptions, the 1652 New England 3 pence and the 1964-D Peace dollar), has come up for sale, and been available to me to purchase, either at auction or a private sale, the trouble is, I just never had the funds to purchase them.

A few on my ultimate coinage bucket list:

1714 Gloucester shilling
(1737) Higley copper
Brasher doubloon (The 1742 Lima design is my favorite but I'm not that picky here)
1776 New Hampshire copper
1787 NY George Clinton, Excelsior half pence pattern
1794 S-48 starred reverse large cent
1864 Small Motto Proof
Two Cent Piece full obverse & reverse capped brockage errors
1907 St. Gaudens high relief wire rim double eagle

Just a few cool coins there huh?

The main one I would really like to have is of course the 1864 Small Motto Proof, one just sold a few weeks ago, I've tracked every one I know about since I became interested in the series. I know there is a lower grade example out there, in a PCGS F15 slab somewhere, I've never seen it, nor even heard about it other than through the PCGS population reports. Even if it showed up, I likely couldn't afford it anyways, but I'd love to see it someday.

I've found all the others in the Two Cent series in PR66 or MS66 bought and sold them when they weren't that expensive (1990's through the early 2000's).

The Small Motto Proof coin has always been my Achilles heel.

Getting down to the final 3 years of my collection of a coin dated to the "82nd" year of each century. I've been at this for a decade now. In my research for 382AD, only option I could find was a rare Western Satraps with about 5 known copies. Took a couple years, but I was able to pry one. Most I've ever spent, but thankfully demand is minimal. Lol. Now only 2 dates left, 482AD and 318BC. I am yet to identify a 482AD mintage anywhere. 318BC has a couple Greek options that trend around $300.

Westcoin, Consider the Daniel Carr overstrike for the 1964 Peace dollar. Yes it's a fantasy coin but I picked one up and it is really quite exceptional. "The most exacting and faithful rendition ever produced".