... only to discover the next day that you won!

This happened to me on March 31st. A number of certified US/Philippine proof coins of all denominations and years were listed for sale on eBay by a very reputable, long time dealer on March 24th. All were listed at what I considered to be a fair market price, and I thoroughly expected for most of them to sell for much more. I would have loved to bid on them all, but my budget would have to stretch a bit just to obtain one, so I set about deciding which one.

A little background for those unfamiliar with US/Philippine proof coinage.

US/Philippine proof sets were produced by the Philadelphia mint from 1903 through 1908 (excluding 1907), and were sold to the general public for $2.00 per set. Each set consisted of all seven denominations from the half centavo through the silver dollar sized Peso. At the time these sets were produced, there was no protective packaging. Each coin was individually wrapped in tissue paper and placed in a plain paper coin envelope. As a result, many proof coins exhibit micro thin hairline scratches as well as heavy toning.

The mintages of these sets were exceptionally small by today's standards. 2558 sets were produced in 1903, 1355 in 1904, 471 in 1905, and 500 in both 1906 and 1908. (To give this some perspective, do the math and you will find that the total mintage of all 35 US/PI proof coins is just a bit larger than the mintage of the 1995-W Proof Silver Eagle.) Given the adverse packaging, and low mintages, fully gem specimens are relatively rare.

Starting in 1905, nearly all circulation coinage for the Philippines was minted in San Francisco with the coins bearing an S mint mark as you would expect. With the exception of the 1905 Centavo, only proof coins were produced in Philadelphia from 1905 through 1908. One more interesting twist is that the half centavo was very poorly received by the public and production of this denomination was halted entirely in 1904. Only proof specimens are available for the years 1905, 1906, 1n 1908. (Again, for some perspective, think of the 1895 Proof-only Morgan Dollar, but with less than half the mintage!)

OK, back to my dilemma of which proof coin to pursue.

Rarity and condition are certainly factors, but I also consider what coins are needed for my registry sets as well as how many registry points the coin is worth. Given all of the factors (and limited budget), I chose to pursue the PF65RB 1908 half centavo in a vintage NGC slab (circa 1990 if my research is correct). I placed what I thought could be a winning bid, but fully expected to be outbid in the last few seconds. To my surprise there was only one other bidder, and I came out on top.

None of the pictures do it justice. There is much more underlying red surface than any would indicate. It is one of only two graded at this level with no RB examples graded higher. There are six graded PF65RD and three graded PF66RD, so while not the finest available, it is still a much better coin than I had thought I could obtain. On top of that, it is worth more registry points than any other coin in my collection.

The moral of this story is that it pays to place a bid even if there appears to be no chance of winning!

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