1975 Matte - The Rarest of Panama 20 Balboas, An Unloved Series
7Jaguars
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The Franklin Mint produced the first of the modern Bullion silver coins IMO, and this was the Panama 20 Balboas. The "collector" versions were generally proofs issued 1971-1985, but some of the uncirculated versions were also marketed as such. They were released to some enthusiasm which died away after the first 3-4 years, and somewhat languished afterwards.
Complicating this was that the uncirculated coins were at first struck only in the matte format, but in 1975 they switched to the Prooflike format and these were struck through 1981 & as one last hurrah in 1983. The mattes, however, were also struck for the years 1975 and 1976. Krause notes that many of the 1976 mattes were remelted, but no other notes to my knowledge have become available. I suspect the 1975s were melted to even greater numbers, but that is simply based on the observation that these were nearly unknown to me as I was unable to confirm until earlier in this year when I managed to get one from Europe.
Google searches and scanning eBay as well as reading all relevant material to the series showed naught, and even Richard Stuart (sp?) collection lacked this. Anyway, as a collector of the esoteric I thought I'd include this post and am glad to respond to PMs or through this forum.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Comments
Thanks for the information on the Franklin Mint Panama proof 20 Balboa. I'll have to keep an eye out for the matte proof version of the 20 Balboa. It seems to me these sets are somewhat underrated- low mintage's, beautiful devices for most part, silver to boot! What's not to like?
I ran across earlier this year a 1975 1 Balboa that's a mint made error. On reverse of coin it has LEY 0.925 indicating silver content...however; the planchet is copper nickel. It does have beautiful toning on it, and it is Proof Like with low mintage of 10,000; not pricey at all.
Thanks. There is something of a sub-series of these "fineness errors". In 1975 & 76 FM proof prepped does were sent to the Royal Canadian mint to strike copper nickel currency pieces and fineness left on - both 1 & 5 balboas for both years. There are some scarcer fineness errors for 1982 in both denominations in the unc mint sets and even in the proofs, the latter being actual 0.500 silver coins with 0.925 fineness indicated on reverse
Well, just Love coins, period.
Interesting post. I think they're pretty cool. An unloved series that could have easily been wildly popular as the silver companion to the Krugerrand if it had caught the imagination of the public. I wonder if they would have been shown greater love if they'd been .999 silver instead of sterling.
There are a few original 10-piece boxed and wrapped rolls on eBay right now.
--Severian the Lame
Yes, I think so. The Franklin Mint was stuck on that sterling standard - as though these coins would circulate!
Well, just Love coins, period.
Geez, you'd think after the first fineness error occurred in '75 there would be a little more effort devoted to Quality Control??? I'm curious if RCM new of the fineness issue on the dies, and just went ahead anyway and minted them? Perhaps too large of an area to grind off the fineness, and then polish without compromising rest of design? Didn't know about '76 & '82. Neat.
No telling their motives at Canadian mint. I do t know if any of these ever circulated - I haven't seen any with other than bag marks.
The 1976s were exactly the same.
The 1982s came in 1Balboa copper nickel currency with "error" 0.500, and then currency 5 balboa copper nickel with "error" 0.500 (these mostly from the. Eet scarce mint sets of that year), and then strangely as proofs in actual 0.500 fineness with "error" fineness stated as 0.925 !
I also have a 1983 proof quarter balboa with "error" (or perhaps pattern?) fineness on coin as 0.500. I have speculated that this was a possible pattern for an all silver 80th Anniversary proof set that never made it into production as 1983 would have marked 80 years as a Republic.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Update: NONE. I have seen a total of two of the matte 1975 20 Balboas, and managed to get them (including the above). These received no special handling and have the expected bag marks as does the OP.
I wonder if they will ever pick up demand? DOn't know, and part of the FM panoply.
Well, just Love coins, period.
A couple of thoughts on what will hold demand down...
Not having relatively accessible documentation regarding what was minted.
If you don't know what exists and in what format, they'll get overlooked.
Extremely tiny mintages/surviving populations.
If you can't find them, you can't collect them.
I see many comments of scarcity, low mintages and "under rated", including for errors or die varieties.
What are the approximate prices and estimated survivors for the coins discussed here?
In one specific example above, 10,000 is not a low mintage for a non-circulating coin from Panama or any country like it. South Africa proof sets from this period have somewhat more and it's a country with a much bigger local collector market, though US collectors have a lower preference for these sets versus this coinage.
What I know is that I WANT the coins from 1984 but I do not care for 1974 or any other year. So if there will be a collector who, lets say, will want all the 1970's FM coins, he will search and find out about these. Don't get me wrong, I like all the coins made by FM, I just do not feel the urge to collect all.
Coinsof1984@martinb6830 on twitter
Yea, doesn't really matter to me if others aren't interested but interesting that this coin is virtually never seen as stated and is the scarcest of a well recognised type. Although the original mintage was 2,500 it appears that the vast majority were melted for whatever reason ( I have not be able to determine why) just like with the better documented 1976 matte 20 Balboas.
All that this does is highlight the fact that there are likely very few collectors for most series. What may be interesting is that the Panama series, even the more modern, evidently have some interest as was demonstrated by the Richard Stuart sale which generated some relatively bigger prices. What it does do, at least for me, is provide a somewhat affordable series to collect.
Well, just Love coins, period.
Remarkably these same considerations apply to circulation issue coins from around the world with huge mintages. Back in the days of silver there were at least a few people collecting every circulation issue no matter the metallic composition or the mintage. But as countries shifted away from silver after WW II people just quit collecting many of the coins made for circulation no matter what their composition.
Now there are many unrecognized scarcities because the coins still aren't being collected.
Looking for a picture like [insert John Travolta looking around pulp fiction animated gif]
Ok then.
But as per CK, my general feel overall is that there are in most areas of numismatics relatively few collectors. I will keep my interest regardless but IMO the coin market less the flippers and millionaires is NOT in a good state be it foreign or domestic. 129k USD 1958 Franklin Half Dollars, and the like - what true collector would be chasing that (and I know people will get irritated with that citation). So many examples could be pointed out.
I remember we were so excited by coins that kids growing up in the 60s and early 70s that we would have impromptu "meetings" in different kids garages to exchange wheaties, small silver coins like Barber dimes, etc. and that it was such a big deal to go downtown (Santa Barbara) to the LCS shops and look around....Mom almost shot me when I bought a Fine grade 1911-S cent for 7.00.
Now there is NOTHING I can do to get my young son interested in coins, or his friends, or his classmates. NOTHING. I have tried various talks, hands-on demos, playacting, etc., and all to NO avail. I drag him to the Baltimore show on occasion but even that won't happen without letting him take the Nintendo Switch....
I kind of like it with the minimal interest in these wonderful Franklin Mint currency coins, silver or potmetal as it makes their purchase most reasonable price wise (getting a bit harder I must admit). Even so, the crusade to get this 1975FM (M) 20 Balboas took me back to those earlier years. The thrill of the hunt.
Well, just Love coins, period.
At some point the minimal interest will not be minimal... the real question will be what remains of what was minted. And this extends to countries other than Panama
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
The question is what will happen with our collection when we are not around anymore. I hate the idea that all that work will be lost and coins scattered. So I make all kind of books about my coins but i am still not sure how to solve the collection survival problem.
Coinsof1984@martinb6830 on twitter
Not minimal at what price level?
Most coins aren't interesting enough to sell above nominal prices, even where the percentage increase is meaningful. Rarity alone is meaningless, especially since most coins likely aren't nearly as scarce as most collectors seem to believe.
Mintage provides a ceiling but there is a better reason to believe that the actual supply is a noticeable multiple to what is apparent.
Anyone who has looked extensively at what is available from older coinage will know that most of it isn't that scarce, even in better quality. On one occasion, I dug through the TPG data to put together a partial list. Some of what I found was probably at least partly from hoards but not all of it. Some of the numbers were low, but not low compared to what is seen as available.
For the true collector who is accumulating, moderate or lower prices are a good thing. Why pay more than necessary?
I'm one who believes that, while collecting outside the US may increase noticeably in a proportional sense, it's never going to be financially meaningful where it isn't already. It's a catch-22 where the lack of a collecting tradition in the past = a limited supply of coins collectors want to buy the most = a limitation on the scale of collecting.
Yes, well that is alright with me, and especially with regards to FM coins as they are very attractive and actually do show signs of life as some of the sets have had some real (relative) fire at auction with several of the maligned proof sets bringing close to or above the 1,000 USD mark.
I have had some relatively obscene offers for some in fact....
If you think these are poorly collected, you should try some of the more recent British colonial and post-colonial issues like the Guyana 1c and 5c that I like to collect. Super cheap but try and find some of them. I like to use the 1978 Guyana 5c struck by the Royal Mint - 2,000 minted and these released out into a steaming and burning hot South American jungle climate. Try to find one. And they are NOT sitting around in hoards....
Well, just Love coins, period.
A coin with a mintage of 2000 isn't likely to have any hoards. It's not impossible but not probable.
Guyana is an obscure hardly collected at all country. The examples you used with a mintage of 2000 are presumably actually scarce but the low prices also usually mean it's more common than is apparent. It's either buried in some non-collector's "change jar" or if owned by a collector, no incentive to sell it.
The point I was making in my above post is that, if much older coins are actually a lot more common than most people believe, 99% of the time, so is anything more recent. As one example, the Spain 1726 Madrid Mint 1R has 28 graded MS-66 or better. Duplicates? Not worth the bother. Is it a hoard coin? Maybe but it's almost 300 years old, the mintage could not have been that high (Madrid was one of many), and high quality Spanish coins from anywhere near this period aren't that common. Scarcer than Britain, France or Germany, usually.
The pricing of most of the FM stuff is an ongoing work in progress with certain coins/sets not offered with enough frequency to establish a meaningful trend. That would likely change if there was greater interest.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
And not altogether a problem, as these are in some cases very rare. I know it is fun getting beautiful and rare coins on a shoestring budget (relatively)...
Well, just Love coins, period.