Interesting Cross-Collectible: Early Baseball Engraving on a Seated Liberty Dollar
TLeverage
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Lot #82055 in the upcoming Heritage 2017 November 16 - 18 Sports Collectibles Catalog Auction:
1861 Silver Dollar Presented to President of Excelsior Base Ball Club. Silver coin dates to the dawn of both the Civil War and the burgeoning sport of baseball. The history of the relic has been lost beneath a century and a half of hourglass sand, but we report that the engraving on the smoothed verso appears to be period, and reads, "Presented to James Dooley, Prest., Excelsior B.B.C." The most famous Excelsior baseball team was headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, and there is reason to believe this is the team referenced, as it would appear that the others were chartered after 1861. Coin obverse shows wear; verso is clean.
Very interesting collectible combining our nation's pastime and numismatics.
Comments
The auction description says that it is a "dollar" but the obverse looks like a quarter not a dollar.
Certainly seems that way. Perhaps there's not a lot of contact between departments over at Heritage.
Interesting old piece.... nice engraving, however, it has sure seen a lot of wear...must have been a pocket piece for quite a while. Cheers, RickO