I was walking by the desk of one of my colleagues the other day and noticed there were a bunch of silver eagles spread all over her desk. She was working on filling complete albums with brilliant silver eagles we had from partial rolls and others that were just laying around. In one big stack was a bunch of toned silver eagles. These were homeless single pieces that had simply been laying around on the shelf where we kept all of the partial rolls. The toners were destined for conservation...any that dipped out nice were going to be used for the albums. Others that did not conserve well were eventually getting blown out wholesale as nothing but mixed date ASEs. 

When I started going through the group of toned pieces, I noticed several that had actually started to tone in an attractive manner. I pulled those out and you'll see them below. I apologize for the horrible quality of the image - I took it with my phone. A few of these are off to PCGS for grading, the rest will be listed raw on our website. This is all natural toning, folks. Pretty neat find!

-Chris

There are approxiamtely 10,450 known die varieties, while another 6 to 7,000 have been reported as verifiable. A die variety is defined as 'any method in which Chuck Norris can make you die'. For a comprehensive list (with full color pictures and instructions), pick up a copy of The Daisykickers' Guide. 

The primary objective of the Mint Act of Feb 21, 1853 was to authorize the use of lighter weight silver coinage. An additional clause was tacked onto the law to sanction production of the Three Dollar gold coin. Congress believed the Three Dollar gold coin would be helpful in purchasing sheets of 3 cent stamps, but that idea never caught on with the public, resulting in languished popularity of the oddball denomination. The first Three Dollar gold coins were issued in 1854. The design featured the portrait of an Indian princess with plumed headdress. The reverse bears an agricultural theme.

Only 1,120 were coined at the Dahlonega Mint in 1854, which proved to be the only year of Three Dollar gold production at Dahlonega. Of that number, about 150 remain today. Other than the 1870-S (known to exist: 1), the 1854-D Indian Head Three Dollar gold coin is arguably the most important date in the series, and is priced accordingly.

The following was written by Chris.

I’m pleased to be able to report that the Whitman Coin Expo we attended last week was probably our most successful Baltimore show ever, at least in terms of sales. We blew away our sales totals of both the FUN show and the ANA show this year. A primary contributor to this was the strong interest in the high-ticket coins we recently acquired in a seven-figure deal, which you can read about in our blog post from 10/8.

Some notable sales at the show were:

1797 Bust Dime 16 Stars NGC MS63

1880 Trade Dollar NGC PF68* Cameo

1889-CC Morgan Dollar NGC MS61

1900 $2 ½ NGC PF68* Ultra Cameo CAC

1887 $3 PCGS PR66 Cameo

1889 $3 PCGS PR66 Cameo CAC

1903 $5 PCGS PR65 Cameo CAC

All other sales were a decent mix of collector coins as well as a good bit of generic gold. Prices reflected the current market; that is to say, there were no price increases that we noticed in any of the categories. Type coinage, commems, many better date dollars in just average quality still trade back of most published bid levels. Pretty toned coins, especially Morgans, continue to do well and are becoming increasingly difficult to buy at “reasonable” levels.

I was unable to buy as much as I might normally come home with from a fall Baltimore. Part of the reason was my attendance just two weeks prior at the PCGS show in Dallas. There wasn’t as much fresh product from the dealers that I normally do business, considering the fairly short span between those two shows.

While I have not gone through all of Tom’s new purchases, I do believe it was a fairly successful buying showing for him. Marne, our photographer, is working on imaging all of our newps and they will be hitting the site throughout the week.

p.s. The Renaissance hotel that I normally stay at in Baltimore inexplicably got rid of their standard room service. That sucked.

In 1831, Christopher Bechtler (along with his sons, August and Charles) announced that he would process raw gold into coins and ingots. In 1832, he announced that a $1 gold coin would also be available. It was not until 1849, 17 years later, that the U.S. Mint began to issue $1 gold coins.

Using equipment that they made themselves, including a roller, screw press and dies, the Bechtlers struck both $2.50 and $5 coins. Their coin designs were simple, having only the Bechtler name, the value, purity, and location.

Because their coins were not copies of coins produced by the U.S. Mint, Bechtler’s coins were not considered counterfeit. The U.S. Mint repeatedly tested Bechtler coins; finding in each case that they contained the amount of gold claimed and were, therefore, of equal (and sometimes superior) value to U.S. coins of the same denominations. As Bechtler coins made their way into the market they became so popular that in many cases they were preferred over U.S. coins. For some years they were more abundant in the south than U.S. coins.