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Unique or Unique-to-Own Coins
Zoins
Posts: 33,863 ✭✭✭✭✭
The following coins cannot be owned privately as they are in museums, often the Smithsonian but one is in the ANA.
It's very interesting that 2 unique coins were owned by Willis du Pont and donated to the Smithsonian.
Please add to the following list 
1. Unique, but cannot be owned privately
- 1804 Class II Dollar
- 1849 Smithsonian Double Eagle (1 known, 2 on record)
- 1866 Farkouk, Willis du Pont No Motto Seated Liberty Quarter
- 1866 Willis du Pont No Motto Seated Liberty Half Dollar
- 1974 Aluminum Cent (1 known)
- 1974-D Aluminum Cent (1 known)
2. Unique, can be owned privately
- 1787 EB Punch on Breast Brasher Doubloon (unique, others have punch on identical location on wing)
- 1870-S Half Dime (1 known, 1 assumed in SF Mint building)
- 1870-S William H. Woodin, Harry W. Bass Jr. $3 Princess (1 known, 1 assumed in SF Mint building)
- 1873-CC Eliasberg No-Arrows Dime (unique)
- 1907 J-1776 $20 pattern (unique)
- 1976 No S Proof Eisenhower Dollar (unique)
3. Unique to own, other specimens cannot be owned privately
- 1822 Brand-Eliasberg-Pogue Half Eagle
- 1933 Farouk-Weitzman $20
8
Comments
The 1870-S $3 is privately owned by the Bass family and/or its foundation. It is currently on loan to the ANA for display in their museum.
1870-S H.10, also unique, is privately owned.
Fixed and added. Thanks!
The gold $50 Half Union pattern in the Smithsonian Institute.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Good point. Actually, it seems like a lot of patterns are unique so they may have to be listed separately.
Zion, here are a couple coins that go into cat #1
1797 Half Eagle "Large Eagle, 15 Stars" (unique)
1797 Half Eagle "Large Eagle, 16 Stars" (unique)
This coin should be cat #3
1866 No Motto Simpson Seated Dollar,
My 20th Century Gold Major Design Type Set ---started : 11/17/1997 ---- completed : 1/21/2004
The only 'unique' coin I have is a parking lot cent....
... No numismatic premium, but no other coin just like it... 
Seriously though, how cool to own a 'one of a kind' coin... Cheers, RickO
Brasher half doubloon in the Smithsonian
Immune Colombia gold, don't recall where it is but not available to be bought to my recollection.
Garrett proof $50 slug in the Smithsonian.
Gardner 1823/2 Proof Quarter....unique (privately owned). Also the key to the Capped Bust Quarter set.
There are two of them, from slightly different obverse dies.
What about the 1870-S Quarter Dollar believed to be in the cornerstone?
They lost the corner stone so the entire thing is speculation. Now the CC corner stone they actually opened it up and found coins before sealing it back up or so I believe the story goes.
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
>
Are you quite sure of that?
I guess this will go with the patterns, but Eric Newman's 1792 $10 Washington Gold Eagle Pattern, Musante GW-31(A), Unique (NGC XF45).
I wasn’t there so no but they never found the San Fran one and I forgot where I read about when they opened the Carson city
11.5$ Southern Dollars, The little “Big Easy” set
The 1874 SF Mint building is still standing, so I'm not sure how the cornerstone would have been removed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint
2007 thread:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/614963/old-san-francisco-mint-cornerstone
I think the most helpful post on the thread notes that since the building has a basement,
the cornerstone is probably below the floor level of the basement and not easily inspected or scanned at present time.
Although it's not easily seen or "found", I don't think this implies it does not exist.
It did exist at one time according to the newspaper report in May 1870, so my thought is that it would have
to be removed to change this state of affairs.
I'm going to spend some time to rework this thread.
I think unique coins need to be categorized by:
There are many many more unique patterns. E.g. 1794 no stars dollar pattern. The many other unique patterns just aren't very famous and they're often very moderately priced. So rare there isn't really much of a competitive market for them.
The Snow-1 die pairing is unique in copper. There are about a dozen known in Copper-Nickel but weirdly they are worth more grade for grade, because they aren’t classified as “patterns”
Empty Nest Collection
Matt’s Mattes
Should the Brasher Dubloon be classified as a U.S. coin? It was manufactured outside of the U.S. Mint (before the establishment of the U.S. Mint) privately by a goldsmith. It does not contain the wording "United States of America nor the denomination. I personally call it a token and since the goldsmith's initials appear to be counter stamped on it just like he did with his silverware it is more of a sample of his work or a calling card intended to be used as a item of money to be used in trade.
I agree.
Please add a note to the 1976 No S Proof Ike that it is a Type Two. I handled it while I was still with Coin World.
And when we (CW) received the press release about the sets of coins presented to the three Bicentennial coin designers and a representative of President Ford, the accompanying pictures of the coins clearly showed PROOF COINS WITHOUT MINT MARKS! The Dollar coins were of course Type One.
When I was preparing a set of these pictures for inclusion in The Coin World Almanac, I noticed this omission and brought it to the attention of Editor Margo Russell. She said that she would call the Mint Director and ask her. Later Margo told me that the Mint Director told her that all of the no mint mark coins had later been returned to the Mint and replaced with normal S-mint 40% Silver Proofs.
Although the unique No S Proof Ike BiCentennial Dollar obviously has been featured in CoinWeek, on the PCGS website and in other numismatic publications, Mint Error News researched the full provenance since it was discovered in a Woodward and Lathrup Department store in the Washington District area, and lists all of the previous owners.
It was featured on the cover of Mint Error News Issue 68 with other unique U.S. coins.
https://minterrornews.com/issue68.pdf
Thanks Mike for the excellent “Provenance and Price History” of the No S Ike (also Unique in being the only Ty 2 Proof Silver Dollar struck for the 1976 Bicentennial of our country). In the roughly (22) years since my purchase of the coin, I believe I only brought it over to PCGS the one time immediately following the 2002 Auction as Rick Montgomery (then President of PCGS) wanted to take some pictures of the coin and (if memory serves me right) add a new Judd number to the Insert Tag as he personally believed the coin to be a “Presentation Piece”. At that time, I believe he also added the Cameo to the grade.
Thank you CaptHenway as well.
Wondercoin
There’s actually two proof slugs, one is in the Smithsonian but the prettier one from the Humbert/Garrett collection is privately owned.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
Well said. The one I pick up with my donation the the Harry Bass Foundation was the J598 3$ piece struck in silver (PF61). I had posted this piece on a prior occasion but it never gets old for me to do so.
I would not call this piece inexpensive, however relatively speaking, I feel it was considering it is currently the only one in private hands (Mine). The other piece is noted on USPattren,com is the Byron Reed Collection, owned by the City of Omaha, Nebraska and on loan to the Durham Museum.
If it had not made it way through the basement of the Egyptian Palace of King Farouk, it most likely would have been a higher grade , but then again the cost would have been proportionally higher - but the rarity remains unchanged.
Provenance: Ex: William H. Woodin; Waldo C. Newcomer; King Farouk; Palace Collections of Egypt Sale (Sotheby's, 2/1954), lot 1807; Kreisberg & Schulman Feb 1960 Lot # 2440; Gaston DiBello Collection, Part II (Stack's, 5/1970), lot 480; William R. Sieck Collection (Bowers and Ruddy, 7/1981), lot 329. From The Harry W. Bass, Jr. Core Collection, Heritage Jan 2023 Fun Lot # 9061
The 1976 No-S Ike may be unique but it has (at least) 2 TrueViews! I love TrueViews and have come across first one today so it's great to always see something new for me!
Wonderful coin and history! Thanks @CaptHenway, @Byers, @wondercoin!
Very interesting that all the other no mint mark coins had been returned and replaced regular S-mint pieces.
Given that the Mint replaced them with normal S-mint coins, this does this indicate that the Mint thought they were errors which they fixed?
Do we know how many others there were?
That's a great provenance!
Would be great to enter on PCGS CoinFacts, with your entry as well.
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1867-3-j-598/60810
The Mint was rather reluctant to discuss the matter with me.
Too bad. Seems like the coins had an interesting distribution given that the Lustig-Spivack specimen was discovered in a "Woodward and Lathrup Department store in the Washington District area".
The unique 1870-S Half Dime is now provenanced as the Simpson-Bender specimen for Bob Simpson and Tom Bender.
Here's a quote from @Analyst:
Ref: https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/tom-bender-s-collection-review-part-1-generalities-carson-city-coins
I don't remember it being this toned when I saw it at ANACS, but that was a while ago.
That's the benefit of having multiple photos of the same coin over time. Here's the coin in a 2009 photo from Legend when they sold it for a NJ lawyer, with the TrueView for comparison. The TrueView may be from the Bender era, though I think it had the same toned look when sold from the Simpson collection.
Ref: https://www.coinnews.net/2009/07/17/unique-1870-s-sold-by-legend-numismatics-in-half-dime-deal/
Did the coin change or did the lighting change?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
It's difficult to tell from just the photos but perhaps we can ask Laura as she handled the coin at both times.
The lighter appearing tone does, however, seem to support Tom's recollection.
Here's the Harry Edmond Lawrence specimen of the 1974-D aluminum cent:
A fair question. I don't know.
1942 Aluminum Cent. Unknown until posted on this forum in 2008. (Even the owner didn't realize that it was aluminum.) Unique.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Judging only from images, the colorful TV has the look of the other coins that have over exaggerated TVs. I would venture to guess the coin’s actual appearance falls somewhere between the two, lighting being the primary culprit.
Type Collector of U.S. Pre-33 Gold https://instagram.com/deplorable_dan Successful transactions with- @drfish, @Cladiator, @johnny010, @Pedzola, @PerryHall, @2windy2fish, @Ike1964, @JohnThePainter, @rpmsrpms, @REALGATOR
What a wonderful coin Andy! It's one of my favorites!
Do you happen to have a link to the original thread? The discoverer posted some really great raw photos of this coin at the time. I loved the one showing the thickness of the planchet.
I couldn't find it. The thread was posted by "Travel", IIRC. Maybe you'll have better luck finding it.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
No luck. Looks like the original thread may have been thread id 628993. If so, it seems to have been deleted. Not sure if the thread or photos can be recovered, but it may be worth checking.
Apparently, the original thread was deleted, but it was referenced in thread below, also from 2008:
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/640732/1942-white-metal-cent-up-for-auction/p1
Heritage auctioned the coin in 2009: https://coins.ha.com/itm/patterns/1942-1c-cent-judd-2079-pollock-2076-r8-pr66-pcgs-pcgs-62401-/a/1125-1448.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
and again in 2014: https://coins.ha.com/itm/patterns/1942-1c-lincoln-cent-judd-2079-r8-pr66-pcgs-pcgs-62401-/a/1204-5884.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Heritage auctioned it for me in 2014:
Very nice Mike! The coin deserves every penny of that price!
Here's the archive page for more info: https://mikebyers.com/12229741.html
I just noticed that this has been CACed as well, It doesn't have a CACView yet, but hopefully one day!
https://www.cacgrading.com/lookup/12229741
This is a very interesting thread. Lots of good info here
Lafayette Grading Set