1871 1 dollar pattern - what do you think?

[Zoins]

I ran across this 1871 pattern on the bay (NGC PF66 BN. 1727015-013). What do you think of this pattern and the surfaces? What is going on with the circles around the stars on the obverse around 3 o'clock and the specs on the field just to the left of them. Also what is happening on the reverse on the left hand side of the ribbon covering GOD in IGWT, looks like a wipe? Any other distractions?

 

[TomB]

It looks like proof copper. Perhaps it is original, perhaps it had a bath at one time, but I bet it looks mighty different under various lighting and rotations of the coin.

[bsshog40]

Just looks like a poor bath job. Dipped but not properly dryed??

[MarkFeld]

Frankly, the coin doesn't look particularly unusual, dipped or wiped to me, from the images, at least. I see what appears to be typical unevenly toned areas where some portions of the surfaces have mellowed/darkened more/differently than others.

[Dcoin]

seems like pattern coins always have funky color... you really have know your pattern series to jump into that market.

[MikeInFL]

First off, that's an awesome pattern. I like the ones that combine design elements from disparate series -- the present example obverse is trade-dollar like and the reverse that of the liberty seated series.

 

I'm not sure what's going on at 3 o'clock on the obverse.

 

The reverse toning looks to me to be like the coin sat up against something for a period of time, and my first thought from looking at it that it might have been a ribbon.

 

Lastly, the color in Goldberg's photographs is, well, suspect, making it tough for me to gague what the coin really looks like.

 

All IMHO, and coming from someone that knows virtually nothing about these patterns, so take it FWIW...Mike

 

p.s. I agree with Dcoin -- the toned pattern market scares me.

[Zoins]

Thanks for the replies everyone. They help a lot. Also thanks to Mike for commenting on Goldberg's photos. If I make it to an auction I'll probably try to look at a lot of patterns in person to get a better feel for these.