So Called Dollar fans: A rare new addition
Weiss
Posts: 9,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
Nice to be able to make a long anticipated addition while the rest of the world is going a little nuts.
Many years ago @keets posted about the 1909 Hudson-Fulton So called Dollars struck by the enigmatic Thomas Elder (sorry I always drag you into these threads, keets 
)
What made these so fascinating to me is their amazing detail, their composition (the first ones I saw were struck in GOLD!), and their incredibly small size--15mm. They were also struck in aluminum, bronze, and silver. How cool is that?
The scant images I found online were enough to pique my interest, and about 7 years ago I started trying to find an example. As luck would have it, I was in the right place at the right time and I found an example of the gold. Then I found another, and a third example. So for awhile, I thought about trying to amass the largest collection of the gold examples I could. The problem with that idea was that I soon acquired the NGC pop top. And then the PCGS pop top. So I saw diminishing returns and had to re-evaluate my plans--and decided to go for as nice of a set of the four metals (aluminium, bronze, silver, gold) as I could find.
Populations on these have always been iffy--Elder claimed there were 100 examples, then said fewer than 50, and then "only a few". And the SCD sub-section of our hobby was probably the last to embrace third party grading, and it's possible or even likely many examples have never been to our hosts or ATS.
But everyone who has pursued these pieces (including @CaptHenway ) knows that the bronze pieces are probably the most scarce. Even given the limited value of the TPG census, NGC shows 25 of the gold versions, and PCGS shows 7 examples. Maybe some are resubmissions. So that tiny pop of maybe 30, give or take, seems about right.
But the bronze?
Only 8 across the street, and zero at our hosts. 
With the pop tops for the gold, I sought out the silver and the aluminum. Got a nice silver example from Jeff Shelvin about 5 years ago, then accidentally picked up the pop top aluminium HK-374 from HA in 2016.
During this time I had started a shift to the Box of 20 style of collecting, led in part by that accumulation of the gold version of these medals and the internal conflict about hoarding vs. collecting. So after acquiring the pop top of the companion series (the "Fulton" medals of this "Hudson-Fulton series"), I kind of back-burnered the whole set lacking only the bronze (HK-373).
A few days back, Jeff Shelton emailed me to say I'd written him all those years ago and asked about the bronze version of the Hudson medals. He had an example, and asked if I was interested.
During a pandemic with accompanying global financial melt-down? Why the hell not? 
Since I had a few examples of the gold 371, I offered to trade and Jeff accepted. Picked her up at the post office just now.
So she's not pristine. She's not an MS68, with a star, or a plus, or a gold bean. She's got that small sun spot over her date, and a few tiny beauty marks here and there.
But she's one of the few surviving pieces from what was undoubtedly a teeny-tiny original mintage. She's got the Ostheimer pedigree (one of the best old-school SCD collections ever assembled). And she pretty much completes the series.
--Severian the Lame
Comments
Congrats on the new acquisition! When you start collecting a certain variety of tokens by metal type, it can be a daunting task tracking down the remaining few. Sometimes an off metal strike is unique and it is a showstopper.
Glad to see you add this piece to your fine set
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Hard to get an idea of how beautiful these pieces are from that ratty 63 bronze...
--Severian the Lame
feel free to drag me into any discussion you want to about these interesting medals. my hope one day is to meet Tom D. at a show, take him out to dinner and talk about the Elder issues. Mr. Elder led an interesting life and seemed to find himself at some important crossroads at just the right time. sadly, in his later years I think the feud with Farran Zerbe got the best of him and he ended his life in a not so happy state. although I don't currently have very many Thomas Elder issues I still have several and routinely look for them. recently, when I had decided to sell a few of the better, more rare SC$'s I contacted a forum member who had expressed interest. it seemed like the right thing to do.
I believe the MS68 NGC HK-371 would have a provenance to me if I was important enough!!
were you the buyer on eBay or did you get it subsequent to that?? I'll tell you a short story about how it came to me.
--- I don't remember when, perhaps 2003, but I had become fascinated with the Elder issues, bought a large group of old "Numismatist" issues with the intent of reading the article(s) by Tom DeLorey where he initially catalogued Elder's issues. as it happens sometimes, a few weeks later I went to the Cleveland Coin Expo that was a three day show held twice each year. as I was walking the bourse I stopped at the table of a dealer I had bought from in the past and as we were talking he showed me a really nice complete collection of Gold Commemoratives he'd purchased. as I was looking at them he pulled a coin out that was still in a Saflip, said it was with the collection but he didn't know what it was.
as it turns out it was the HK-371!! I told him what it was and he offered it to me for a price that was OK, I just wasn't sure if it was Genuine. my concern was the coin/medal orientation of the reverse. so we hatched a deal: I would buy it contingent on it grading at NGC. we actually shook hands on the deal and he said he'd call me when it returned.
fast forward about six weeks and I get a PM from forum member njcoincrank(Bill Shamhart) that I had met here at the forum and in Pittsburgh. Bill had seen the thread about my "discovery" several weeks earlier and by chance he saw the dealer at the P.A.N. Show and was offered the SC$. he told the dealer, Dave Beach, that if I balked at buying it that he would, the he PM'd me. about a week later the dealer called me and we finalized the deal --- at a price twice what we had agreed to. I swallowed hard when I wrote the check.
needless to say I have never even stopped at the guys table and he does most large, regional shows. I usually walk past, smile and say hello.
Congrats!
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
Dude. That blows!
I'm certain the 68 was yours. But I got the NGC 68 at Heritage in 2014. If you want to make yourself feel worse, feel free to look at what I paid
The PCGS 67 I got through Bill Shamhart at Numismatic Americana, and I probably made a huge mistake there: Bill had offered the gold as part of a set which included an aluminum example (which at the time I had no interest in), and both came in an envelope from Thomas Elder to...Virgil Brand.
I asked him to part out just the gold, which he did. So one of you out there got some great history at a fraction of what it should probably have cost!
--Severian the Lame
at the time I was trying to collect the Hudson and Fulton Dollars it proved difficult, that was around 2003-2010. I was able to acquire six of the eight medals, the two which proved to be un-find-able were both Bronze issues, 38mm and 15mm. I wasn't able to find any of the Fulton Dollars.
Interesting story, thank you all for sharing !!!
Crazy to think that the entire surviving population of these (maybe even the entire original mintage) could have been made from a few cents' weight in bronze. Like literally 4 or 5 Indian head cents.
--Severian the Lame
Really interesting pieces.... Particularly so for me, since I live on the Hudson River....A lot of history in this little town and the Hudson is a big part of it. Cheers, RickO
Nice!
Nice!
The Fultons are crazy hard to find. Stumbled across this one almost by accident. Isn't the detail on these insane? 15 mm!
--Severian the Lame
I think they were done by MACO in NYC.