1894S Dime
ricko
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This sale should be interesting to follow.... Cheers, RickO
https://www.foxnews.com/science/1894-dime-expected-sell-for-over-1-million
5
Comments
Does Hansen own one already?
That’ll be a fun auction!
Already discussed in this July 24 thread, which includes a link to the actual auction:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1023102/1894-s-barber-dime-up-for-auction-at-stacks-any-thoughts-on-the-action
No.
Then this should be another nice coin to run up at auction.
What year did it appear with the pretty colors?
It last appeared in 1988 as a blast white coin.
It's zillions worth of dimes
Actually @insider2 - I was wrong. It was blast white in 1985. It was described as having a gold undertone in 1988. That still is obviously too vague to answer your question.
https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/branch-mint-proof-1894-s-barber-dime-an-ana-highlight
Thanks for posting the link. Equally of interest (at least to me) was the subject of there having once been a 20-cent piece. Its story about a limited quantity slipping into circulation has an ironic parallel to that of how the 1861-S Paquet Reverse $20 gold piece minted by the San Francisco Mint had a limited number slip into circulation despite orders to halt its production.
The "story" re: the 1876 20-cent piece from the OP's linked article:
"A rare 1876 20-cent piece will also be auctioned at the event. “The 20-cent piece was meant to replace the quarter at the time, but as we know, that didn’t happen,” a spokesman for Stack’s Bowers Galleries told Fox News. “It just never really caught on with the public.”
First issued in 1875, 20-cent coins are described by Stack’s Bowers Galleries as “a one-year wonder.”
Some 10,000 20-cent pieces were minted by the Carson City Mint in 1876 but were ordered by the government to be destroyed. The coin being auctioned in Chicago is one of only 20 from the 10,000 minted at Carson City that escaped the melting pot."
A link to the "story" and photo re: the 1861-S Paquet Reverse:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/12360714#Comment_12360714
Adding to the "story" regarding the Paquet Reverse is its survival being attributable to the fact that the transcontinental telegraph was just short of being completed and the then slower means of communication by means of the Pony Express delayed getting the stop production order to the San Francisco Mint.
Why did it tone like that??
Whadda ya tink?
Pete
Sea salvage?
I have no idea. I wish I knew.
Trying to fit the narrative and compare the 1894-s rarity to the 1861-s 20$... PR machine working hard
Overexposure to ice cream maybe.
I’m confused. What does the coin look like?
Both of these pictures are from the Stacks catalog. Stacks’ glamour shot is the TrueView. Has anyone seen the coin in hand recently?
I'll be the underbidder, once again.
I'll go as high as $1,000
BHNC #203
Skier07 big difference in the images. One has ugly molted toning the other is much more attractive.
Maybe the slab image is a scan?
Coins were of course dipped in the 80's. Bad rinse?
That's what I thought............can't believe it was done to a coin of that caliber by anyone who obviously should know better..........at least how to properly rinse the coin after a dip.
Pete
CAC usually won't sticker coins with dip residue on them for fear of further deterioration.
Maybe I’m going to be in the minority here, but that coin is fugly based on that slab shot.
EAC 6024
Three words.
Michelle Johnson = Hot
Blame it on Rio.
Perhaps
Wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that a poster here owns or once owned an 1894-S dime.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
This particular piece, the Jerry Bus specimen, might be in need of conservation. I would think a careful bright dip followed by triple rinsing in distilled water would be a good thing. If one were to "leave it be" then this coin's suraces, over the decades, could deteriorate to an extent that a "fix" may not be effective decades from now.
Better to "start over" with clean surfaces by doing a bright dip than fret about what might be happening to the coin while in the slab.
To get coin out of slab without ruining the slab use Dremel and cut around the slab on the slab's edge. You'll have the coin out and the historic slab intact in two pieces.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
I haven't noticed if anyone has commented who has seen it in hand. The reverse looks like it could be super nice. Photos of the obverse suggest an unattractive coin. Since the toning is said to be recent, not perhaps a value-added part of its history, would conservation be considered for a coin of this importance? Just idle curiosity, above my pay grade.
Saw this at the Buss sale in-hand and graded it "62, small spots, poorly dipped, reverse OK".
An excellent example 
The fields were already slightly acid-burned.
I haven't seen the coin in-hand this time around, but the flat toning on the slabbed piece is sure to be more accurate that acid-trippin' neon orb
Historically, what we're seeing is a natural progression which by my guess has reached fully-ripened stability . As the OP indubitably knows.
I've never seen a 94-S dime that wasn't technically over-graded but, like '04 $1's and 13 V-Nix both graded likewise, they still align with the condition census
Welcome back.
My 1866 Philly Mint Set
good luck to all.
Dipping the coin will probably expose "faults."
From the @ColonelJessup comment I would wager if the coin was dipped again it would start to get grainy porous surfaces.
As @ricko knows, this is an object lesson in the progression of corrosion tarnish patina toning metal rot .
The surfaces were already corroded by, if naught else, the acid used to freshen it up several years before the Buss sale. This is "secondary toning" and is erratically tolerated and even enjoyed by some. It can be induced by coin cosmetologists (who do not move metal (except by acid-dip)) at an accelerated pace with the same pattern(s) as might take place with long-term storage.
Market-acceptable? Often... and in this instance provenance establishes this incontrovertibly.
I enjoy this as a well-ripened planchet that "came back" well with the "assist" of environmental factors, though it is indistinguishable in any way from any proof (or specimen) Barber 10c that was toned deliberately by a cosmetologist for somewhere between a few hours and several months.
To reiterate - this one is kosher
Dipping again would be a major mistake.
I enjoy it based on, to some degree, a sense of how much worse it might have ended up. It's likely not very pretty at all.
An excellent example.
Indeed, an excellent example warts and all. Nobody is taking credit for those wild colors?
Light scratch on Ms. Liberty's cheek that runs parallel to her jawbone. Looks like clear residue of some kind on the coin's obverse. Evidence of being carelessly rinsed after dip leaving areas with dip remaining.
This is a $1M maybe $1.5M 1894-S dime. The finest known is, without too much of a stretch, a $10M coin. I can imagine the circulated examples trading at close to $1M.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Heh. Finest known is nowhere near that. It last sold right around $2M and that’s about what it’s worth today
I’m a little surprised this one is doing as well as it is. Not too many people “need” one, and they sell somewhat regularly. If I had been told to guess before the auction started I would have said ~$300k.
Hard to believe the finest known is only worth 2x this one
Where did you come up with your $300,000?
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I would buy it in an instant for $300k.
"Where did you come up with your $300,000?"
Mostly from ignorance it seems...
I hadn't thought that here were enough people out there to value an unattractive example of this coin that highly. So my guess was based on a dealer buying it on spec.
@Higashiyama so would the bidders currently at $850k!
I would never spend the kind of money that this coin is going to command for a possibly unstable and environmentally damaged piece, regardless of it's rarity status.
Sometimes, it’s better to be LUCKY than good. 🍀 🍺👍
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947):
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Heh. Finest known is nowhere near that. It last sold right around $2M and that’s about what it’s worth today
$10 M represents to me its retail price. I would try to buy the finest known paying perhaps up to $5M.
When its my coin I then declare it to be a $10 M coin. What's wrong with that?
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.
Of course, you’re free to declare the coin to be of whatever value you wish, just as you posted previously: “ The finest known is, without too much of a stretch, a $10M coin...”.
However, with a 2016 sale at just shy of $2,000,000, it seems that (retail or otherwise) $10,000,000 would be quite a stretch.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
You get a famed rarity...you give up a lot of eye appeal.
Anyone is free to state an opinion, but on the basis you described, it won't get much weight.
I think most would not expect it to sell for much over $1m.
$10m was supposed to be a barrier broken by the 1794 Specimen dollar, but it took some extra effort to get it to that point.
And the $10m price point has not been approached by other coins since then, even though some hoped it would happen.
To most people, the best data for estimating a coin's value is based on prices paid in actual transactions.
There is still some subjectivity on how best to weight or extrapolate that data based on similar coins sold more recently,
but that's second order.
I thought Pogue had a coin to exceed $10M but decided to keep it.
My 20th Century Gold Major Design Type Set ---started : 11/17/1997 ---- completed : 1/21/2004
Good point. The Sultan of Muscat/Childs/Pogue 1804 $1 was bid up to $9.2m hammer on 2016-05-24, but was not sold.
However, this comes with an asterisk, as it is possible that people were bidding it up to near $10m,
but knew the reserve was at $10m and did not actually intend to buy it.
This could have been done in an effort to encourage a private sale at some price close to $10m.
It might still count as a coin that came close to the $10m level.
Just not entirely legit as price data without an actual completed transaction.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/964062/sultan-of-muscat-1804-dollar-no-sale
That's what I find baffling about this auction and this issue in general. I think your valuation is accurate, but it is bizarre that the current coin is currently bid at over $1 million (including buyer's premium) when a coin two grades finer and of a much higher quality is only another $950k or so. Why does the 1894-S Barber Dime generate less interest than other ultra rarities including those of dubious origin? The 1894-S is the most legitimate and least controversial of them all. Could that be it? Or is it the higher mintage (24) even though there are few survivors?
Ultra rarities as a rule are more compressed in price. Within a few years of each other, the finest 1804 sold for just over $4M and the third or fourth finest (of 6) sold for just under $2M. That’s a similar ratio to what you’re seeing now with the dime
Thanks! Maybe the part that sticks out to me then is how "cheap" it is for an ultra rarity especially for the finest known coins.