First darkside proof!
clarkbar04
Posts: 4,979 ✭✭✭✭✭
This coin had everything going for it:
Proof
Silver
rare (mintage of 5,000, according to krause)
nice design (even if her top was on)
price ($15)
Ahh I love darkside.....
(seller scans)
Proof
Silver
rare (mintage of 5,000, according to krause)
nice design (even if her top was on)
price ($15)
Ahh I love darkside.....
(seller scans)
MS66 taste on an MS63 budget.
0
Comments
The symbol on the back is the same one that was on their flag from 1957 to 1989:
These days the symbol in the middle has been removed and the Hungarian flag is just the three bars. I think it's pretty interesting how flags have changed over the years.
"Liteside" is US coins.
"Greyside" is Canadian coins.
"Farside" is sometimes used to refer to exonumia (tokens, medals, etc.)
But this terminology only applies here. Many times I've had to catch myself and prevent myself from blurting out the term "Darkside" while at my coin booth in an antique mall, or at a show. I think it's slipped out a couple of times in numismatic discussions with non- CU forum members, who've given me quizzical expressions of confusion.
That might be your first Darkside proof, but it won't be your last.
Darkside proofs are affordable even back into the early 1800s, believe it or not.
Speaking of coins with everything goin' for them...
Check out my past finest single coin, an Irish gilt proof penny from 1805, NGC PR64 CAM.
Now imagine a United States coin larger than a silver dollar, two hundred years old, in PR64 Cameo, and imagine it looked like a gold coin. (The US never struck gilt copper coins like this but you get all the eye appeal of a gold coin with them.)
Such a US coin would cost what, five figures? At least?
As I recall, I paid around $800 for this. An expensive coin, to be sure, but a real monster with multi-thousand-dollar eye appeal.
Now check this out. I once bought three French patterns from the 1840s. All were in ANACS PR63 holders.
Look at this Pn48 five-franc pattern. (Sorry for the poor picture.) A cool design, which most would call beautiful. A similar head was adopted on later coins. Note all those little cherubs forming the headband. And then the reverse, with that bizarre backwards 4 that they'd misengraved. Silly Frenchies!
Again, we're talkin' a silver dollar sized coin, too. A proof pattern, more than a century and a half old. Who could possibly fail to recognize the coolness factor of such an item? Not me. I grabbed it and two other pieces with different designs.
What do you think such an item would be worth? Again, if it were a US pattern of the period, particularly one with those neat design quirks, it would have, what, a high four-figure or even a five-figure pricetag, right?
I paid $200 each for them.
Not exactly dirt cheap, but when you consider they were patterns and proofs more than 150 years old... c'mon! They sounded real darn cheap to me!
BTW, I think your lady's top IS on. It's just really flimsy material and it's probably cold out there on the hilltop, where she's waving her giant feather or leaf or whateverthehell that is.
I have also noticed some features missing from the newer printed books that were in the older ones. The circle charts for determining millimeter sizes, for instance. Does anybody see those in the post-2004 issues? 'Cause I wanted to size some of my Roman coins and don't own a pair of calipers. I ended up tearing the circle chart page out of an old catalog and putting it in a sheet protector to keep, so when I give the old book away I will still have the circle chart.
Is it struck in white metal, or is it actually silver?
I'd say that was a nice find for $200, especially with the error.
They might be more common than US patterns of the era, for all I know (probably are), but I still thought they had a helluva lot of bang for the buck. And they're probably still fairly scarce. I've long since sold them but I would buy more at that price in an eyeblink, given the opportunity.
Got 'em from our very Darkside Dan right here ("danglen"), though it was at his table during a FUN show. You could ask him where he got them. For all I know he might still have one or two in his shop.
And yes, I knew that one pattern would be right up your alley.
<< <i>That doesn't surprise me a bit. NEN has lots of cool stuff like that. >>
Tell me about it. Currently, I'm devising a scheme to get this:
You're a goner, y'know. From newbie Darksider to NEN shopper in no time at all. Acquired a taste for shooting thalers in what, the first month or so?
I sure hope you have deep pockets. Betcha the depth of your pockets doesn't quite match your tastes completely, eh? Ah, well. Happens to all of us.
<< <i>
I sure hope you have deep pockets. Betcha the depth of your pockets doesn't quite match your tastes completely, eh? Ah, well. Happens to all of us. >>
The pockets are deep enough (for that one), but I'd never convince the wife that I should spend that much on a single coin! So the only way would be to sell, sell sell!!
But of course there are coins that I could never afford under any circumstances... ahh, maybe one day.