Incredible 1971-S Proof Bronze Ike Struck On San Francisco Assay Medal!
Zoins
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Here's something you don't see everyday!
An Ike dollar struck on a US Mint Assay Medal from San Francisco!
And it has an incredible PF69 RD grade!
This was just posted by Mike @Byers in the "I Like Ike" thread but it deserves a thread of its own!
What other US Mint coins are over struck US Mint medals?
The photos below are from MintErrorNews:
Unique Proof 1971-S Eisenhower Dollar Overstruck on a San Francisco Assay Office Medal
Here's what the Assay Medal looks like when it's not liking Ike 
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Comments
Definitely a product of Mint shenanigans.
Was the same press used for proof Ikes and assay medals?
A few other S Mint Ike errors listed at Heritage:
https://coins.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=3183+793+794+791+1577+792+2088+4294940072+4294939821
Good luck adding to your collection
There are some coins!
There is one I really like, but it's hard to know how deep the San Francsico error hoard is.
Nice to see the 5 decades old error poundage daylighted instead of being dispersed a few pieces a year since the 1970's.
I'm not sure how deep it is, but my guess is that once these are disbursed, it could be a long time before they are available, or even seen, again.
It would be great to create a catalog of these.
Collecting error coinage since late 1970's my best guess was hundreds of proof mis struck error coins existed, but now it's obvious to me its thousands.
I’m not sure how many there are. Is it really that high?
There don’t seem to be that many that really stand out. This one is unique!
Not an assay medal. After the San Francisco MINT ceased coining operations in 1955, it was demoted to an Assay Office. See the title on the normal medal. When it resumed coining operations in the mid-1960's it did so as an Assay Office. Eventually the Mint status was restored.
@CaptHenway .... Interesting... If not an assay medal, what is the proper term? Cheers, RickO
No doubt an organized pipeline to the marketplace to get them sold.
This hoard of a couple hundred proof error coins from the 1970’s ( including many minor errors such as clips, broadstrikes, partial collars etc) has been dispersed. While most of them were placed with collectors, some are still being sold at auction.
@Zoins
Yes this amazing proof Ike Dollar overstruck on a bronze medal was one of the most spectacular proof error coins from the group!
As the slab label says, a San Francisco Assay Office Medal. I would put "Souvenir" before the word Medal, but both are accurate.
The last time I was in the Denver Mint's gift shop (a LOOOOONG time ago; 1983?) they had a small press set up with similar dies but for the Denver Mint, and you could buy a bronze (or high grade brass?) planchet for a dollar or two and walk over to the press and put the planchet in the collar and press a button when the attendant told you to and strike your own souvenir medal. For safety reasons the attendant had a dead man's switch on the floor by his foot and the press could not operate unless he had that depressed.
Correct- it was overstruck on an Assay Office bronze medal.
What’s the difference between an Assay Medal and an Assay Office Medal?
The Coin World cover coin that is struck thru & retained copper staple Proof Ike was unique, but now there are 3 daylighted. "Unique for now" better describes "unique" when it comes to proof striking errors. I have heard the heirs of the deceased San Francsico Midnight Minter are flooding the market with their inherited error heirlooms. If true, there's poundage of never before seen error coinage material to come.
Personally I love all coinage errors, all are legal to buy sell trade. Illegal USA Coin exceptions are 1964D Peace, 1974 P&D Aluminum Cents, 1933 $20 gold.
The Mint used to have an annual meeting of the Assay Commission sometime in February which would test the gold and silver coins of the previous year for correct weight and fineness. I believe that it was required by the Mint Act of 1792. It was a big deal and there were Mint officials, government officials and private citizens there to make sure that everything was done properly. Collectors lobbied to be appointed as one of the private members appointed by the President of the United States, though towards the end it did get politicized a bit. My friend Ken Hallenback was on it in the 1970's after many years of lobbying and he quite frankly admits that it was a reward for the political campaigning he did for the Republican Party.
The attendees got a nice lunch at a restaurant in Philadelphia, a nice certificate suitable for framing, AND a special medal struck for the occasion, sometimes with their names engraved upon the edge. The number struck was extremely limited, and they were not sold to the public. Then in 1977 new President Jimmy Carter cancelled the Annual Assay as being a waste of money since the Mints were not striking any gold or silver coins anymore. The design for the 1977 medal was then sold to the public. I have one somewhere.
SOme of the 19th Century Assay Commission Medals are amazing. Look them up on the Heritage archives.
I know about those medals but I’m asking about your use of the terms.
Are the terms “Assay Medal” and “Assay Office Medal” US government terms?
If the lunch medals were stuck for the occasion, they seem like souvenirs as well.
My personal opinion of the deliberately-struck Proof errors continues to be one of disdain, but they are legal and you can collect whatever you like.
TD
Nice magazine article! I hope they are following my threads and I posted those two Ike dollars here!
Yes TD, they are legal and everyone collects what they like, and don’t collect what they don’t like.😉
People are free to disdain what they want. Some disdain Morgan dollars and 1913 Liberty Nickels!
Of course, there are ones that love those coins too, and those coins are super popular!
@Zoins
Correct! Some collectors disdain the deliberately produced 1913 Liberty Head Nickels, gold Pan Pac Halves on struck $20 ST G, and a whole assortment of purposely made patterns and errors dating back at least 150 years.
Others covet these numismatic rarities and collect them passionately.
There has been a recent push by a couple authors to retroactively make proof errors illegal to buy sell trade. I find this current revisionist anti error hobby activity quite annoying. In 40 plus years of collecting errors I had never seen this in print
I would separate the 1913 nickels from Morgan dollars for the purposes of this discussion. The Morgan dollars were authorized.
I know your emphasis was on "disdain", but the 1913 nickels and the 1970s proof errors are unauthorized shenanigans -or at least arguably so. The disdain is aimed at that fact, not simple dislike of the coin.
Morgan dollars had some political shenanigans at times, but they are a legitimate, authorized Mint issue.
Here is the bottom line:
This group out of the 1970’s, along with the oil pan group, and the CA safety deposit box group, has made the chain of custody impossible over 50 years. These were all raw (not slabbed), and were mixed and mingled. They have been sold multiple times, purchased by dealers and collectors, and auctioned by HA, SB and GC over the years. In addition, the Government obviously knew about these groups of proof errors decades ago.
I think that covers it…
Yes, they were authorized shenanigans, aka graft
And you’re right, I was focusing on disdain. TD indicated the errors are legal to collect and Mike covered it as well so legality isn’t an issue here.
Getting back to the coin, how many US Mint coins are struck on US Mint medals?
I own one, a 1977 Cent struck into a small size current copper cent Mint Medal. Finding its mate has been a goal of mine for 20 plus years
This was pulled from a proof set, right? It's easier to imagine it being an after-hours trial piece.
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Interesting that this unique proof Ike Dollar overstruck on the bronze Assay Office Medal is dated 1971S, the first year.
While almost all of the other proof Ike Dollar off- metals and major errors are 1973S.
That is very, very interesting. Given the rarity of errors for this year, it seems that this isn’t one of the oil pan or the CA safety deposit box groups. And given the first year nature of this, I wonder if this could actually be a die set up piece or die trial of some sort.
The OP really is an amazing error coin. I could care less on how it happened and nobody knows how it actually was produced. Lots of speculation ...
Bottom line is that these are legal to own, many collectors are fascinated by these coins obviously by the way these are bid up. I keep getting outbid on these proof errors. These will be in high demand forever as they are such cool error coins.
If I recall correctly, @FredWeinberg has stated in these forums that the pieces in question date back to 1970, and possibly even 1968. The 1973 pieces are certainly more common. Perhaps, and this is just speculation on my part, the success in selling the earlier pieces encouraged Oil Pan Charlie to step up production.
Fred, Please jump in here.
This article dates the suspect pieces to the late 1960's:
https://www.minterrornews.com/features-4-29-21-uspatterns-mint-errors-mistaken-for-patterns.html
That is the problem with the shenanigans being legal to trade. It encourages people to try.
I thought Shenanigans was a restaurant ...
One group is dated to 1965 since it contains SMS errors from 1965-1967.
Indeed, that's why I jumped on this one when Fred offered it.
From year one of San Francisco coming back online after 1956 closure.
Midnight Minter or his friends had a long career 1965 (S) SMS thru 1981S
SMS 1965 10c on SMS 25c planchet
Year two San Francsico 1966 (S) SMS 50c from Jon
LindyS- that is a nice one!
Maybe the Mint should have a marketing dept. put together a "made to order" division.
Send your tokens and medals to get struck with the denomination you choose. They could even do spectacular "cloverleafs" and double or triple denoms.
Would be a huge financial windfall.
Overall SMS mint errors are very scarce too…
Year three 1967 (S) struck on magnet attracting stainless steel Costa Rica planchet. May not be assisted as its not SMS.
Made at San Francsico Mint:
Maybe a shenanigans rating could be started. Similar to a rarity (R) rating, where and S1 is low probability of shenanigans and a S10 would be high probability of shenanigans.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_KWVk0XeB9o - Ruby Starr (from 'Go Jim Dandy') Piece Of My Heart
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https://youtube.com/watch?v=D0FPxuQv2ns - Ruby Starr (from 'Go Jim Dandy') Maybe I'm Amazed
RLJ 1958 - 2023
Just as an aside, over the years I have seen a number of 1965 SMS coins in the original soft packs that I would be hard pressed to prove were SMS coins once they were removed from the OGP. The 1966 and 1967 pieces were more obvious.
Which reminds me that I once saw a 1967 SMS half that had struck through a curly bit of hair twice with movement of the hair between strikes, so that you had the same random indent pattern impressed into the coin next to and overlapping itself.
This one has always amazed me since it’s dated…1964!!
The 1965 SMS planchets are shimmery, they are specially prepared.
But as you know 1965 SMS were supposed to be struck only once, well, unless shenanigans were afoot on the Mint production floor.
Some SMS mint errors are difficult to differentiate between non SMS mint errors.