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 Replies: 48 / Views: 4,733 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Once in a while you encounter a coin that is unique in the U.S. coinage run that we all love. I think that this is the pinnacle of coin collecting. These are so few and far apart that I will also include coins that are effectively unique, These are coins for which more than one coin exists, but only -one- is available for the public to own because the others are owned by the U.S. government and therefore the public. I thought it would be fun to have a thread listing those coins that are unique/effectively unique - but also are available for sale at the time of posting. Since I ran into one today I will start the ball rolling. Proof Civil War Gold: https://www.legendnumismatics.com/p...simpson-cac/IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
09/08/2022 03:06 am
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
11880 Posts |
Another interesting aspect of unique coins like this one is how do you price it. It's not like you can find comparable sales like we do with other coins we intend to buy. How would you determine what a fair price for these coins is?
I suppose highest bidder at a well-publicized auction is the only way to discover the highest marginal price to be paid for anything -- on that day.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
756 Posts |
my profile picture is a unique coin. it is the only known example of a newly confirmed Half Dime die variety. I'm not really looking to sell it, but for a strong enough offer or a neat enough collection I could be convinced to let it go. itll be hard to trade something so interesting for something as common as money. the idea of pricing such a thing is pretty interesting. its a super niche item. not many people are collecting draped bust heraldic eagle Half Dimes by die variety. the people that are collecting them arent exactly hurting for money. if it were listed in the RedBook as "1800 reverse of 1801" how does that impact the price point? im excited to hear what others have to say on this topic. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Another interesting thing is that for a unique coin, condition doesn't matter because it is at once the top grade and lowest grade in the condition census.  Nice coin Carr. How does it feel to own a unique coin? Anyway unusual? IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
Seems like a very narrow category - unique and currently for sale. Maybe if you opened it up to sold within the past year there would be more options?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
I suppose we can expand it to all unique/effectively unique coins. That's still a small number.
We should exclude the ones held by the government at the Smithsonian in the national collection or bequeathed to a museum with a stipulation that it can never be sold as these cannot be obtained with just money. An example would be the unique 1849 double eagle that resides at the Smithsonian.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
756 Posts |
i like my little Half Dime a ton. ive owned it for almost 20 years. I figured out what it was the first week I had it. it took a while to work through the process of convincing everyone else. ive displayed it, written articles and shown it to a bunch of people. recently a friend, who is a grader for PCGS, saw the coin and got excited. I handed it off to him and now its slabbed. getting it into a holder has been interesting. I sometimes forget how much weight their word carries. I usually keep my coins raw. PCGS published the discovery in rare coin market report. since then several people have contacted me including some dealers telling me they have buyers. a small number of people are pretty excited. its 100% official. no debate. and thats pretty sweet. this coin may not stay unique. PCGS reaches a lot of people. the variety is much more widely known than it was a couple months ago. its pretty straight forward to attribute. several more may pop up. who knows how many are hiding out there unattributed. fun story about it being the finest known - Joe Boling teaches a class on how to grade numismatic exhibits. he uses my Half Dime as an example when talking about how to score condition. its nearly slick and its holed. its also condition census #1 for the variety. as a type example it scores poorly, but as a variety example it gets top marks. it created quite the scoring debate amongst the judges when I displayed it at an ANA show years ago. -- i had the opportunity to take a look the 1849 double eagle once. it looks like it was cleaned with steel wool. it was honestly a bit disappointing. the Smithsonian damaged a lot of their collection by either cleaning them or gluing them to display boards. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Quote:
written articles If you have links to the articles, I am sure that many hear would love to read about your discovery.   The 1849 double eagle is such an interesting coin. Shame that the Smithsonian appears to have ruined it. Wish the following write up in libertydoubleeagles.org was attributed to the author: The 1849 Liberty Double Eagle is a famous and historic rarity, representing the first double eagle struck by the United States Mint. Only a single example is known to exist and this piece resides within the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution.
Technically a pattern or experimental coin, it is believed that at least two examples of the 1849 Double Eagle were struck on December 22, 1849. The first piece was sent to the Mint cabinet and eventually transferred to the Smithsonian. The second piece supposedly went to Treasury Secretary William M. Meredeth and found its way to the Steven K. Nagy collection. Nagy passed away in 1958 and beyond some rumors, the existence of the coin has never been confirmed. A single brass impression was also known in the 19th century, but that specimen has not been seen since 1892.
An example of the 1849 Double Eagle has never traded publicly, but in 1909 J.P. Morgan was reported to have offered a sum of $35,000 for the example in the Mint cabinet collection. This would have represented an enormous amount at a time when other well-known rarities such as the 1804 Silver Dollar commanded prices of less than $1,000. Recent estimates of the value of this unique rarity have been as high as $20 million, although the price at auction could be substantially higher due to the prominent status of this unique rarity.IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
09/08/2022 02:50 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11880 Posts |
Another coin that is really interesting is the unique 1794 silver dollar with silver plug. The 1795 plugged silver dollar is available for less than $50K in mid grade, but the 1794 example sold for over $10 million in 2013. Graded Specimen-66 by PCGS.  https://www.PCGS.com/coinfacts/coin/1794-1/86851IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
09/08/2022 02:43 am
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Every ancient coin is, within itself unique, even if it is only due to it's own particular flan shape, With US coins, if a coin has an independently recognized and proven unique error, such a coin is obviously also unique, - it doesn't have to be pattern. It is possible that at least few such coins are in the hands of CCF members. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As an aside, how many Confederate States of America Half Dollars were made? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
756 Posts |
the article on the Half Dime is in the JRCS journal vol 26 issue 2. its the summer issue from 2016. you can find it on the newman numismatic portal. I made a topic about it on here. someone else did a write up on it in the most recent volume of rare coin market report. here is a picture that shows the scratches on the 1849.  Edited by CarrsCoins
09/21/2022 5:05 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3634 Posts |
Well, there will be a few unique coins up for sale in the upcoming auctions of the Bass collection at Heritage. Technically not for sale right now, but very soon...
Edited by hokiefan_82
09/21/2022 5:36 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2001 Posts |
That is a crying shame on the 1849 gold. What type of buffoons are in charge of the Smithsonian collection?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
756 Posts |
the people taking care of the national coin collection today are fully competent. that damage happened a long time ago. they exhibited the national coin collection a bit more back then. the standards for handling, storage and cleaning have changed a ton over the years.
the bass collection is something else. the display at the museum in colordado springs was amazing. best coin exhibit ive ever seen. there is a great video on youtube of jeff garrett talking about some of the pieces in that collection.
Edited by CarrsCoins
09/21/2022 6:30 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3634 Posts |
Quote:
the bass collection is something else. the display at the museum in colorado springs was amazing. best coin exhibit ive ever seen. One big regret I have is never making it to Colorado Springs during one of my business trips to Denver. I always took an extra day with a couple co-workers when I was there, but it seemed I always had other things to see and do (usually involving microbreweries, cigar bars, and nice restaurants  ). I always figured the Bass collection would be there "next time". Since I retired, my wife and I talked about going up there a few times, but with Covid we'd put off those plans. And now the Bass collection is gone... Member of SPMC, FCCB, ANA and ANS. My U.S. Classic Commemorative Complete Set: https://www.NGCcoin.com/registry/co...sets/278741/My U.S. Fractional Note Set: https://notes.www.collectors-societ...eSetID=34188Edited by hokiefan_82
09/21/2022 7:58 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
While not really quite a unique with two or so known, I'd say a couple of my favorites would have to be the: 1714 Gloucester Courthouse shilling: http://goccf.com/t/421627A New England III Shilling (real one of course): http://goccf.com/t/370805As to a truly unique coin then any of the capped die or brockage error Two Cent coins, there are a few of each out there. The US Pattern Judd-793A which has a the regular 1870 Two Cent reverse die combined with the Standard silver quarter reverse.  And the undated (1863) obverse die trial, in white metal, for the pattern design with the motto "God Our Trust" AKA a "Splasher".  "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Replies: 48 / Views: 4,733 |
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Posted 09/07/2022 9:01 pm
