Anything Special? 1966 Bahamas Ten Cents and Dollar Coins.....Might Be More Than Meets the Eye

7Jaguars

Here ya go, this coin has a bit of mystery to it (maybe??) but let's see whatchayall (ROFL) think:

coinkat

Not sure what I should be looking for here… I suspect these are Franklin Mint products… should there be an F or FM on the reverse which may or may not be there?

7Jaguars

Royal Mint produced.
Will give away secret later today....

Greenstang

Other than they were minted in 3 different years (1966, 67, 68)
I can’t see anything different about them.

7Jaguars

OK, here goes: they are actual PROOFS! Proofs from this year actually are only known in the Royal Collection, and I suppose these would be Record proofs technically. How these got loose is anybody's guess and they came in what was probably the original box that is the same as ordinary coins (which occasionally also came in blue boxes).

ALL other 1966 coins, even those in "specimen sets" are satin currency quality and are not the same. Here are some pictures of ordinary 1966 coins; you will note that all the many coins of 1966 year are of this type and that the "specimen sets" in fact are not special, or specimen. There are no other reports of any other proofs of the 1966 year and I have never seen any. The seller had pictures that fortunately I correctly picked out as proof.

By the way, the larger coins were not minted again until 1969, and these are also Royal Mint coins, though were sold widely in both uncirculated and proof condition.

1970 coins were struck in unc. and proof quality by the Franklin Mint but did not bear the FM monogram, the practice of which began in 1971.

More pictures are available if anyone is interested as all nine coins are in proof condition but they are not for sale.

realeswatcher

I think most of us would glance and see Bahamas and just generally know 8 zillion UNC and Proof tourist sets in those years, like the rest of the 1965-1980ish Caribbean Franklin Mint-y stuff, and not give a 2nd thought (or frankly care)... But wow, yeah, this would appear to be a significant find for the moderns collector.

Good eye, excellent cherrypick. Would sell very well to the collector of such, especially with some numismatic detective work uncovering some details on the how and why of their existence.

The above mentioned Royal collection examples can be seen by Googling:

"1966" "bahamas" "proof" site:rct.uk

Samets

Great catch!

7Jaguars

Thanks indeed!