Coin World - 8/5/2013 First Strikes in the Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection!

19Lyds

The Latest edition of Coin World online has an article about the National Numismatic Collection and the attempts to document, digitize and update the data on Modern coins.

Evidently, the researchers have discovered that some of the modern coins sent to the NNC were produced with Special Strikes and are in fact dubbed "First Strikes" in some supporting documentation by the folks at the mint and at the Smithsonian. The article relates that the then curator of the NNC, Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli, in an April 3, 1964 memo, stated the following:

"All these coins are First Strikes, selected in accordance with special arrangements made in 1962 with Miss [Eva] Adams, Director of the Mint."

(As a side note, since the 1964 SMS Coin Sets were supposedly pulled from Eva Adams personal collection after her death, the existence of "Special" coins sent to the NNC could possibly account for the creation of the 1964 SMS Sets. I suppose that detailed examinations of the Kennedy Business Strikes in the NNC with known SMS coins could validate whether or not they came from the same die sets.)

Wow! Coins from each of the Mints (Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco) were received that have special finishes!


BTW, samples of these coins will be on display at the Smithsonian Booth at the Chicago ANA in August.
I'd advise folks to read this one. Especially those of us that like our Modern Coins!

19Lyds

Title Changed

Aegis3

BTW, the earliest appearance of the 1964 SMS coins at auction was before Adams died. Which reminds me. I have to find an old thread that suggested someone to contact. And it may be a now-forum member...

halfhunter

It's amazing to me that these treasures sat there for so long undiscovered!
Interesting that the mother mint stopped contributing in 1972 but Denver continued and in 1979 San Fran contributed with the SBA.
Also kind of interesting, I'm not sure why though, that Denver contributed '73-D Ikes . . .

HH

Caleb

<< <i>BTW, the earliest appearance of the 1964 SMS coins at auction was before Adams died. Which reminds me. I have to find an old thread that suggested someone to contact. And it may be a now-forum member... >>



I would like to see the documentation on this I think you will find the first action was well after her death, Merkins death along with over a million other americans deaths. The coins can be traced back to the estate of the late Mr. Merkins' but then the trail runs cold besides the hype and speculation.

Lee has the right idea, to see if any marks are in common with the 1964 coinage at displayed at the ANA

Aegis3

Stack's, June 19-20, 1991 auction, lot 591. Full set, reported as selling for $1,000 plus 10%. As I don't have a complete set of Stack's catalogs from that time frame, there may be earlier appearances.

Per Pete Smith's American Numismatic Biographies, Adams died in August 1991, and Merkin in July 1992.

19Lyds

Did anybody look at the Smithsonian Exhibit at the ANA Show?

CaptHenway

Indeed. How did they look?

MrEureka

I didn't see the coins in Chicago. Wish I had!

I did see them at the SI years ago, but only noticed the Denver issues, which were more dramatic than one would expect for simple "first strikes". I suppose the coins from other mints were not as impressive, since I missed them completely.