Coin Monday: Period of Adjustment

March 29, 2010
Written by John Dale

[Image uploading doesn't seem to be working at the moment. Consider it extra incentive to click on the link for now. I'll try to upload it again later. -- JDB]

The Fort Worth auction is in the books (though the Post-Auction Buys will still be available for a limited time), so it’s time to move on.

The next U.S. Coin auction, the official auction of the Central States Numismatic Society convention, will bridge the end of April and the beginning of May. It’ll be held in Milwaukee, a city that holds plenty of fond memories for me, mostly involving coin conventions, chess matches, and eating with my family at some of my father’s favorite German restaurants. (His favorite two, in no particular order: Mader’s and Karl Ratzsch’s.)

Actually, my mind has been on Central States for a while, since cataloging for each auction happens up until about four weeks before the coins are hammered down. I’ve already seen most of the coins that are going to be in the auction, and while there isn’t an 1804 dollar this time (ending the streak at two), there’s plenty to be excited about.

For example, there’s this 1975 Mint set. Just an ordinary Mint set, right? Of course not! This is Heritage. It couldn’t be that easy. Follow the link and take a closer look at that quarter. Looks kind of funny, doesn’t it? And not just because it’s a Bicentennial quarter, either. It’s ... not all there.

The Bicentennial quarter in the set is actually a die adjustment strike, a special kind of “error coin,” and in many ways not an error at all. In fact, die adjustment strikes are made on purpose! When a coinage press is being set up, a few test strikes are done on coinage blanks to make sure that the dies are properly aligned.

These test strikes aren’t done at full power at first, to keep the equipment from being damaged if something is wrong, but the power is enough to make a shallow, partial impression on the planchet. On this quarter, most of the broad details are visible, but the drummer doesn’t have much detail, and the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA are illegible. (They’re supposed to be around the top. You’ll have to trust me on that.)

While die adjustment strikes are a vital part of mint operations, they’re not supposed to leave the grounds. Usually they’re destroyed, but this quarter not only wasn’t destroyed, it was packaged into a Philadelphia Mint set by accident and shipped out to an unsuspecting buyer! Fortunately for the set, the quarter was recognized as special, and rather than being “broken out” of the set, it was certified with the other coins in its packaging. It would’ve been a cool coin on its own, but now, it’s a cool coin with a great story. It's hard to argue with that!

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

-- John Dale Beety

Coin Monday: Another Central States Auction, Another 1804 Dollar, or The Thrill Lives On…

April 20, 2009
Posted by John Dale

Though it’s been a year since Heritage set a company record with its auction of the Mickley-Hawn-Queller 1804 dollar, the experience of holding it (and helping to catalog it!) is still fresh in my mind. Another year, another April, and another Central States Numismatic Society auction have brought many changes, but as it turns out, history has an echo…

I asked the chief cataloger, Mark Van Winkle, for some information about the cataloging schedule. After he gave me the breakdown, I noticed that he’d left out a name.

“What about him?” I asked.

“Oh,” Chief said, “he’ll be busy cataloging the 1804 dollar.”

Wait, what?

I tracked down the 1804 dollar. I wasn’t in a time loop – this was a different 1804 dollar, a Class III and not a Class I, the Carter-Adams specimen and not the Mickley-Hawn-Queller – but the similarities were a touch eerie.

Being in the presence of an 1804 dollar once again was a thrill. This one inspired some different thoughts, many of them centering on local history. Since Heritage has its headquarters in Dallas, I’ve learned plenty of Texas lore by osmosis, particularly stories involving numismatics. Two of the most prominent coin titans from bygone days are B. Max Mehl, coin dealer and promoter, and Amon G. Carter, Sr., who was by turns businessman, philanthropist, and collector.

As it happens, this 1804 dollar passed directly from the first man to the second. It was offered in B. Max Mehl’s Golden Jubilee Sale of May 1950, with the senior Carter (his son Amon G. Carter, Jr., who inherited the piece, was also a well-known businessman-philanthropist-collector) the winning bidder for $3,250. B. Max Mehl kept his offices in Fort Worth, and Amon G. Carter, Sr. was practically synonymous with the city; many have credited his efforts with cementing the “cowboy mystique” of Texas and Fort Worth in particular. As a result, the 1804 dollar did not have far to travel. Mehl and the Carters aren’t its only Texas connections, either; L.R. French, Jr. of Midland County also owned the coin for several years in the 1980s.

The Carter-Adams 1804 dollar has strong ties to Ohio, as well, that will soon become stronger. Its other “name” owner – businessman Phillip Flannagan – hails from the Buckeye State. He once sold it to pay for construction of a school and youth camp near his home. The other Ohio connection is Cincinnati, where this year’s Central States Numismatic Society convention and associated auction will take place.

If you’re planning on coming to the convention, don’t forget to stop by our table and say howdy or hello!

Coin Monday: Pattern Recognition

April 13, 2009
Posted by John

One of the most exotic realms of American numismatics is pattern collecting. In this case, the term “pattern” refers to a coin – most often a mock-up of a proposed design – sometimes in the metal that would be used in actual production (such as a silver dollar being struck in… wait for it… silver), sometimes in a different metal (the same silver dollar design struck in copper). To borrow from the poetry of Robert Frost, all but a handful of patterns represent the road not taken, coins that could have been but never were.

Today’s feature, offered in our April 2009 Central States auction in Cincinnati, is part of the second case. In the most commonly used reference on patterns, originally written by Dr. J. Hewitt Judd, it is listed as Judd-1609, though few collectors would recognize it just from hearing the number. The name the numismatic community has given this pattern is far more evocative: it is a “Schoolgirl” dollar, struck in copper.

In 1878, the silver dollar (as opposed to the Trade dollars struck by the Mint for overseas commercial use) returned to production after a five-year hiatus, and new motifs of a Liberty head and heraldic eagle, prepared by British-born engraver George T. Morgan, replaced Christian Gobrecht’s Seated Liberty design. His dollar design, now named for him and generally praised today, was dismissed or attacked by various commentators. Both George T. Morgan and then-Chief Engraver William Barber worked on a number of possible replacement designs.

In the end, none of them were adopted; Morgan’s broad, vaguely matronly head of Liberty was the face of the silver dollar until 1921. Still, the engravers’ efforts led to some of America’s most beautiful and desirable pattern designs, including the Schoolgirl.

This 1879-dated design by Morgan shows a young woman with her hair tied back and a band over the top of her head identifying her as Liberty. She wears a close-fitting necklace, traditionally described as a strand of pearls. On the other side is a defiant eagle, perched with body turned and wings spread. The defiant eagle motif would be used much later, in 1915, as part of the design of the Panama-Pacific Exposition quarter eagle.

The Schoolgirl design was struck in three metals: silver, copper, and lead. The lead impression is unique, while the silver and copper pieces are both very rare; the silver examples are slightly more available today. Among copper representatives, only a handful have survived without their surfaces turning partly or completely brown; this is one of the few to retain its full original color.

This Schoolgirl dollar is just one of dozens of prized patterns to be found in our Central States auction. In fact, we have two Featured Collections dedicated to patterns, the Van Treuren Collection and the Lemus Collection, or Queller Family Collection Part Three. Looking through them, as well as patterns from our many other consignors, offers often-startling insight into both the coins America has made and all that might have been.

Coin Monday: A 1995-P Olympic Gymnastics Commemorative Silver Dollar Reverse Die at CSNS

April 6, 2009
Posted by John

In most of Heritage’s U.S. Coin auctions, there are a handful of items that are not coins, but are coin-related. Packaging for commemoratives is a favorite, particularly the elegant copper-and-glass frames used to house cased sets of 1915-S Panama-Pacific commemoratives. Slightly more unusual is a die used to strike commemorative coins, specifically proof 1995-P Olympic silver dollar commemoratives with the Gymnastics design, in our April Central States auction to be held in Cincinnati.

This isn’t the first time that Heritage has offered coinage dies at auction, but few of them ever make it into the marketplace. For obvious reasons, the Mint doesn’t want stray dies on the loose, so each one is given a unique serial number and carefully logged and tracked as it goes through creation, use, and (for most) destruction.

For the Atlanta Olympic commemorative program, however, an exception was made, and selected coinage dies were saved from destruction, canceled with an ‘X’ pattern that stretches from rim to rim but leaves most of the design intact, and offered for sale. At the time, interest was low and few actually sold; collector fatigue may have been a factor, since someone who purchased each coin created for the Atlanta Olympics in both Uncirculated and Proof finishes would have bought 32 separate coins, eight of them gold! When faced with the option of buying a coinage die used to strike one of the 32, it is little wonder that most would-be purchasers declined.

When handling this die, I first noticed its heft; despite being only the size of a large shotglass, a cylinder made of solid steel is heavy indeed, and dropping it on one’s toes is not recommended! In contrast to the dulled, industrial appearance when the die is viewed from the side, its face is highly polished and seemingly delicate, with wide, mirrored fields and light metal-frost texture on the figures of the two gymnasts. The cancellation mark is multiple millimeters deep, just in case anyone was entertaining devious thoughts. (Counterfeiting is bad, okay?)

As delicate as the surface appears, the face of the die is just as tough as the body, since the minting process involved tens of tons of force, applied multiple times, to produce each of the proof Gymnastics silver dollars. One comment that many visitors to a Mint will make is that they are surprised how much the production floor resembles a factory; in fact, the Mint is a factory, and even though it may make coins instead of cast-iron pipes, the principles of production are the same. If you’re ever in Philadelphia or Denver, a Mint Tour is highly recommended, and if you’re ever in Dallas, so is a visit to Heritage!

Reflecting on Baltimore: Steady as she goes…

April 2, 2009
Posted by Noah

There are a tremendous number of cool things going on at Heritage at any given moment, and this exact moment happens to be one of the best since I started. There are so many interesting auctions and singular lots coming up that I don’t even know where to start. So I figured that I wouldn’t even try. In fact, given that it’s a beautiful and temperate Thursday here in Big D, and we’ve just concluded our Baltimore U.S. Coin Auction, I wanted to share a few thoughts on its success – to the tune of close to $14M – relative to the rest of the market.

First, though, I just want to say Baltimore! Baltimore! One of the very best American cities there is, without a doubt. It has its problems, like any major metropolitan area, but I can safely say there are few American cities I have enjoyed visiting more. I was last there for the opening of the Geppi Museum at Camden yards a few years ago, but had been there frequently before then to visit relatives, play a little golf, eat about a million oysters and blue crabs, spend hours at the Visionary Art Museum and the aquarium and to spend some time schmoozing at the Baltimore Antiques Show. I only wish the company felt the need to send a writer – I volunteer! – to the auction to provide up-to-the-minute dispatches.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I have to say that the results of the auction were pretty heartening in these corners, with the total approaching $14 million. That’s about in line with the high-end of expectations for such an event, but in such a climate who could really know anything? Once again, however, the market proved steady and reliable. It’s not the most high-profile auction of the year, but it certainly isn’t the lowest. In fact, the Baltimore event is an excellent harbinger of the overall state of the numismatic market, and sets the stage for some spectacular coins at Central States at the end of April – a Class III 1804 U.S. $1, anyone?

Facts is facts, and here’s how it was put by Greg Rohan in the post-auction press release:

“We’ve seen sustained steadiness in the U.S. coin market over the course of the last seven months. When numerous other markets are continuing to sink, or just tread water, coins have continued to be reliable ballast to a large number of portfolios.”

In other words, steady as she goes, which makes us all smile. At $322,000, a 1795 $10 13 Leaves MS63 PCGS led the way, a fantastic representative of such an historic date. That’s a pretty big matzoh ball to plunk down for a piece of gold, but within reason, given the rarity of the example. Not exorbitant for the piece, and not too low. Like baby bear’s porridge, it’s just right, at least by my reckoning.

There are certainly more glamorous things to collect – see above, regarding the tremendous amount of cool things going on at Heritage at any given moment – and there are certainly ways to make a faster buck, though we’ve all witnessed what that ultimately yields. It is the middle path right now that will yield the best results, maybe even skewing a little more conservative, making coins an especially good bet as bad deals unwind themselves, and the world economy with it. The wind may blow Wall Street up and down according to the prevailing sentiment of the day, but it’s the smart investors and numismatists – usually one in the same – who are going to face calm seas and stormy weather the exact same way: sanguine about their prospects, a steady hand at the wheel with the other firmly gripped around the best coins they can afford. A ship may sink, even rot, but that just makes those coins sunken treasure in the end.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing a bit more about Central States in coming Coin Monday posts from John Dale in the coming weeks. I look forward to seeing what he thinks.