Rare Martha Washington quarter pattern found in ebay lot

fivecents · October 17, 2003 9:28PM

I read in coin world that a retired school teacher found a rare Martha Washington Quarter pattern(Judd 2116) in a bag of world coins that he purchased on ebay! Go Darksiders!

The Ebay lot was purchased from a seller in Germany. This pattern will be auctioned off by Superior galleries on Nov.20 - 22. I wonder how much the hammer price will be?

wingedliberty · October 17, 2003 9:34PM

This is an excellent find. I read it also.

hoardmonster · October 17, 2003 10:00PM

Yeah, amazing find!!

wingedliberty, is your icon actually one of your own dimes? It looks like a very nice one!

1jester · October 17, 2003 11:01PM

Can someone give me some more details (including pictures) of this pattern? Thanks.

MadMonk · October 17, 2003 11:11PM

I'm wondering if anybody cares to guess on the value of this piece. Really not my area. Fascinating story!

bigbadchad777 · October 17, 2003 11:23PM

When was it struck?

Sunnywood · October 18, 2003 12:09AM

I haven't seen the Coin World story, and perhaps it is true, but ...

That story sounds like a huge crock of *&#$% to me. Perhaps some wily consignor concocted it to throw the feds off the trail? After all, they're less likely to confiscate the property of a retired school teacher, as opposed to a dealer who knowingly obtained a possibly illegal pattern ...

OK, so I'm just being a conspracy theorist. But, seriously, does everyone BELIEVE this story?

Sunnywood

fivecents · October 18, 2003 12:22AM

<< <i>When was it struck? >>

bigbadchad....I don't have the article with me, but I think it was struck 1965. It was a trail piece for the change over from silver to cupro-nickel.

<< <i>That story sounds like a huge crock of *&#$% to me. >>

sunnywood...Could be, if not you know that German seller must be pi$$ed off.

MrEureka · October 18, 2003 1:40AM

I wonder how much the hammer price will be?

Superior estimates it at 30-50K.

Aethelred · October 18, 2003 1:47AM

That is a pattern I kn ow I'll never own, but I'd love to see in person. I wish they would have used it on something!

vrtech99 · October 18, 2003 1:55AM

<< <i>I haven't seen the Coin World story, and perhaps it is true, but ...

That story sounds like a huge crock of *&#$% to me. Perhaps some wily consignor concocted it to throw the feds off the trail? After all, they're less likely to confiscate the property of a retired school teacher, as opposed to a dealer who knowingly obtained a possibly illegal pattern ...

OK, so I'm just being a conspracy theorist. But, seriously, does everyone BELIEVE this story?

Sunnywood >>

it's on the front page.... i read it and kinda agree with you.... that's an awful big stretch........ From Germany?????

MrEureka · October 18, 2003 2:08AM

Three more here!

They even have a gem dollar!

boiler78 · October 18, 2003 2:10AM

I wonder why NGC chose to refer to them as tokens?

zenny · October 18, 2003 2:15AM

<< <i>I wonder why NGC chose to refer to them as tokens? >>

no denominations are mentioned on the legends, although they are the proper sizes.

MrEureka · October 18, 2003 2:27AM

I wonder why NGC chose to refer to them as tokens?

The proper terminology is "test piece" or "experimental piece". Technically, the pieces are not "patterns" because they are not proposals for coins. They are also not "tokens" because they are not substitutes for coinage.

Steve27 · October 18, 2003 2:39AM

I thought Martha was supposed to be pretty?

Conder101 · October 18, 2003 3:36AM

I consider them to be pieces de caprice since they could have been struck by any of several different people in or outside of the mint and at any one of several differnt times. The mint has admitted that they loan out these dies. All it wold take would be for an employee to go to the local coin dealer and buy some blank planchets, feed them into the press and there you go rare 1965 patterns. Even though he made them possibly just a couple years ago. The dies aren't dated so there is no way of knowing when they were struck. A few years back in a Coin World article the mint said that the Martha dies were not used in testing in the development of the copper plated zinc composition for the cents. Yet two pieces are known struck on copper plated zinc planchets. When were they struck? All you can really say is sometime after 1981. Could be 1982, could be 1999. The mint is still loaning these dies out so more could be made at any time. As such, to me these are worth only a small premium as a historical curiosity.

Rare Martha Washington quarter pattern found in ebay lot

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