About patterns...

dan1ecu

How is it that patterns came to be in collector’s hands? I’m wondering why pattern coins were not destroyed after they served their purpose. Weren’t they the property of the mint? Or maybe they were owned by the designer? In terms of legality, how are patterns any different than other coins that are against the law to own, like a 1964 Peace Dollar (or a 1933 Double Eagle until recently)? I thought that anything not officially issued by the mint as currency was not legal to own.

I also find it interesting that the 1856 Flying Eagle cent and the $4 Stellas are “only patterns,” yet they command enormous prices from collectors. For those of you who collect patterns, what do you find intriguing about them? What makes one pattern more desirable than another?

Dan

gemtone65

Patterns were disbursed partly through gifts given to politicians or other dignitaries, or as a result of the mint trading them to acquire regular strike rare pieces destined for the national collection. The desirability of any pattern is similar to that of a regular strike or proof legal tender piece, namely, design, condition, size, historical signiifcance, pedigree, etc.

Pattern coins have always been tremendously undervalued in comparison to their legal tender equivalents, based on rarity alone.
A pattern proof silver dollar might be 50-100 times less abundant then its legal tender counterpart, but sell for only twice as much, if that, in the marketplace. Because they are rare they cannot be promoted by dealers, so they languish as most collectors know little about them. One day their beauty and rarity will have a commensurate effect on their value, but who knows when that will occur? Perhaps, when and if someone like Bill Gates finds the joys of coin collecting and decides that pattern coins are the best buy in the field.

oreville

Furthermore, a pattern $5, $10, or $20 gold coin struck in aluminum or other basal metal from the 19th century may also be up to 10 to 100 times as rare as the regular issue yet command less than 20% of the price.

Mark

As Gemtone and Oreville pointed out, price is determined by both supply and demand. In general, the supply of patterns is quite low but the demand is also quite low, so the prices on many patterns are considered reasonable by many. For the two coins you mention--the 1856 FE and $4 Stella--the supply is larger than is the case for most patterns. Perhaps as a result of this increased supply, many more collectors know about the coins and so the demand for these coins is much greater than the demand for the typical pattern. The increase in demand is greater than the increase in the supply, and so the prices for these two coins are relatively high priced. So, it's not pattern collectors per sethat are driving the high price for the 1856 FE and $4 Stella--it's the collectors of regular issue coins that have caused these prices to be so high. And, as a part-time collector of patterns, it is indeed annoying that these otherwise common patterns are so high priced.

Mark

shirohniichan

Did anyone see the 1868 5 dollars/ 25 francs pattern coming up in the next Bowers & Merena auction? It's the only one known to be struck in gold. I have no idea what value to give to it, but I'd love to start a collection of international coins minted in response to the 1867 Paris International Monetary Convention. The international standardization movement led to the minting of the $4 Stellas, though it ultimately failed here in the US.

mrdq

shirohniichan: YAWN

Asked and answered

Conder101

Gemtone partially answered the question but there were a couple of other ways that patterns got out. Up until at least the 1870's, collectors could go to the mint and buy pattern coins for face value or the metal content which ever was higher. In 1858 the mint actually made up sets of pattern cents and sold them to the public. And a very large number of them got out because when William(?) Woodward got ahold of two $50 gold pieces struck in gold, for some reason the mint went ballistic and demanded them back. As part of the deal to return them Woodward was given at least two large truncks full of pattern coins! Woodward and later Abe Kossof spent years selling off that mass of patterns.