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Lafayette 4-E Commemorative
Bodin
Posts: 997 ✭✭✭
How many are known to exist?
I have been searching for years now, and have only seen 1 know example sell on David Lawrence's site.
The site doesn't state what it even sold for.
Anyone have values and census of the rare 4-E variety?
Not my coin
How I pay the bills:
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
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https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
This is not a straight reply to your question, but I wonder how many people collect the different varieties?
Proof Buffalo Registry Set
Capped Bust Quarters Registry Set
Proof Walking Liberty Halves Registry Set
discovery of the 4-E variety....it said only two known...Cheers, RickO
Very interesting...I just read the history of the Lafayette commemorative, which included the
discovery of the 4-E variety....it said only two known...Cheers, RickO
Yes! that's what I'm getting at. This appears to be an EXTREMELY rare coin.
I was just wondering if there was any more information out there about it.
https://imdb.com/name/nm1835107/
Unique DuVall 4-E Lafayette Dollar
1900 $1 Lafayette Dollar--Cleaned, Retoned--ANACS. MS60 Details. DuVall 4-E. Presumed unique, the only known survivor from either the obverse or reverse die. The Lafayette dollar is an unusual commemorative issue, in that only the statue of Lafayette and the conjoined busts of Washington and Lafayette were hubbed. The obverse and reverse legends were entered into the various working dies by hand, a process otherwise abandoned circa 1840. Even more curiously, the branch at the base of the statue was also hand-engraved into each working die.
No one knows why the Mint failed to hub the entire design, but the reason was probably related to the Treasury's decision to coin all 50,000 pieces on a single day, December 14, 1899. This was the exact centennial of Washington's death. Perhaps production steps were skipped in order to make the Dec. 14 deadline.
In his 1993 reference "Commemorative Coins of the United States," Anthony Swiatek discussed the discovery of the Lafayette dollar varieties: "In 1925, George H. Clapp discovered a Lafayette dollar which differed from the piece described by Howland Wood. ... After a discussion with Mr. Clapp, Howland Wood examined several hundred Lafayette dollars. ... He concluded that three obverse and four reverse dies exist." Frank DuVall, Life Member #1 of the Society for U.S. Commemorative Coins, discovered an additional variety, and published his find in the Fall 1988 issue of The Commemorative Trail.
The present lot is that variety, DuVall 4-E. The lowest leaf tip is between the star and the 1, further left than on the other four reverse dies. Numerous obverse letters are repunched, including the U in UNITED, the E in STATES, and the C in AMERICA. The CA in AMERICA is widely spaced.
Although 50,000 Lafayette dollars were struck, the Mint melted nearly 14,000 unsold pieces in 1945, nearly a half century after they were first struck. Perhaps the "great melt" accounts for the rarity of DuVall 4-E and the scarcity of DuVall 1-A and 3-D. DuVall 1-B is common, and DuVall 2-C is scarce only in relation to 1-B.
The present lot, the DuVall 4-E discovery coin, is satiny and well struck with dusky chestnut, aqua, and plum-mauve patina. Both sides are unusually free from marks, particularly on the portraits. ANACS has been perhaps unfairly strict, and bidders are encouraged to evaluate the lot in person to judge its true quality.
Included with the lot are two proofs of articles on Lafayette dollar varieties by Frank DuVall and John Merz, and a July 17, 1995 Coin World article on the varieties by Richard Giedroyc.
From The Frank DuVall Collection of U.S. Commemoratives.(Registry values: N991) (NGC ID# BYKW, PCGS# 9222)
View all of [The Frank DuVall Collection of U.S. Commemoratives ]
This is the second one that sold on Heritage.
http://coins.ha.com/itm/1900-1...0115&lotPosition=0
Also for anyone interested there is a very long write up at CoinFacts
about the Lafayette Dollars.
R.I.P. Bear
I first became interested in the Varieties after reading an article in CW but I believe it was later than stated above, then I shared a few e-mails with another collector who provided me with some good pictures for the diagnostics. without purchasing the coins, I was able to locate all of the four Varieties but this is the first I have heard of a fifth. they are indeed interesting coins and I don't believe very many collectors/dealers are even aware of the differences.
There are now 4 known, including mine, which I got graded at Long Beach last month.
PCGS MS64 - sold ridiculously low at the Heritage FUN auction a few years ago (worth a LOT more)
PCGS AU50 - mine
ICG MS60 Details - originally DGS AU58 Details, last sold by Heritage, Feb 2009
ANACS MS60 Details - The DuVall discovery piece, sold for nearly $20k in 2007, sent for regrade and came back the same with a new cert.
@alefzero.... Very nice coin....and rare. Congratulations on your coin. Cheers, RickO
Had the pleasure of meeting the guy who bought the 4E discovery piece, now in PCGS plastic, at the PCGS Invitational today. Interesting observation that the owners of 50% of the known specimens of that extreme rarity were sitting at the same table in a room with few than a dozen people at the time.
I believe that an article on the Lafayette dollar die varieties appeared in Collectors Clearinghouse in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s.
TD