This is a first for me.

[cpm9ball]

From time to time, I've owned an occasional Top Pop that has shared that spot in the Census with other coins, but this is the first time that I have owned a coin that holds that distinction all by itself.

 

When the US Mint Silver Proof Sets were released in 2005, I ordered four sets, two for myself and two for a friend who didn't have internet access. When they arrived, I examined them and discovered that two of the Kansas SQ's had a strange feature on the butt end of the bison that was different from the other Kansas SQ's. Since I had ordered them for the two of us, I felt that it was only fair that my friend get one of these sets. A few weeks later, Coin World ran an article about these "errors" citing a collector from the Southwest US who had ordered ten sets and all of his sets had the same feature. He had purchased these sets for his personal collection and to be gifts for relatives.

 

A couple years went by and no other Kansas SQ's had surfaced with this error, so I decided to submit mine to NGC for grading at FUN 2008. It came back PF70UCAM, Die Gouge on Bison, Mint Error. You must keep in mind that errors do not show up in the Census as a separate group because there are just too many different possibilities, but in 2012, Whitman released the Cherrypickers Guide, Volume II and I was surprised to see that this coin had been added as a new variety. It was classified as a die dent, FS-901.

 

So, earlier this month, I took this NGC slab with me to FUN 2013 to have it reholdered for the designation. There are only two others listed in the NGC Census, and mine made the third. The other two are PF68UCAM and PF69UCAM, so this makes my specimen a Top Pop with no others. (I don't know if PCGS has graded any.) Granted, it's possible that a couple of the others that were found might one day end up being submitted for grading and they might also be graded PF70UCAM, but for now, this is the first time that I have ever owned a coin with the distinction of being alone at the top. It's kind of neat.

 

Note: These photos were taken in the original Mint case, so all of the flecks you see are cardboard dust.

 

Chris

 

 

[bsshog40]

That's pretty cool Chris.

[Jim Beam]

Congratulations and nice going on achieving a top coin ranking. My guess is that is something most of us will never realize. Great job and a great coin!

[James_OldeTowne]

Hey Chris, that is pretty cool! But not quite as cool as your amazing set of ANA medals!!!!

 

It was truly a pleasure to meet you at FUN, and I hope next year we can spend more time talking coins. We plan to have a full crew through Sunday in 2014.

[Coindude]

Congrats Chris. That was a great find. I remember when you first posted that. I looked at my two sets and no dice.

[cpm9ball]

Hey Chris, that is pretty cool! But not quite as cool as your amazing set of ANA medals!!!!

 

It was truly a pleasure to meet you at FUN, and I hope next year we can spend more time talking coins. We plan to have a full crew through Sunday in 2014.

 

Thanks, James! It was really great to finally meet you in person after all these years, and I figured that you would particularly enjoy the ANA medals from the two St. Louis conventions.

 

I hope that we will be able to spend a little more time together next year. Heck, I'll even treat you to lunch on Saturday.

 

Chris

[Old Pueblo]

Very cool story

 

Thanks for sharing

 

 

 

OP

[johnny9434]

thats an awesome story, congrats on the find as well.

[kryptonitecomics]

I thought you hit puberty or something...how disappointing....

[cpm9ball]

I thought you hit puberty or something...how disappointing....

 

That didn't go over too well, so I decided to join the rest of you and collect coins.

 

Chris

[newprepper]

ouch....good one.....for the rest of you of course

[rrantique]

That's pretty cool Chris. (thumbs u

[AstroTrain]

Thats sweet! congrats!

[mkman123]

very cool! Looks like a tumor on the side!

[JJSingleton]

Nice find. Now I am going to have to go look at my proof set to see if I have one of those.

 

And like James said, your ANA medal set is very cool. Thanks for sharing those at the NGC luncheon.

[cpm9ball]

Nice find. Now I am going to have to go look at my proof set to see if I have one of those.

 

And like James said, your ANA medal set is very cool. Thanks for sharing those at the NGC luncheon.

 

Thank you, and James, too! Actually, the silver medals represented one-third of the entire set, but I wasn't going to lug 42 medals around with me. The box is HEAVY!

 

FWIW, I will be shipping them tomorrow to Bob Campbell so he can image them for me. I think he's as anxious to see the entire set as I am to finally get them properly imaged.

 

Chris