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1964-D Peace Dollar - What's the Unreal Story? - Winners Announced!
RWB
Posts: 8,082 ✭
This is a contest. It is a creative numismatic writing contest.
The prize is the winner’s choice of:
An autographed copy of A Guide Book of Peace Dollars,
OR
A nice 1934-D doubled die obverse (VAM-3) Peace dollar in VF condition. (No slab – just a pleasant looking circulated example of this naked-eye doubled die.)
The contest --
Virtually every coin collector has heard of the fabled 1964-D Peace dollar. The coin was struck in May 1965, but not released – at least not officially released. Over the years many interesting stories claim to explain what happened to these coins. Nearly every story concludes that a few coins still exist.
Your task is to write an original version of how the coins were produced and explain how one or more survived.
You may NOT simply repeat one of the many “old saw” stories found on the internet or in Breen.
Your entries must be either posted or PM’d by midnight February 20, 2009. PCGS message board time/date stamp will be the post time and date.
Stories will be judged on originality, creativity, dramatic presentation and plausibility.
I will be the sole judge, jury and executioner.
The prize is the winner’s choice of:
An autographed copy of A Guide Book of Peace Dollars,
OR
A nice 1934-D doubled die obverse (VAM-3) Peace dollar in VF condition. (No slab – just a pleasant looking circulated example of this naked-eye doubled die.)
The contest --
Virtually every coin collector has heard of the fabled 1964-D Peace dollar. The coin was struck in May 1965, but not released – at least not officially released. Over the years many interesting stories claim to explain what happened to these coins. Nearly every story concludes that a few coins still exist.
Your task is to write an original version of how the coins were produced and explain how one or more survived.
You may NOT simply repeat one of the many “old saw” stories found on the internet or in Breen.
Your entries must be either posted or PM’d by midnight February 20, 2009. PCGS message board time/date stamp will be the post time and date.
Stories will be judged on originality, creativity, dramatic presentation and plausibility.
I will be the sole judge, jury and executioner.
0
Comments
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Whilest I may wish to shed a few years off the frame, I must admit that being a YN at a time when you could still find silver coins in pocket change (Barbers, Mercs, Roosies, SLQ's Washies, Walkers, Frankies, Kennedies, Morgans and Peace dollars), plus buffalo and liberty nickels, plus early Lincolns and Indian head cents was way cool.
In the summer months of 1965, a troubled Mint employee slaved away working the coin press. His name was Javier Hitchinson - a father of five, supporting a single-income household. His pregnant wife stayed at home caring for the children.
Javier would wake up every morning at 5 o'clock, and catch the bus into town. He worked a 12-hour shift at the US Mint, constantly pushing buttons, changing out the dies, and other odd jobs. Javier was very good with his hands, and he could fix almost anything. One time, in the spring of '63, the press shut down completely, and nobody knew why. Javier popped open the panel on the side of the machine, and began clanking away with a hammer and screwdriver. About 25 minutes later, Javier had the press fully functional, and coining was able to continue.
On this particular day, Javier was slated to begin coining a design that was being brought back from the 1930's - the Peace Dollar. Javier, having emigrated from Columbia in 1957, had never seen such a coin. He was overwhelmed by its beauty, and detail of design. Javier liked to take special care to make sure that each and every one of these coins was minted in the most proper manner. He would clean the presses frequently, make sure the dies were aligned correctly, and would personally see that each coin made it to the correct place down the line.
After a while of coining these coins, Javier had become attached. He loved the work he was doing, and the coins he was making. But, one Wednesday afternoon, Javier was ordered to "Stop the presses!" by his supervisor. No reason was given to Javier. He knew they had not made nearly enough coins, since they had only been making these for a few weeks. What could the reason have been?
Javier was shocked at the news. His masterpiece, the coins he had loved so tenderly over the last weeks, would not ever see the outside world. Javier had to get these coins out into the public somehow.
The following day, Javier snuck into the storage room, and filled his jacket pockets with these coins. He managed to get 23 coins in all, and he carefully wrapped them up in a handkerchief, never to return to the US Mint.
Times were tough for Javier and his family. Bills needed to be paid, and Javier's new job was barely enough to cover his debts. Then he remembered his prized possessions. Surely, the rest of the coins would have been destroyed by now. He had not seen any of his beauties in circulation, and he knew that his 23 coins were the only surviving examples. They must be worth some money.
Javier took five of these coins to a local pawn shop, and was offered $20 each on the spot for the coins. Not knowing the true worth of his little treasures, he happily accepted.
The whereabouts of the last 18 coins are not known. It has been said that Javier may have accidentally spent a few of them, but that is all up to speculation. Efforts to find the descendants of Javier were fruitless. Three of the five coins Javier sold have been passed around on the dealer network under the table, for sums in excess of $100,000. One of the coins is currently in the hands of a private New England collector, and the remaining two coins are in the Safe Deposit box of a prominent California Banker. The final two remain with the pawn shop owner that originally bought the coins in 1965.
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<< <i>This is a contest. It is a creative numismatic writing contest.
The prize is the winner’s choice of:
An autographed copy of A Guide Book of Peace Dollars,
OR
A nice 1934-D doubled die obverse (VAM-3) Peace dollar in VF condition. (No slab – just a pleasant looking circulated example of this naked-eye doubled die.)
The contest --
Virtually every coin collector has heard of the fabled 1964-D Peace dollar. The coin was struck in May 1965, but not released – at least not officially released. Over the years many interesting stories claim to explain what happened to these coins. Nearly every story concludes that a few coins still exist.
Your task is to write an original version of how the coins were produced and explain how one or more survived.
You may NOT simply repeat one of the many “old saw” stories found on the internet or in Breen.
Your entries must be either posted or PM’d by midnight February 20, 2009. PCGS message board time/date stamp will be the post time and date.
Stories will be judged on originality, creativity, dramatic presentation and plausibility.
I will be the sole judge, jury and executioner. >>
Since you insist on dismissing my first-hand interview with a former Mint employee who confirmed that 1964-D Peace Dollars were sold to employees as an "old saw" story, I fail to see the point of this exercise in creative booshwah.
TD
The original 1964-D Peace Dollar has an intricate history and is interwoven with our culture.
It all started in 1963 when gambling was legalized in the state of Utah.
A new Casino Complex, the Moroni Towers was to be built and one of the many distinctive features of this casino was the use of casino 'chips' which were modelled after the original Peace Dollar coins.
It quickly became obvious that the US Mint would not produce these willingly, as they were busy with other things and would not return phone calls. The last Peace Dollar minted was many decades prior and every one of them had been dipped, cleaned and wiped hard such that they were all ugly and thus unsuitable for casino chips. So the casino contracted with local mints in Dongguan, China.
Twenty billion of these new 1964-D Peace Dollars were produced and were in-route to various west coast ports of the United States.
As we all know, piracy at this time was quite common and all of the coin container ships were sunk or captured. But the pirates were very unlucky, as the coins were actually small, highly advanced mechanical devices. They quickly sprouted arms and legs, opened their little eyes, did a dance, then promptly ate the brains of the pirates. Thus, the United States was narrowly spared a bizarre downfall. Some of the animated coin beings left the earth and found the planet of Cybertron, where they created the all-spark and founded the Transformer civilization, a race of super advanced robots. Not many people know that the genesis of the Transformers is the 1964-D peace dollar made in Dongguan.
The Utah Casino operators, undaunted, pondered their plight. They needed those coins or the casino would wither and die. They spread rumors that the new "peace dollar" coins, which had all been lost, were a coming replacement for the very real US "war dollars". People loved their war dollars but were becoming tired of war and wanted peace. Therefore the new peace dollars were a very attractive thought. The public gleefully accepted this new dollar coin instantly. The Denver Mint had no choice but to mint trillions of these "1964-D" coins. Very few folks realize that the "D" originally stood for Dongguan and not Denver. But since the original coins were lost, the fiction that these are original American coins could contine.
Shortly after production, all of the shipping companies simultaneously decided to go on a holiday. The coins were stored in a warehouse that was on top of a previously unknown fault. It was not long before the weight of three trillion silver coins caused a great cosmic belch and the coins sunk below the earth.
But this was not the last of the story. Underneath the warehouse, millions of years earlier, the Goauld species placed a stargate. Although this stargate was originally billed as a device for interstellar conquest, a few clever Nevada senators using a time machine designed by earlier by a Mr. Wells actually perpetrated a grand fraud.
This gate functioned as it was originally supposed to, and far from an interstellar invasion, it helped transport the sunken silver coins back in time, and a little to the west, forming the Comstock Lode, which we are all familar with. Once again, the earth avoided a great catastrophe and a thriving economy of Nevada was guaranteed for decades.
By now, the mob back east was losing patience, as the Moroni Towers were not yet reality. The original plan was abandoned and the protocols for plan 9 were created. Plan 9 was a creation of the early days of the cold war. The US government was losing the war, heard of the coin that the mob had designed and and contracted with them to help with the situation. Silver is known to have powerful Democratic properties and was highly useful in the colr war. Now, anyone who did not have a Silver Dollar was contractually obligated to have their kneecaps shattered. Public adoption went through the roof and communism was defeated. The original design was to create Susan B Anthony dollars. Few people know that Mrs. Anthony was very pretty in her earlier years and the final result was completely identical to the original Peace Dollars of decades before. Although the two designs were arrived at independantly, they are absolutely indistinguishable under a microscope. This is an amazing coincidence and fact which few folks know, as we are all more familiar with the later Susan B. Dollars.
But once again, plan backfired as the silver used to mint the 1964 Susan B. Peace Dollars was a special "ballotechnic" silver that was useful in the creation of suitcase sized nuclear explosive devices. The coins made of ballotechnic silver may have never been detected, if it wasn't for a certain indicident in a local Denver bar involving a bet, haggis, a paper clip, a rubber chicken and two of these special silver dollars. There were no survivors of the blast, but the forensic evidence was clear and was impossible to keep under wraps. All of these incendiary coins were soon exported, melted down and converted into suitcase explosives. Once again, America was lucky. The ballotechnic silver was unstable and by the time the suitcase devices were created, the metal had turned into an unknown substance which is widely regarded as explaining why Europe is the way it is today.
All we are left with in modern times are rumors of the original pattern trial pieces of the Susan B. Peace Dollar. These are reportedly stamped in rare mithral carved from the depths from the dwarvish mines prior to the release of Durin's Bane. We wish the coin bearer the best of luck in his quest to dispose of the true One Coin in the fiery furnace from which it came, Mount Redoubt. If the dark lord of Alaska gets a hold of this coin, free will on Earth will perish. We wish Mr. Frodo Moy the best in his travels.
Empty Nest Collection
Or How I Became a Wanted Man
My father, whose name must remain secret for obvious reasons, was born in 1919. Growing up in the Depression, he learned at an early age the value of a dollar. In 1939, he joined the Army and became an aviator in the South Pacific. He was awarded several medals, including five Battle Stars before the war ended and he returned to his home in Denver, CO.
Jobs were tough to come by in early 1946 when he re-entered the job market. A friend worked at the Denver Mint and knew of a position that had just opened up. Dad made a quick trip down there and was hired on the spot. A case of being in the right place at the right time.
Dad was fascinated by the sheer number of coins he saw on a daily basis. He worked hard and soon became a Quality Control Manager. Every time something went “wrong” (as in error coins being produced), they wound up on his desk. Dad became intrigued with error coins, and preceded to keep examples. He did this by simply replacing coin for coin out of his pocket. As the years went by, he amassed quite a collection of error coins. He did this out of his own personal interest, not because he felt they may be worth something in the future.
Fast forward 19 years and Dad was still at the Mint. I remember him telling our family about the upcoming new Peace Dollar that they were preparing to mint. Dad said that we could each get one, and only one, but we would each have to pay for it. My Mom, Dad, sister and myself each wanted one. This presented a minor problem in that each employee was only permitted to receive two. Somehow Dad found a way around it and got four beautiful examples. He went to the press room and actually caught them coming out of the press. These coins were flawless and stunning, obviously MS68 quality.
A few days later dad came home with the bad news. Production was halted and all employees were to return the two coins that they had purchased. The big bosses made it very clear that anybody keeping one would be in violation of Federal law and would be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Dad gave it a lot of thought. He was the only one that knew he had purchased four of them. He finally decided that he would risk it. The next day he returned two of them, and placed the other two in a safe deposit box. At the time, we believed he had returned all four of them.
Fast forward another forty years to 2005. Dad had passed away, and while going through his collection that had sat unmolested in his safe deposit box since he retired in 1984, we found the Holy Grail. Along with a letter explaining the circumstances of how he obtained them, sat two stunning 1964-D Peace Dollars. I was stunned when I saw them, and honestly didn’t know quite what to do. I had always thought that maybe, just maybe Dad might have had one, but he always said he didn’t.
In the 14 years since I found them, I have only showed them once, to a very well respected and nationally known numismatist. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. He was speechless! These two coins now sit in a safe deposit box outside the jurisdiction of the United States Government. One day I hope to be able to sell one, but until that day comes, they sit silently awaiting a collector.
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
The age of Camelot wasn't a panacea. International strife plagued the Kennedy administration. Our youngest president had already successfully dealt the Soviets a black eye in Cuba over some forward deployed missiles and in May of 1962 he was already committing US blood and treasure to fight the scourge of communism in Southeast Asia.
Along with the five thousand troops deployed to Thailand to deter the communist aggressions from Laos, our president sought to distribute a tangible symbol of freedom throughout the region.
John F. Kennedy secretly authorized then mint director Eva Adams to strike seven million of the 1964 peace dollars. The president intended to distribute these in Southeast Asia as symbols of freedom and the prosperity that peace and freedom brought.
By November 22, 1963, when the powers of the President passed to Lyndon Baines Johnson, the coins were struck and awaiting disposition in a military warehouse on the naval base in San Diego California. The base sits atop, and unbeknown to many, underneath, over a thousand acres of waterfront property. A perfect place for the CIA to squirrel away a two pallets silver medals.
The new president had his hands full in Southeast Asia. In 1964, General Nguyen Khanh seized power in Saigon in a bloodless coup. The new president of South Vietnam actively sought ways in which to ingratiate himself to the West. Much conjecture exists as to the CIA's roll in the successful coup, but available records bear little fruit on that account.
Johnson a strident anticommunist was more than happy to accept Khanh’s overtures. However it was apparent that while Khanh was willing to allow his regime to become Johnson’s puppet, it was also clear that Khanh sought to enrich himself, his kin and closest advisors.
Johnson, seeking a pivotal event to help him secure victory in the upcoming 1964 elections consulted with his close friend Henry Kissinger. The two patriots devised a plan.
LBJ’s administration would supply a small shipment of bullion to the Khanh. In return, Khanh, while keeping a reasonable amount of the wealth for himself, would use the rest to fake communist attacks on South Vietnamese bases. Johnson would respond by deploying US troops (advisors) and the common American would see the need to maintain a strong president in the White House.
Johnson began to swing the plan in motion when in July 1964, the Administration announced that an additional 5000 troops would be deployed to South Vietnam, increasing the US presence there to 21,000 servicemen. The large American presence would serve both to deter communist advances and to elicit a sympathetic response in the American public opinion polls once the mock attacks occurred latter that year.
The closest bullion available for Johnson’s plan was the 1964 dollars that JFK had authorized. Since these were not monitonized, they were simply a bullion asset on the administrations black books.
The two pallets of silver were loaded onto a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer designated DD-951, the USS Turner Joy. The ship was relatively new, having just been commissioned in 1959. She loaded and dispatched from the base in San Diego and completed her voyage to the Gulf on Tonkin in record time.
The day after the USS Turner Joy offloaded her cargo of peace dollars, she lay at anchor in the Harbor and along with the USS Maddox suffered torpedo damage from North Vietnamese PT boats in what became know as the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
As it turned out Johnson had his pivotal event without the help of South Vietnamese president. August 4th, just two days after the incident, the United States sinks 25 North Vietnamese boats at their bases.
August 7th, 1964, congress issues a resolution affirming "All necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States. . .to prevent further aggression. . . (and) assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asian Collective Defense Treaty (SEATO) requesting assistance. . ."
LBJ defeated his democratic rival Barry Goldwater in the November election. And the Vietnam War heated up quickly.
LBJ, ever the commensurate politician, arranged with Nguyen Khanh to have the seven million coins melted into non-descript bullion, lest the American Public ever learn of his less than sporting initial plans.
The destruction of the coins was carried out in January, 1965 under the supervision of two CIA agents in a small back alley operation in Saigon.
The three Vietnamese workers that ran the forge were searched both by Khanh’s representatives and by the CIA agents. No coins were pilfered by the Vietnamese.
One of the two CIA agents, a very close personal friend of the author, acknowledged that she pocketed several coins as souvenirs. These are the only known surviving examples.
<< <i>Is this story true? >>
Sorry. Is what story true? Mine is certainly fiction.
If it were true the CIA would have been pulling the strings and the coins would have been struck in India from an old war hoard of Nazi silver stolen from archeological sites as part of Dr. Franz Altheim's and Erika Trautmann's Reichsfuehrer-SS expeditions.
The Nazi SS used the Deutsches Ahnenerbe – Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte (German Ancestry - Research Society for Ancient Intellectual History) to promote the ideas of Gustaf Kossinna as a propaganda tool in the mid and late 1930’s to promote the Nazi views and ideas regarding racial superiority. The Nazi expeditions are the stuff of Indian Jones novels.
The 1964-D peace dollars were struck by the CIA in a covert effort to undermine the growing Soviet influence in the Middle East.
But of course that’s a story for another telling…
PS: I like UtahCoin's story. I suspect his SD box is on Grand Cayman.
and false spin stories.
It will stay that way until one is found and authenticated.
During the 1960's, the United States had many problems with the cold war. Everyone remembers the shot that shock the world when President Kennedy was assassinated. A new commemorative coin was made and legislation approved to make an exception to the 25 year design rule dumping Franklin for Kennedy on the half dollar. Because of uncertainty with the economy, many people were hoarding hard assets as banks seemed unreliable at the time. This caused a run on silver and coin collectible gold.
Thye mint decided to make collectible PEACE dollars with a face value of one dollar, and to be sold to collectors for $10.
Jackie Kennedy caught wind of a dollar coin to be produced and she became furious " It would be DISREPECTFUL to have a HIGHER DENOMINATION coin than the COMMEMORATIVE half dollar already being produced". She made personal visits to many of the people in Congress, especially the ones on the appropriate committees to express her thoughts. She new they were being produced because one senator showed her an example, which she grabbed and showed in her lobbying efforts. (This coin she much later gave to her oldest daughter)
The silver supply was being consumed and it did not seem cost effective to melt the millions of Morgans to make more coins. That and the potential disrepect issue brought up by Jackie made it politically correct to forget the idea of producing a PEACE dollar in 1964-65.
my early American coins & currency: -- http://yankeedoodlecoins.com/
Contest ends mindnight 2-20-09
The legislation called for 45 million 1964-D dollars to be struck, and production of the coins began as scheduled. However, production was halted after just 2 days. It didn't make sense to mint silver dollars when there was a bill before Congress that would eliminate silver from all U.S. coins. (It was later modified to keep the half dollar at 40% silver.) A Mint coin press operator, who was also a coin collector, hid 5 common date Peace dollars in the heel of his shoe, and pulled 5 of the new 1964-D dollars from a large bin in which they were held after having been struck. Taking the five 1923 dollars out of his shoe, and replacing them with the 5 that he removed from the bin of 1964-D's, he went home as usual, with no one being the wiser. A few weeks later, after it became obvious that no more coins would be struck, the Mint worker took the coins to longtime Denver coin dealer Dan Brown, who purchased them for the astounding price of $500 per coin, and squirreled them away. Over a period of 10 years, Dan sold the 1964-D dollars to prominent collectors, with the promise that they would not display them, or tell anyone else about them. Some of those collectors are still alive; others, as well as dealer Dan Brown, have passed away, and the 1964-D dollars remain in their families.
Jim
The aliens also petitioned the government to halt production of the Lincoln cent while they were here.
I reads to me like a post Vietnam cover-up. No stranger fiction than truth.
RWB: For some of us, this is a very fun thread - Thanks for the idea and creative writing contest.
I assume it is an actual letter produced by the mnt/treasury, but have no confirmation
(Yep, that's a real US Mint press release.)
Taking from Herbert Hoover's successful 1928 Presidential campaign slogan, “A chicken in every pot!” Presidential incumbent Lyndon Johnson proclaimed in 1964 "A Peace dollar in every pocket!" This motivating slogan carried Johnson to victory over Presidential hopeful Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
Once LBJ became our 37th President, he requested JFK appointed Mint Director Eva Adams to take on the responsibility of resurrecting the once fabled Peace Dollar. Eva Adams was no stranger with coin design changes, as it was under her watch when in 1964, the Benjamin Franklin half dollar became the now familiar Kennedy Half dollar.
Memos were quickly sent out by Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts and soon a set of master hubs for the Peace dollars were located in the idle die vaults at the branch mint in Denver. Lucky for Johnson, those hubs that were last utilized in 1935, were in fact dateless. This made it easy for the die sinker to hand stamp the mint mark "D" into the reverse and to incuse 1964 into the working dies.
Once again, the Denver Mint was tasked to produce over 300,000, 38.5 mm, 412.5 grain 90% silver coin planchets, the exact size and weight of the original 20th Century Peace dollar. The blanks were delivered so rimming, annealing, washing could take place before the actual press run could be completed.
30 test planchets were selected and hand fed into the enormous press. Adjustments were made and for the first time in 29 years, a Peace dollar was formed. The trial strikes were examined and assayed locally and then 2 of 30 trial strikes were sent to United States Mint headquarters located in Washington D.C.
With everything set and ready to commence, the order was given via telephone to begin striking the 1964 Peace dollar. Subsequently, 316,076 business strikes rolled off the Denver Mint line only to be temporarily stored within the vaults of the Denver Mint.
In the mean time, Eva Adams presented the two specimens that were sent to the DC headquarters to President Johnson. The Oval Office ceremony was private in nature, there was no press present, nor was there ever a White House press release issued. In attendance was Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon and First Lady, "Lady Bird" Johnson. Eva's memoirs however, stated that upon looking at the 1964 Peace dollar, Lyndon lamented that his dad, Samuel Johnson had once given him a Peace dollar in 1921 at age 13, as a present for his Confirmation.
With the public hoarding of all silver struck US coins, the unexpected turn of events precluded the modern day Peace dollar from ever being destined for circulation. Eva ordered the existing Peace dollars retained in the vaults in Denver to be immediately melted. The Denver Mint Director obliged and the smelting furnaces turned the, in a true sense, uncirculated Peace dollars into 100 lb ingots.
Years later, on January 22, 1973, Lyndon Johnson succumbed to a heart attack at his ranch in Stonewall, Texas.
A unidentified funeral representative from Crofts Funeral Home, Johnson City, Texas, who handled the Texas arrangements, told investigators that a leather coin purse with contents unknown was buried along with Johnson's remains. Speculators believe that Lyndon Johnson took one of the two remaining 1964 Peace dollars along with him to his grave.
Lady Bird Johnson who was in the Oval Office during the 1964 presentation, passed away on July 11, 2007. She was laid to rest next to her husband in the Johnson family cemetery in Stonewall, who had died 34 years earlier.
The remaining question is, did "Lady Bird Johnson" take to her grave the last remaining Peace dollar?
edit: sp
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
how many pm'd stories are being waded through?
are you going to cut and paste them for all to read?
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
Little known is the true fate of the fabled 1964-D Peace dollar. In October 1963, strange lights began to appear over the Caribbean island nations of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, San Monique, Cuba, and the Bahamas. These unusual phenomena caused great panic among the populations, fearing them to be precursors of another crisis between the superpowers. However, they did not belong to the United States nor the USSR. These objects which were invisible to the cutting edge radars, viewable only by eye, were of an extrasolar origin. These visitors, from what would become star system HD 113766 one day when humans' eyes could see far into space, were not particularly interested in mankind, and while not hostile, were certainly ambivalent about our survival. Would their presence propel the world to its doom? Secret talks between President Kennedy (and later President Johnson) and Soviet Premier Kruschev at least assured that we would not fall into wholescale nuclear conflict over some simple blinking dots, but pressure from within the Soviet power structure eventually succeeded in replacing Kruschev due to his inablity to exploit the situation to their advantage. (Why not hint that they were our new planes, they thought.)
Eventually on December 13, 1964 one of these craft crashed on the island of Cuba, and the surviving crew, hideous creatures by all accounts, were taken to a secret compound. When Fidel Castro was informed, he immediately demanded to see these beings. Their pale orange skin was quite unusual as were their tri-compound eyes, with three red pupils that followed your every move. Tiny luminescent lights sprung from where eyebrows would have been, perhaps some vestige of a deep sea origin on their planet. Little else could be learned from them, as the aliens knew as much of Spanish as the Cubans knew of the aliens' language. One by one, they began to die, victims of a mineral deficiency of some kind. The doctors dared not touch them. When there was only one remaining, Fidel himself demanded to visit the facility to confront the creature. He walked in the door and it feebly gestured at him, as if calling him over. Upon his approach, the alien suddenly lurched and grabbed his arm! Guards burst into the room, but were called off by Castro. A screaming noise ached in his brain, yet both he and the offworld visitor knew it was no worry. The alien died quietly, but something had changed...it had implanted part of itself in Castro's brain!
Thus, the fate of the 1964-D Peace dollars was sealed. When the Cubans realized they had nothing more to gain from the corpses of the aliens (and at the insistence of Fidel) they initiated a secret auction for them. Of course, they probably wouldn't be any use to any of the bidders, but that was only known to the auctioneer. While great sums were offered by all bidders, the United States, through special arrangement, won the exclusive rights to the what remained of the aliens and their technology (and prevented all competitors access). The Denver mint would produce over 300,000 silver dollars in the spring of 1965, all to be deposited to the Banco Central de Cuba. While the official word on these coins is that they were melted, every single one exists today in a dark vault in Havana. Their existence is as secret as what they gained in trade, waiting only for some employee to discover them. Meanwhile, the nigh-immortal Castro-alien hybrid awaits the day it can return to star system HD 113766 with all it has learned of mankind.
Aliens, Russians, Cubans, Castro himself, conspiracy, immortality and silver dollars... Wow. But it needs a title. I've tried to come up with one, but failed. Did you have any in mind?
The chinese government stole the dies..
<< <i>“1964-D” Peace Dollar re-strike. Struck over a Peace dollar dated 1922-1935. Technically this is not a “copy” because it is a genuine Peace Dollar (over-struck), with a date that (according to the government) does not exist. I have not released any of these, and that will depend on a clarification of certain laws (I’m waiting to find out from the government if a “COPY” stamp is required in cases where a genuine coin is altered to show a date that was never released and/or does not exist): >>
Adding “Replica,” or “Copy,” or “Just For Fun Fake,” would seem appropriate.
<< 16CFR304.1(d): Imitation numismatic item means an item which purports to be, but in fact is not, an original numismatic item or which is a reproduction, copy, or counterfeit of an original numismatic item. Such term includes an original numismatic item which has been altered or modified in such a manner that it could reasonably purport to be an original numismatic item other than the one which was altered or modified. The term shall not include any re-issue or re-strike of any original numismatic item by the United States or any foreign government. >>
<< 16CFR304.6(a): An imitation numismatic item which is manufactured in the United States, or imported into the United States for introduction into or distribution in commerce, shall be plainly and permanently marked "COPY". >>
It seems to come down to whether Daniel's 1964 Peace Dollars "could reasonably purport to be an original numismatic item." Whether or not the imitation numismatic item is an altered original numismatic item doesn't seem to matter. If these Peace Dollars are acceptable, does it follow that it would it be acceptable to create other replicas not marked COPY for any numismatic item that the US government claims does not exist, e.g. Frank Gasparro's Lady Liberty one dollar pattern?
I’ve decided to award two prizes instead of one. The first prize winner will receive his/her choice of the Guide Book of Peace Dollars or a 1934-D VAM-3 Peace dollar in VF or better condition. The second prize winner will get the remaining prize. (Alternatively, if both winners prefer the book, I can supply each with an autographed copy, but I have only one coin. Winners should PM me with mailing addresses. I will send out the prizes Monday.)
First Place goes to:
WoodenJefferson for “A Peace Dollar in Every Pocket”
A plausible tale built on historical details with logical flow.
Second Place goes to:
Sanction II for “My Class Field Trip to the Denver Mint”
An imaginative story with fine insights into human behavior with a bit of mystery added.
I hope the participants enjoyed writing their version of history, and that readers enjoyed the excellent and imaginative tales of fellow board members.
I'm going with the wise ones and will be accepting a autographed copy of A Guide Book of Peace Dollars which I shall treasure for all time. I shall PM you the information.
Just might learn something in the process!
Contgrats to Sanction II for his rendition of "My Class Field Trip to the Denver Mint" and to all the rest of the submitters I tip my hat.
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen