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1905 gold Indian Cent sells for $105,750
EagleEye
Posts: 7,677 ✭✭✭✭✭
Congratulations to the buyer. This coin sold for over $200,000 when it first came on the market. The dealer who bought it tried to get moon money for it and when no one bit, he put it in a Heritage sale with a $100K or so reserve and ended up buying it back. If you were an interested bidder, I bet he would have bid you up. Didn't happen. Now, with what I feel is a much more realistic reserve, it sold. Fair price. Not cheap, but very fair. The buyer is a friend who should be proud of his astute timing.
Rick Snow, Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Inc.Check out my new web site:
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My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Interesting that PCGS calls this a Mint Error. How likely is this an error vs. intentional? I tend to agree with Pollock that these were likely intentional. At the same time, it always feels strange to classify numismatic delicacies or pieces de caprice as patterns since they weren't made as Mint experiments.
It's also interesting that HA says the "1907 gold Indian cent is currently unlocated" but doesn't give locations for the others. I'm assuming that HA does know the location of the others.
<< <i>Congratulations to the buyer >>
ditto
amazing piece in a world of it's own there
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
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In my personal opinion this is the king of off-metal errors because gold is involved. Your mileage may vary.
TD
<< <i>is that the only one thats known or is there maybe a few more? just wondering >>
From the article, there appear to be 6 gold Indian cents as follows:
(1) 1900 MS65 PCGS. Col. E.H.R. Green - 65.8 grains - 1.3 grains heavier than 1/4 eagle planchet
(2) 1900 AU55. Heritage - 67.12 grains - 2.62 grains heavier than 1/4 eagle planchet
(3) 1900. Michael Hodder 3rd sighting
(4) 1905 MS64 PCGS - 64.5 grains
(5) 1906 AU58 NGC. Stacks - 64.4 grains
(6) 1907. Judd.
Also the three 1900 pieces share a die which was also used to strike an Indian cent in silver.
<< <i>I see no reason to doubt that this is an unintentional error. If anybody can present any evidence to the contrary, I would love to see it.
In my personal opinion this is the king of off-metal errors because gold is involved. Your mileage may vary.
TD >>
Here are some quotes from the article. Fred's commentary on hand adjusting of gold planchets until 1910 is very informative. If any of them are true errors, it does seem like the correct weight specimens would more likely to be errors. Given Mint practices during that time, how likely is an error to occur or is it not very likely as Pollock suggests?
<< <i>[Andrew W.] Pollock writes: “Listed in Judd as a mint error, but it is difficult to imagine that a Mint employee would be so careless as to feed gold planchets into a coinage press fitted with one-cent piece dies.” Pollock suggests that these pieces may have been deliberately struck for one or more collectors. [...]
Rick Snow writes in A Guide Book of Flying Eagle and Indian Head Cents that “both the silver and gold examples are struck from the same dies, with light roughness on the reverse die, probably from die rust.” That all three 1900 pieces have higher weights suggests that they were specially made, perhaps without the knowledge of Mint officials. [...]
Fred Weinberg explained to this cataloger that “the weights vary because in all probability, they were on planchets that might not have been filed down to the proper weight spread.” Hand adjusting of individual gold planchets continued in the Mint until circa 1910. Those three pieces are almost certainly fancy pieces made for collectors, while the 1905 and 1906 examples, on correct weight planchets, are more likely pieces truly made in error, and substantially more important as such. >>
<< <i>Those gold Indian cents are my favorite error coins. >>
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I would only add that it's hard to imagine a gold planchet going astray at the Mint. But I have no evidence.
Anyway, great coin!
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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<< <i> he put it in a Heritage sale with a $100K or so reserve and ended up buying it back. >>
So did he have to pay the 10%? If so, he really is underwater!
<< <i>
<< <i> he put it in a Heritage sale with a $100K or so reserve and ended up buying it back. >>
So did he have to pay the 10%? If so, he really is underwater! >>
Usually, if the auction house agrees the reserve is reasonable, there is little to no buy back fee
If you were able to retrieve it from the hopper and attempt to smuggle it out of the Mint in your shoe, if the coin was noticed then there would be a good chance that the guard would think it was only a cent that got there by accident and not make a big deal out of it. He would probably just say throw it in that hopper over there and go on home.
Just idle speculation on my part.