RWB

Because to a coin collector, of which you are not, they have been unnaturally altered and ruined. Your silver dollar is not "rare" in any condition, but with polishing it has been totally wrecked. Collectors want coins that are as close as possible to their original condition.

This is the prime fallacy of commercial "grading" - it is inherently unstable and therefore unreliable. A court could not determine if someone sold "overgraded" coins, or not.

Jim - Do you mean the ones made with chromium plated dies? If so, those were experimental pieces that left the Philadelphia Mint. I don't know what PCGS says about the coins and the only important thing is authentication - the "grade" is meaningless. See pages 35-36 in my book United States Proof Coins 1936 – 1942 for an explanation. I’ve not come across anything more on the subject; however, there are a lot of correspondence volumes remaining to be digitized and reviewed.

Many of the very best old collections are not in slabs. The grades are meaningless and the coins are original. It's only "nervous Nellies" who must have slabbed coins.

The glued together article and the two "source" articles are mostly nonsense. Here's a 1-sovereign equivalent disc that I own. Obverse is mostly PL around the inscription and reverse is PL in untextured areas. The "grade" is MS-64, but it's one of the best I've found. I'd love to find an equivalent condition 4-sovereign piece. Yes, I "overpaid" for the disc because I wanted quality and not merely some paper label. The owner of the 1933 DE will fully understand.

Descriptions for #1041 and 1042 are filled with obsolete information. Look in Renaissance of American Coinage 1905-1908 and Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles as Illustrated by the Phillip H. Morse and Steven Duckor Collections for correct descriptions.

The purchase price is not stated. Let's hope it was a lot less than the $4,000+ shown in a previous post. Good decisions come from knowledge, not prayers.

Wrong on the Merkers Mine. The Germans kept excellent records and almost everything in the mint got back to the rightful owners, or their families. Exceptions were boxes of personal items such as rings and jewelry, many of whose owners were murdered.

Is that the place built on a sink hole? The Corvette museum not the Green Family bowling alley.

For coins, it began with the first collector and remains firmly entrenched in the hobby.

That, takes care of that.

Arghhhh ! Gettest thou digits forth from thine 1795 dollar. 'Ner touch nor fondle a collector coin withist thou oily palm. Need straight on, sharp photos of both sides, description of edge, weight, etc. Members will determine the variety and suggest your next action. "And the ultrasound meter." Is the coin pregnant? PS: See -- https://coinweek.com/counterfeits/struck-counterfeit-coins-a-family-of-struck-fake-draped-bust-dollars/

As in some other "special label" coins and groups of coins, divulging the truth can easily poke a large hole in the mystique and lore so carefully built in the past.

It's much more difficult to determine if a coin, once accounted for, still exists.

Ah, now it makes sense -- wreck of the SS Republic on October 25, 1865.

By 1912---- From: Roberts To: Fraser January 18, 1912 I presume you have received within a few days a letter from the Secretary of the treasury indicating that your designs have received such favorable consideration that the way is now open to deal more definitively upon the subject. We cannot, as you understand, change the design on the one cent piece unless we can get Congress sufficiently interested to grant special authority as the law forbids changes by executive action oftener than once in 25 years. We all like your Lincoln head very much better than the Lincoln Bust which now appears upon this coin and it is possible that we may be able to bring the matter to the attention of the Coinage committees of Congress.

American Numismatics is neither art nor science. It is a commercial jumble with a once-meaningful National Charter dryer than Lake Meade.

Were the Republic sea-damaged 1861-Os identified by Federal, Louisiana or Confederacy manufacture? How did the halves end up in NYC for shipment?

The obverse photo certainly looks like a coin that was wiped with a cloth.

"Cut out" jewelry were once very popular and sold well at coin shows. They were a way to make use of culls and recover more money than bullion melt.

From: Mint Director Roberts To: James E. Fraser June 9, 1911 The Belgian coin bearing the portrait of King Leopold which you showed me when here made a great impression upon me. Dr. Andrew and I have been wondering whether some such effect might not be obtained with the Lincoln head instead of the present miniature reproduction of a design originally made for a medal. We would have to get an act of Congress to allow us to change the present design, it having been adopted only a few years ago, but we would be willing to try if we had such a substitute at hand. What do you think of it?

December 9, 1909 From: Andrew To: Giles R. Anderson, Waterbury, Connecticut Your letter of the 1st instant addressed to Mr. Fred W. Carpenter, Secretary to the President, has been referred to this Bureau by the Secretary of the Treasury. In reply you are respectfully informed that your former letter was referred to this Bureau by the Superintendent of the Mint at Philadelphia and it was supposed that officer would reply to you. Upon examination it appears that he returned your letter with the statement that there were no proof Lincoln cent with the initials “V.D.B.” on hand. The Superintendent states that there was only one lot of proof Lincoln cents with the initials made, as the coinage of these pieces was stopped five days after the first issue. He also states that orders were filled as received and the stock was soon exhausted. Having been directed to discontinue the coinage of the Lincoln one-cent pieces bearing the initials “V. D. B.” there was no alternative but to stop coining both the ordinary and the proof pieces. It is not considered a part of the duty of the Superintendent of the Mint to notify coin collectors when proof coins can be had. I regret that your did not file your application in time with the Superintendent of the Mint at Philadelphia to obtain proofs of the Lincoln one-cent piece with initials. In the examination of the letter of the Superintendent of the Mint at Philadelphia returning your former letter to the Bureau the 25 cents forwarded by you was found enclosed and is returned herewith.

MacNeil had identified several defects in his original (including a bow-legged Liberty) and wanted to correct them at no extra cost. The Sec of Treasury approved, but the Director of the Mint did nothing with the new casts, and kept the Philadelphia Engraving department working on the original version. 52,000 of the original made in December 1916 were merely a token coinage so that Treasury could say they got all three new coin into circulation in that year, as promised. (The original target date was July 1.)

That little note and nickel are probably more interesting than all the million dollar trophy coins put together. [The note says Mike Diamond enclosed "$5" not 5-cents.]

Proofs prior to 1936 were based on the English Master Coin concept, where these were specially made to present the design at its best. American Master Coins, Proof Coins, and Pattern Pieces were all made with this intent in mind. But in 1936, the Engraving Department had to learn this from the beginning. They worked without clear reference pieces from the past, with no institutional knowledge, and no real incentive except possibly "shiny." The US Mint Bureau had no internal history to draw on, unlike the Paris and Royal Mints, and others in Europe, and the Mint Bureau did not invest in independent metallurgy and empirical testing except for brief interactions with the National Bureau of Standards. Much of the confusion could be resolved if more collectors bought and read modern books, not the old obsolete stuff or Wally Breen's trash. (His ghost might be the greatest impediment to bringing science to American numismatics.)