When did collectors start caring about mintmarks?
Bayard1908
Posts: 4,092 ✭✭✭✭
As a collector of proof type, mintmarks aren't of much concern to me; however, I am curious when collectors started caring about mintmarks.
Was there a time when a 1916D Mercury dime was considered no different than a 1916P? Some have suggested that the Whitman folders and penny boards are what started the interest in mintmarks; however, I find it difficult to accept that the 1838O half wasn't a recognized rarity in the 19th Century.
Was there a time when a 1916D Mercury dime was considered no different than a 1916P? Some have suggested that the Whitman folders and penny boards are what started the interest in mintmarks; however, I find it difficult to accept that the 1838O half wasn't a recognized rarity in the 19th Century.
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In truth is wasn't until the mid 1890s they became important after Heaton's book on mint marks.
The 1890's is not in jest, Heaton's book did set off interest in US mintmarks.
Link to Heaton's treatise on mintmarks, coin library
When I saw d and s on the dated coins, I gave up, figuring there was a to z on every date, so I gave up,
figuring there would be too many BU to find from circulation.
As soon as the mint started putting them on coins.
-----and have no idea there are mint marks!
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
In 1955 my wife to be in Canada believed that if she found a set of US cents with those mint marks, she would get a new car.
In those days, everybody seemed to know a 3 color male cat (genetically impossible, by the way) was worth $1,000.
Page from an 1860 coin and price guide.
roadrunner
Little known fact about its pedigree: the W.W. Long museum, from whom Dr. Edward Maris bought it sometime before 1886, was not in San Francisco as Breen and others have published. It was in Philadelphia, where Maris was from. And, better yet, the Long Museum counterstamped coins for advertising!
John Clapp the Elder was a pioneer in putting away mintmarks, many ordered directly from the Mint when Heaton was just warming up to their collectibility.
How about the proof 1854-S $20 in the Smithsonian? At least one cabinet was gathering mintmarked rarities that early: the Mint Cabinet in Philadelphia!
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
In truth is wasn't until the mid 1890s they became important after Heaton's book on mint marks.
The 1890's is not in jest, Heaton's book did set off interest in US Mintmarks.
Link to Heaton's treatise on Mintmarks, coin library
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