Won this today at Stacks.....

bosox

Canada 1881-H specimen cent in SP-65RB. Despite the H mint mark, this coin is a Royal Mint trial piece. The RM used this same obverse die in 1879, 1880, and 1886 on other specimen cents they struck without H mintmarks. For this coin, the RM used this obverse die to strike trials before they sent the 1881-H reverse punch to Heaton. The Heaton-struck 1881-H specimens employed other obverse dies. This is only the second 1881-H trial piece to come to light. The other appeared in the Cook sale in 2019.

This coin also has a wonderful pedigree. Among other transactions, the coin passed through the Caldecott sale (1912), a Wayte Raymond 1928 price list (from the W.W.C. Wilson collection). the Norweb sale (1996), and now the Stacks - Charles Litman sale (2026). My kind of coin.

I felt like this was another example of where publishing the book cost me a bit at the auction but am very pleased to buy the coin.

Photos by Stacks.

syl

Great coin, Rob. I know a coin like that will be close to the heart.

MrEureka

Better looking in hand than In those pics. Congrats!

1960NYGiants

I had a feeling that was you. Congrats! Great coin.

johnny9434

Nice catch, congrats