Coin Monday: The Double: Part Two

Oct. 12, 2009

Written by John Dale

Last week’s Coin Monday was Part One of “The Double,” a two-parter on the unusual and desirable coins appearing in multiples in Heritage’s October Dallas U.S. Coin auction. Today, as promised, it’s on to the 1969-S doubled die cents. (For background on what a doubled die is, please check out the Coin Monday post “Seeing Double?”)

The 1969-S doubled die cent is a rarity today; it’s thought that not many were made in the first place, and shortly after their discovery, a number of examples were confiscated by the government.

His confiscation, as it turned out, was a case of mistaken identity. Counterfeiters had struck spurious doubled die Lincoln cents dated 1969 — but these were supposedly Philadelphia Mint products, not San Francisco-made, and the spread between the two images on the P-mint phonies was comically large, making the famous 1955 doubled die cents look like masterpieces of precision. The 1969-S doubled die cents, on the other hand, had a smaller (but still prominent) spread and were absolutely legitimate.

That was not the opinion of a Mint consultant, who deemed as counterfeit a 1969-S doubled die cent he examined. There are five documented instances of 1969-S doubled die cents being confiscated by the Secret Service (then part of the Department of the Treasury) and later destroyed. The official position of the Treasury Department was that there were no legitimate 1969-dated doubled die cents from any Mint, a position that was carried through the trial of the counterfeiters.

After the trial, however, the Treasury paid more attention to the 1969-S doubled die cents and the questions they raised: if the 1969-S doubled die cents matched Mint specifications for weight, diameter, composition, and so on, what was the basis for declaring them counterfeit? By the mid-1970s, the Treasury had reversed course, with official acknowledgment of the 1969-S coins’ authenticity. This recognition, however, did not come before five of the coins were destroyed—and with estimates of between 17 and 32 survivors extant, five coins would make up a sizable chunk of the population!

With so few examples around today, it’s highly unusual for one to appear in any given auction, but the October Dallas U.S. Coin auction has two! Lot 176 is an AU55 example, lightly worn but otherwise well-preserved. Immediately after that piece is hammered down, Lot 177 comes up, and that coin is even finer, graded MS63 Red!

It’s a remarkable opportunity for the Lincoln cent collector, even rarer than the 1969-S doubled die cents themselves. Who says there are no second chances in numismatics?

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-John Dale Beety

Coin Monday: The Double, Part One

Oct. 5, 2009
Written By John Dale

At around 2000 lots, the Signature® section of Heritage’s October Dallas U.S. Coin auction is small by division standards. “Small,” though, hardly implies “unimpressive” and there are several coins or varieties in the auction that don’t come up for sale every day. Surprisingly enough, two of those varieties are represented in multiples — miss out on the first one? Well, there’s another on the way!

Both the 1907 Wire Rim Saint-Gaudens eagle (or $10 coin) and the 1969-S cent with prominent obverse doubled die fall into the category. The latter deserves its own blog post, which I’ll give it next week, meaning today I’ll focus on the 1907 Wire Rim eagle, which has a mintage of only 500 pieces. We’re offering a pair of Wire Rims, both graded MS64 by NGC. Lot 1575 is the Little Rock Collection example, which I touched on in Part Two of “One Collection, Seven Spectacular Coins” back in mid-September.

Right after lot 1575 hammers down, lot 1576 comes up, the same issue in the same grade. It’d be hard to confuse the two coins, though; lot 1576 has deep orange-gold luster, while lot 1575 is substantially paler and yellow-gold in color. Between the two different looks, at least one is likely to appeal to most collectors.

Just 500 of the Wire Rim $10s were struck, as previously noted; the design for the Wire Rim $10, like the ancient Greek coins said to have been an inspiration, was in relief far too high to be practical for coinage in the 20th century. This was irrelevant to then-President Theodore Roosevelt, however; the coinage designs created by Augustus Saint-Gaudens had become a personal quest, an obsession, a “pet crime” in Roosevelt’s own words, and he would not be denied. The Wire Rim $10s, distributed to the President and well-connected interested parties, were meant to placate Roosevelt until the actual lowered-relief Saint-Gaudens eagle design was ready for production.

While a number of the Wire Rim Saint-Gaudens eagles survive, the low initial mintage, coupled with the coins’ distinctive beauty, has made them collector favorites. On most nights when a Wire Rim $10 is up for auction there can only be one winner; this time, however, two bidders can walk away happy, and for me, that’s a beautiful thing to see.

Next week: the 1969-S doubled die cents!

To leave a comment, click on the title of this post.

-John Dale Beety