Won this today at Stacks.....
bosox
Posts: 1,663 ✭✭✭✭✭
Canada 1881-H specimen cent in SP-65RB. Despite the H mint mark, this coin is a Royal Mint trial piece. The RM used this same obverse die in 1879, 1880, and 1886 on other specimen cents they struck without H mintmarks. For this coin, the RM used this obverse die to strike trials before they sent the 1881-H reverse punch to Heaton. The Heaton-struck 1881-H specimens employed other obverse dies. This is only the second 1881-H trial piece to come to light. The other appeared in the Cook sale in 2019.
This coin also has a wonderful pedigree. Among other transactions, the coin passed through the Caldecott sale (1912), a Wayte Raymond 1928 price list (from the W.W.C. Wilson collection). the Norweb sale (1996), and now the Stacks - Charles Litman sale (2026). My kind of coin.
I felt like this was another example of where publishing the book cost me a bit at the auction but am very pleased to buy the coin.
Photos by Stacks.
http://www.victoriancent.com
Comments
Great coin, Rob. I know a coin like that will be close to the heart.
Better looking in hand than In those pics. Congrats!
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I had a feeling that was you. Congrats! Great coin.
Life member #369 of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
Member of Canadian Association of Token Collectors
Collector of:
Canadian coins and pre-confederation tokens
Darkside proof/mint sets dated 1960
My Ebay
Nice catch, congrats