King of Siam set is on the market
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
Goldberg has a full-color ad in the new CW showing the King of Siam set which is for sale again. Did anyone see it? One of the coins I don't recognize - it's a gold coin with a portrait facing left but no date or legends - only the obverses are shown as the coins are in their (I presume) original presentation case.
It's one of the most famous US numismatic items of all time. Anyone know what that oddball coin is?
It's one of the most famous US numismatic items of all time. Anyone know what that oddball coin is?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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Russ, NCNE
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
SIAM SET
Anyone have a spare 10 million?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
al h.
Russ, NCNE
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
Link to set previously in NGC holders
$10.00 1804 (Plain 4) PR64Cam (PR64)
$5.00 1834 Classic Head PR65Cam (PR65)
$2.50 1834 Classic Head PR64Cam (PR64)
1833 Andrew Jackson gold medal ($2.50 size) PR63Cam
$1.00 1804 Class 1 PR67 (same)
Half Dollar 1834 PR65 (same)
Quarter Dollar 1834 PR65 (same)
Dime 1834 PR67 (same)
Half Dime 1834 PR66
Large Cent 1834 PR66RB (same)
Half Cent 1834 PR66RB (same)
No gradeflation this time around.
Another interesting item about this fabulous set is that it was unknown to the coin community prior to 1962.
[edit] Mark beat me to the NGC grades
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
I did not know Mike Bob had owned that set!! Do you know if he is the current seller? I have met him several times at the Baltimore shows. A real nice guy. My guess is Mike Bob wasn't always a coin dealer for a living.
If memory serves me correctly, PCGS graded the set, NGC later graded some of the coins higher and then PCGS eventually crossed them. I very well might have the sequence wrong but (at least some of) the grades are higher than they started out.
Edited to add: Here's a link to the dollar in a 65 holder at one time:
Link
65 to 66 to 67, huh? Dueling banjos!
BTW.....can someone explain to what the point is to having a unique set like that graded by a 3rd party service?? Would the set be worth 12 million if PCGS bumped the 1804 dollar to a PR68 next time around?
Tom
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
jom
I agree that it would be a crime to break up the set, though I doubt anyone would. Even if they did, the coins would probably find their way back together again.
I would rather have the King of Siam set than ten 1933 double eagles.
(Maybe they'll take 9.5, huh?)
Camelot
It sure is nice!
It's time for me to buy lottery again
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
anyhow with all the fanfare, I remember noting some of the coins looked pretty fugly
Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
Mike
<< <i>Ok, I'm confused about one thing - the text says the coins are graded by PCGS, but the photo shows the coins in the blue velvet presentation case >>
Actually I was there the other day and the pic is a little misleading. I think the coins are in slabs, but the pics were cropped and photoshoped to make it look like they were still in the presentation case.
Michael
<< <i>If I remember right the set is not original and at least one coin has been added or replaced? >>
My memory suggests that too. I seem to recall that when it was discovered, one coin was missing (the $2½?).
<< <i>Amazing. I would love to have that many coins in proof sets today! >>
2004 Proof set has 11. 2000-2003 have 10.
Don't mean to spill ice water on this, as I enjoy the promo, hype, and history, as much, if not more than, the usual coin nut.
But, are the two major TPG's really staking their insurance policies on this one or are we supposed to just believe?
Is there a Santa Claus?
Stunning set! It's a shame, imho, that they are now in plastic, since they look so nice in the original presentation case. But if that's what the new owner wants, then that's his/her choice. Wow.......such a beautiful set!
Our eBay auctions - TRUE auctions: start at $0.01, no reserve, 30 day unconditional return privilege & free shipping!
In the 2nd printing, Eric and Ken describe the story in Chapter IX. The half dime and the half eagle were both missing at the time (the half dime has since been replaced with the gold Jackson medalet of the same diameter).
The 1834 large cent therein is a Newcomb-3, an interesting variety that was first struck proofs and a few circulation pieces, then reunited after the obverse was muled to a completely different reverse die to create late state N-3s. The Siam Proof (like the Smithsonian piece and the Clarke-Naftzger-Streiner piece) was from the earliest state.
The 1804 eagle is perhaps the coolest (and the rarest) piece in the set, struck from dies created in 1834 for the same reason that 1804 dollar dies were created that year, though only 4 are believed to have been struck in gold (and a small number in silver, including one on display in the Bass Collection at the ANA). The Bass gold 1804 proof $10 is the Eliasberg coin and is simply gorgeous. See the Bass Sylloge by QDB for more info.
John K.
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
Notes:
The "King of Siam" set was minted sometime in late 1834 and included the Proof 1804 Silver Dollar (illustrated above), a Proof 1804 "Plain 4" $10 Gold Piece, eight 1834-dated Proof coins of different denominations, and a gold Andrew Jackson medal.
The famed set has a rich history. It is believed that four sets were originally assembled as gifts to world dignitaries, but only two were ever delivered before the emissary, agent Edmund Roberts, died. The other sets were returned to the US Mint and eventually broken up.
The King of Siam set was minted sometime in late 1834. Edmund Roberts took it with him on a voyage aboard the USS (forbidden word) in 1835 and arrived in Siam in the Spring of 1836. Included in the sale was the original ship's log from the voyage of the (forbidden word) in 1835. The set was presented to King Ph'ra Nang Klao (also known as Rama III) on April 6 of that year and remained in the royal family for generations. Rama IV (King Ph'ra Nang Klao's half brother) followed on the throne, in turn succeeded by Rama V, who died in 1910. It is believed that Anna Leonowens of "Anna and the King of Siam" fame came into possession of the set before her death in 1915. When the set was purchased in London, England, in the 1950s the two women who sold the set were reported to be descendants of Ms. Leonowens.
The set, with its original presentation box still intact, remained in London for the next quarter of a century before being acquired by an American collector in 1979. The fame of the set grew tenfold in 1983 when it was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. After it was acquired by Spectrum in 1993 it was placed in a private collection. Beginning in April of 1999 the owner allowed it to be displayed as part of the Treasures of Mandalay Museum in the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article_view.chtml?artid=4186&universeid=313
-donn-