Coin collection sells for $30 million

Associated Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2007 Nov 18 | Rebecca Santana

[Wiz]

TRENTON, N.J. - An anonymous buyer has paid more than $30 million for a collection of rare U.S. prototype coins, some from the 1700s, that never went into circulation, according to the dealer that brokered the deal.

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The collection consists of about 1,000 coins that collectors refer to as pattern coins — trial designs that never went into production because the U.S. Mint chose other designs.

"This collection is an incredible collection. ... These were some of the first coins ever, ever struck by the United States government," said Laura Sperber, a partner in Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, N.J., which brokered the deal.

The seller wanted to remain anonymous, and the buyer, concerned about security, agreed to be identified only as "Mr. Simpson, a Western states collector," Sperber said.

"Both the buyer and the seller are very competitive people. And they're very successful in their careers, and they both love the romance and collectability of coins," Sperber said.

The coins span the period from 1792 to 1942. Highlights include test designs for the first pennies made in 1792 and six coins from 1872 that are often referred to as "Amazonian" patterns because the female figure portraying liberty is much stronger and regal looking than earlier versions.

It took the seller about 10 years to assemble the collection, Sperber said.

Gathering such a large collection of pattern coins is difficult because so few were created in the first place. And they were usually supposed to stay in the possession of the Mint — after all, these were the rejects.

"To accumulate as many patterns as there are in this collection, that's incredible," said Douglas A. Mudd, Curator of the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The coins could have made their way into private hands as gifts, or as trades with collectors for other coins that the Mint wanted to acquire, Sperber said.

Independent, third-party experts have verified the collection, Sperber said.

Many of the coins bear depictions of a woman representing liberty and not the profile of a former president, as displayed on coins currently circulating.

Until 1909, when Abraham Lincoln's face was placed on the penny, presidents weren't allowed on coins. At the time the first coins were minted in 1792, putting the nation's leader on a coin seemed too similar to the practice of kings being displayed on European coins. That wasn't considered the best example for a country less than a decade removed from the Revolutionary War.

"To put an individual on coinage was considered very unrepublican because the people have the power in a republic," Mudd said.

Sperber would not say how much her company earned for brokering the deal but said she hopes the magnitude of the sale will get more people interested in collecting coins.

"They're historical. They're beautiful works of art," Sperber said. "They're just plain neat."

___

[Wiz]

"To put an individual on coinage was considered very unrepublican because the people have the power in a republic," Mudd said.

[Jim Noble]

At the time the first coins were minted in 1792, putting the nation's leader on a coin seemed too similar to the practice of kings being displayed on European coins.

And it still does.

[Wiz]

Are we unrepublican for using coins with former Presidents’ face?

[ASOC]

Maybe becasue ‘we the people’ no longer have any real power in this REpublic?

[Red_Devil 232]

[Publius]

Both the practice of putting former presidents on coins and the Pledge of Allegiance are artifacts of the Progressive Movement from a century ago. Progressives believed that government was a better source of sovereignty than the people because the government could rule according to scientific principles. The people were mired in backwardness and superstitiion.

Traditionally, people turned to voluntary associations for solutions to problems, as documented by Tocqueville in 1836 in Democracy in America. Progressives wanted people to turn to government for solutions, and the Constitution was a stumbling block in that goal. This was why the Bellamy brothers came up with the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. They wanted to de-emphasize the Constitution as America's uniting icon and replace it with the flag.

The first Progressive president, Theodore Roosevelt, was a key force in getting people to look to the president for solutions to their problems, a fact which led to the imperial presidency as exemplified by Wilson, FDR and LBJ.

Note that I am not saying that the practice of putting dead presidents on coins is some kind of plot to foist liberalism on the people. What I'm trying to show is that the practice of putting dead presidents on coins was a logical outgrowth of the Progressive Movement, which emphasized government in general and the American presidency in particular. Putting dead presidents on coins was a symptom of liberalism, not a cause.

I've been fighting for years to go back to the pre-1909 practice of putting female and/or Indian depictions of Liberty on our coins. Whatever uselessness the $1 coin has, the depiction of a female Indian Liberty -- no one has a clue as to what Sacajawea really looked like -- was a glorious return to the past.

Unless conservatives have morphed into Progressives and now believe in salvation through government, we should be looking to return to the past in our coins instead of making political statements by putting dead presidents on them.

[P8riot]

Until 1909, when Abraham Lincoln's face was placed on the penny, presidents weren't allowed on coins.

One could argue that that was only one of many of the vestiges of the old republic whose death was associated with Lincoln.

[lilylangtree]

And the buyer didn’t have to go on ebay.

[QBFimi]

My dad used to ask kids: “Young man, would you like to have a picture of the great American destroyer?”, whereupon he’d produce a Roosevelt dime. Too bad they never made a coin with both Hoover and Roosevelt on the obverse; they deserve equal credit.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

&Now we are doomed. The mint is going to give us a fake gold coin for every president, no matter how inconsequential or how big a failure...

Presidential Dollar Coin Release Schedule

Year		President	Years Served	Release Date
2007	1	George Washington	1789-1797	February 15
2	John Adams	1797-1801	May 17
3	Thomas Jefferson	1801-1809	August 16
4	James Madison	1809-1817	November 15
2008	5	James Monroe	1817-1825
	6	John Quincy Adams	1825-1829
	7	Andrew Jackson	1829-1837
	8	Martin Van Buren	1837-1841
2009	9	William Henry Harrison	1841
	10	John Tyler	1841-1845
	11	James K. Polk	1845-1849
	12	Zachary Taylor	1849-1850
2010	13	Millard Fillmore	1850-1853
	14	Franklin Pierce	1853-1857
	15	James Buchanan	1857-1861
	16	Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865
2011	17	Andrew Johnson	1865-1869
	18	Ulysses S. Grant	1869-1877
	19	Rutherford B. Hayes	1877-1881
	20	James A. Garfield	1881
2012	21	Chester A. Arthur	1881-1885
	22	Grover Cleveland	1885-1889
	23	Benjamin Harrison	1889-1893
	24	Grover Cleveland	1893-1897
2013	25	William McKinley	1897-1901
	26	Theodore Roosevelt	1901-1909
	27	William Howard Taft	1909-1913
	28	Woodrow Wilson	1913-1921
2014	29	Warren Harding	1921-1923
	30	Calvin Coolidge	1923-1929
	31	Herbert Hoover	1929-1933
	32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	1933-1945
2015	33	Harry S. Truman	1945-1953
	34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	1953-1961
	35	John F. Kennedy	1961-1963
	36	Lyndon B. Johnson	1963-1969
2016	37	Richard M. Nixon	1969-1974
	38	Gerald Ford	1974-1977

[Unknowing]

Interesting observations, Publius.

How about the Roman numerals like the V for five-cent coins, and the X for dimes; and the dates as well. Romans were once Republicans, after all. Such a design would probably confuse today’s crop of public-school victims, but it would be as American as apple pie to move away from Arabic numerals.

BTW, Theodore Roosevelt was opposed to putting the Deity’s name on coinage; good arguments on both sides of that debate.

[Leisler]

That would be in line with Progressives. Founders used god to remind people that there is a power higher than men, and they should beware. Progressives wouldn’t go with any of that, men are the gods.

New York City was made by the progressives, out of the five independent cities. Corruption went on under different forms, but basically became more expensive and decision took longer.

[Publius]

TR's problem was that the $20 gold piece was the chief medium of exchange in the fancy "parlor houses" of the period. Putting "In God We Trust" on a coin used to pay prostitutes went against the grain, so TR believed.

In a way, it's a clever way of getting around the biblical injunction of not being able to worship God and Mammon at the same time. We finessed the problem by putting God on Mammon's coins. It's very businesslike, very American, and I think Alexander Hamiton would have appeciated he irony.

[Jim Noble]

Unless conservatives have morphed into Progressives and now believe in salvation through government, we should be looking to return to the past in our coins instead of making political statements by putting dead presidents on them.

Right ON!

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Are we unrepublican for using coins with former Presidents’ face?

Yes, I think we are. I would rather they reserved former president's faces for FlimFlam Trac tickets so they could be punched.

[Unknowing]

I think that your theory is correct, Leisler, but I’m not finding any post-colonial issues bearing the motto. Not before 1907, on the Eagle ($10).

[Andonius_99]

I have a similar collection - it’s $30 million dollars in pennies...

[Unknowing]

Sure, “minding your business” is being a good steward.

[exit82]

The motto first appears on the two cent piece in 1864, and some of the other coins, large and small in 1866.

The motto on coins stems from the Federal gov’t being urged to place the motto on coins during the Civil War.

Google “in god we trust on coins” and you’ll get the lowdown.

[Larry Lucido]

You would think so, wouldn't you? And yet...