Incredible Run of Proof Sets from Barber Era
Eldorado9
Posts: 2,447 ✭✭✭✭✭
Was looking back through an old Rarcoa/Akers, Numisma 1995 auction catalog and came across this mind-blowing run of proof sets, totally original, and raw! Holy grail kind of stuff. They look ridiculously nice......Days gone by. Oh if I could only go back in time. The descriptions said these were all owned by one family and they were bought directly from the mint. Anybody have any of these today? I recognize a few of the coins, and they are all in PF-67 or PF-68 holders today! The old pics really didn't show the coins in their real colors. Can you imagine the Trueviews on these?
ompl
32
Comments
Amazing rarity to see this originality,
Agreed. More time than money spent on several.
Take a look at the 1905 Half above, and compare...., now in the DLH Set, PF-68!
Can you imagine the dealership when these walked in?
Oh, eye candy extraordinaire!!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
One of the few hardbound auction catalogs I have is the Stack's 1992 Floyd Starr collection of proof sets, complete from 1858-1916, excluding the 85 Trade dollar and gold, although I think the $1 gold was complete in proof. Monster collection in that catalog, not a single numeric grade in sight.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
reminds me of the number sales back in the day so many original sets I didn't appreciate it
That's amazing!
Wicked cool
Original Proof sets, not assembled sets, from this era are very cool and a dying breed. I had a 1909 set I bought at the 1976 ANA national convention from the Goldbergs. I sold it to make the down payment on my first house. Like the one shown here, the cent was the Indian type. You had to go back and buy additional cent-nickel sets (They were sold together.) to get the Lincoln Cents. That’s why the 1909 Proof nickel mintage is high.
Just incredible that those beautiful proofs were kept for so long... and are still known in some collections. Probably one or two sets still intact in a collection somewhere. Cheers, RickO
Dying breed for sure @billjones I can't imagine there are any sets like above still intact, and ungraded. A few slabbed set's come around now and then, but one can't be sure they have not been assembled.....The only telltale being the consistent toning patterns. I've found that each date i.e. 1905, 1906, etc. seems to take on specific toning characteristics, I believe, from the minor differences/ chemical makeup of the packaging.
Very cool indeed!
These sets are amazing.
When I look at them, I can only hope that we would produce such artful images as these today.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...