Some people have all the luck!!.....Not your average find!!

[Schatzy]

It was a nice little coin, a 1792 silver center cent bought for $400 at a police auction. It's even nicer now that the owner has learned it's worth $300,000.

 

A California collector is just now absorbing the news from ANACS that the coin he had purchased at a 2006 Modesto Police Department auction is one of only 14 known pieces. This one was graded VG-10 details but scratched.

 

"I'm still a little in shock myself," said the collector, who wishes to remain anonymous.

 

The process of finding out the truth about the coin took more than two years and was not without its skeptics.

 

"I actually showed it to a local coin dealer who said, 'No, no that's nothing,'" he recalled.

 

Even the members of the local coin club were not encouraging. The members passed it around, but the "club treated it as a novelty," he said.

 

Because the collector is a regular submitter of material to ANACS, he decided to send the silver center cent along.

 

"I'm probably throwing good money after bad," he said he thought at the time.

 

But his courage was bolstered by looking at auction lots on the Stack's Web site. He noted that a coin being offered had a similar wear pattern.

 

ANACS President James Taylor said that when his firm received the coin for authentication and grading, it was shown around at shows to the top experts. Each one was not told of the opinions of the others.

 

The experts included Ken Bressett, John Kraljevich, Julian Leidman, Anthony Terranova and Alan Weinberg, who concurred it was authentic.

 

The silver center cent was made as a pattern where a silver plug worth three-quarters of a cent was inserted in copper worth a quarter of a cent. It is listed as the first pattern, Judd-1, in the classic United States Pattern Coins, Experimental and Trial Pieces by J. Hewitt Judd.

 

ANACS came back with the good news and shipped the pattern back to the collector on Dec. 15 - a perfect Christmas gift.

 

 

[TonedCoinTrader]

Amazing Story!

 

Guess I need to attend some police auctions!

[Schatzy]

Amazing Story!

 

Guess I need to attend some police auctions!

 

That's what I was thinking!! (thumbs u

[ant]

dang our police auctions are all the vehicles

[richbeat]

Man! I tell you, you just never know.....

[bsshog40]

That would be an awesome Christmas present for sure!

[PCcoins]

Anybody got a bigger picture of the coin at hand?

[RareSov]

Congrats to that guy, very clever buy ! he bought it raw ?! awesome buy. Perhaps noone else at the auction was a collector or even had a feeling (how often do you see a silver center?)

[bartlesvilleok]

seems like someone would have to know something. Who would spend $400 on a coin they didn't know anything about?

[Schatzy]

ANACS, America’s oldest grading service, recently certified a rare 1792 silver center cent. According to early American specialists, only 14 of the pattern pieces are known.

 

ANACS graded the coin VG10 Details, Scratched and attributed it as a Judd-1. According to Dr. J. Hewitt Judd’s classic study, United States Pattern Coins, Experimental and Trial Pieces, America’s Rarest Coins,the coin is this country’s first pattern piece, hence the designation Judd-1.

 

The piece was struck at the Philadelphia Mint the same year the Mint was established, 1792. That year, the Mint struck nearly a dozen different patterns. The patterns were created to illustrate various designs and to test possible metallic contents for future coins.

 

The 1792 Silver Center Cent was an attempt to make a convenient sized coin with an intrinsic value of one cent. The alternative—the one that was followed–was a coin containing one cent worth of copper, thereby requiring the piece to be significantly larger and less convenient. The Silver Center Cent features a small copper planchet with a small hole in the center into which a silver plug was inserted. It’s thought the silver plug had an intrinsic value of ¾ of a cent.

 

The pattern’s obverse design features a flowing hair Liberty, facing right, the inscription LIBERTY PARENT OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY and the date, 1792. The reverse has a wreath with a ribbon at the bottom enclosing the words ONE CENT. Outside the wreath is UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the fraction 1 / 100, located at 6 o’clock. It is widely accepted that the pattern is the work of Henry Voigt, one of the Mint’s first employees. As Dr. Judd wrote, “Today, this is a famous and highly desired issue.”

 

 

[Schatzy]

seems like someone would have to know something. Who would spend $400 on a coin they didn't know anything about?

 

an early cent going for $400 doesn't seem that strange to me. a 1792 1 cent isn't even in the redbook.

[Conder101]

Yes it is in the Redbook. in the 2006 edition (I don'y buy a new one every year) it's on page 85. Look for it right after the Fugio copper, and right before the 1792 Birch cent.

[Schatzy]

Yes it is in the Redbook. in the 2006 edition (I don'y buy a new one every year) it's on page 85. Look for it right after the Fugio copper, and right before the 1792 Birch cent.

 

Sorry, must have missed it the first time through!!

[EZ_E]

The police auction site that I had occasionally followed always brought strong money for common stuff. Never found a good deal to be had.