1964 International Nickel Company Pattern- half dollar size, plain edge-
NumisOxide
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Picked this piece up recently. Not too familiar with them and any varieties. Can anyone attribute this piece and is it worth sending out to be graded? Thanks.
Weight: 10.48g
Diameter: 30.76mm
Edge: plain
3
Comments
There's 2 on EBay in Anacs holders. This company was the precursor of the Franklin mint. Nice find. Peace Roy
BST: endeavor1967, synchr, kliao, Outhaul, Donttellthewife, U1Chicago, ajaan, mCarney1173, SurfinHi, MWallace, Sandman70gt, mustanggt, Pittstate03, Lazybones, Walkerguy21D, coinandcurrency242 , thebigeng, Collectorcoins, JimTyler, USMarine6, Elkevvo, Coll3ctor, Yorkshireman, CUKevin, ranshdow, CoinHunter4, bennybravo, Centsearcher, braddick, Windycity, ZoidMeister, mirabela, JJM, RichURich, Bullsitter, jmski52, LukeMarshall, coinsarefun, MichaelDixon, NickPatton, ProfLiz, Twobitcollector,Jesbroken oih82w8, DCW
Thanks Namvet69! I saw those two and other quarter size past auctions but can't find much on this 50c size one.
Heritage just had a dedicated auction with 150+ INCO pieces. The two 50c sized pieces had the highest and tied for second highest sale prices.
What did they bring, please?
Edited to add: Never mind. I got them from the link.
That’s very cool @coinJP nice pickup!
. Thanks Johnathan for the link, they sure are interesting.
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
I respectfully submit that you are mistaken. The International Nickel Company produced and sold the metallic element nickel. The very early Franklin Mint struck these test pieces for them. They were listed in a very early publication from the Franklin Mint showing things that they had struck.
jonathanb, awesome! Thanks for the link.
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Thank you coinsarefun!
@CaptHenway I defer to you kind sir. I get things bass ackwards sometimes.
BST: endeavor1967, synchr, kliao, Outhaul, Donttellthewife, U1Chicago, ajaan, mCarney1173, SurfinHi, MWallace, Sandman70gt, mustanggt, Pittstate03, Lazybones, Walkerguy21D, coinandcurrency242 , thebigeng, Collectorcoins, JimTyler, USMarine6, Elkevvo, Coll3ctor, Yorkshireman, CUKevin, ranshdow, CoinHunter4, bennybravo, Centsearcher, braddick, Windycity, ZoidMeister, mirabela, JJM, RichURich, Bullsitter, jmski52, LukeMarshall, coinsarefun, MichaelDixon, NickPatton, ProfLiz, Twobitcollector,Jesbroken oih82w8, DCW
Very nice pickup indeed.
I bought a 58 piece collection of International Nickel Company (INCO) quarters from the collection of Ken Henderson from Heritage back in 2015.
2015 January 7 - 12 FUN US Coins Signature Auction - Orlando #1216
1964-1965 Inco 25 Cent Test Pieces
From the Estate of Inco Official Kenn Henderson
1964-1965 International Nickel Company 25 Cent Test Pieces. In 1964-1965, extensive non-precious metals coin testing was done outside the Mint at different facilities, including International Nickel Company, Dupont, and Corning Glass Works. The pieces in this lot are from the estate of Kenn Henderson, an officer of Inco at the time. Andrew Pollock wrote extensive background information about these pieces in his 1994 reference United States Patterns and Related Issues, pages 443-447. We strongly recommend that bidders refer to Pollock's in-depth treatment of these little-known patterns. We have grouped the 58 pieces in this lot into three categories: 1964 Inco Large Head 25 Cent Test Pieces, 1965 Inco Small Head 25 Cent Test Pieces, and Miscellaneous "Component Pieces." Included are:
1964 Inco 25 Cent Test Pieces - Large Head
Pollock-5340. 95% nickel, 5% silicon on 2% "Permalloy" Core. Plain Edge. 2 pieces.
Pollock-5350. Pure nickel (Ni engraved in right obverse field). Plain Edge. 2 pieces.
Pollock-5350. Blank Planchet for above. Pure nickel. Type 2. Plain edge. 1 piece.
Pollock-5351. 45/55 nickel/copper (45 engraved in right obverse field). Plain edge. 1 piece.
Pollock-5353a. 75/25 copper/nickel (CuNi engraved in right obverse field). Plain edge. 1 piece.
Pollock-5365. 75/25 copper/nickel on 60% copper core. No engraving in field. Reeded edge. 1 piece.
Pollock-5365a. 75/25 copper/nickel on 60% copper core. No engraving in field. Plain edge. 8 pieces.
-- Blank planchet for above. Type 2. 1 piece.
Pollock-5365b. 70/30 copper/nickel on 60% copper core. No engraving in field. Reeded edge. 1 piece.
Pollock-5365c. 70/30 copper/nickel on 60% copper core. No engraving in field. Plain edge. 1 piece.
1965 Inco 25 Cent Test Pieces - Small Head
Pollock-5380. 95/5 nickel/silicon on 2% "Permalloy" core. Reeded edge. 6 pieces.
Pollock-5380. Sealed in original presentation poly holder. 2 pieces.
-- Blank planchet. Proof Quality, manufactured by the Franklin Mint. 18 pieces.
-- Blank planchet. Similar to the above, said to be annealed in oxygen rather than nitrogen. 6 pieces.
Miscellaneous "Component Pieces"
-- 75/25 copper/nickel outer clad layer. 2 pieces
-- Pure copper inner core. 2 pieces.
-- Bonded 2-piece set - copper/nickel layer and copper core. 1 piece.
-- Blank planchet - copper/nickel layers over copper core. Type 1. 1 piece.
-- Blank planchet - copper/nickel layers over copper core. Type 2. 1 piece.
Very nice Oreville! That is an awesome assortment.
grading them will not be critical to their values other than authentication.
I am normally a big fan of third party grading services but in this case preserving the history of who saved them is just as important.
The half dollars are much more scarce than the quarters but I wanted to have the complete history of all different experimental coins considered to replace the silver coinage.
Hence, I went with the quarters.
I recall seeing some INCO pieces at shows when I lived in Seattle... Never knew what they were... Thanks for the history - learned another thing today. Cheers, RickO
Very interesting. It would be great to know the ones that were struck by the Franklin Mint.
That sale was for the Burdette-Leidman Collection which was used in Roger's new reference book.
Those two did sell for high prices. I was the winner of the lower priced one and the underbidder on the higher priced one. They have the same grade.
To me, these are different than others because of the provenance. They are engraved with test numbers and in Roger's new reference. As such, their provenance is attributable to Roger W. Burdette and Julian Leidman, even though it's not mentioned on the insert or the auction lot listing.
The unattributed ones are very nice as well, but not worth as much to me because of this.
Great piece!
It's definitely worth grading to me. It's common to use ATS for these.
I'd love for PCGS to slab these but I've never seen a Pollock-only piece slabbed by PCGS. Either PCGS only slabs Judd or they go to other TPGs for some other reason. Either way, it would be nice to find out if PCGS slabs these and have some with TrueViews.
In 1964, General Numismatics Corporation may have been involved, but they didn't change their name to The Franklin Mint until 1965.
I'm surprised they don't slab these.?
I don't know if they do or not, but I find it surprising that I've never seen a Pollock-only cataloged piece slabbed by PCGS. This would lead me to believe they don't as the odds of them slabbing them but me never running across one is quite low
It's definitely worth contacting PCGS customer service to check.
Ok thanks Zoins.
Here's a bit more info. The two major references for patterns are by:
PCGS slabs Judd but I've never seen one slabbed for Pollock only. INCO, and other private pattern, pieces fall into the Pollock-only camp.
Roger Burdette also just published a new reference specifically on INCO and Gould pieces. He has has new "RB" numbers and they are slabbed by ATS, but I'm not sure if PCGS will recognize those yet.
That's very interesting. After the holidays I'll reach out to them and see what they say. Otherwise, I might just sell it raw, as it doesn't fit my core collection.
Sounds good. I'd love to see these (and other Pollock-only pieces) slabbed and TrueViewed by PCGS!
When you sell, I'd be interested
That's great. Have these been individually photographed with provenance attributed to Ken and yourself? If not, I think that would be great documentation of these pieces.
I wouldn't be surprised if Joseph Segel struck these in 1964 as GNC and then included these in a publication with the company's new name, Franklin Mint, adopted in 1965 when the company went public.
Also, if the Franklin Mint name wasn't used in 1965, it seems that these pieces couldn't have been struck by an entity called the "Franklin Mint" in 1964.
Do you have a scan of the publication? I'd love to see it!
I wonder if GNC had to change their name when they went public because the more famous GNC was established in 1935 and still using the name.