12th 1921-D Morgan Released from the Denver Mint?!?!

...Stumbled upon this interesting piece on eBay to too long ago. I've never seen anything like it! I'd love to see an example of another of the first 100 minted if anyone here on CoinTalk has somehow obtained one. Have all first 100 coins with these same engravings been found and are in private hands as of now? Imagine if you found something like THIS sitting in a teller's tray at a bank?!?! This particular piece is priced at nearly $20,000 on eBay! Although it is a nice piece, I would never buy anything like this for that "crazy money"! I find it interesting how PCGS put it into a 'Genuine' slab...? But, that may just be my opinion. I suppose it still technically is PMD. Either way, I thought this would be a fun piece to share. PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW!

Thanks For Letting Me Share,
Brian

 

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Hmm...sweet piece

 

Only about a half dozen of them are known. One of them turned up back in 1980 in a batch of junk silver being sold for scrap. It is believe today that probably not all of the 100 coins were engraved. I think the piece shown, #12, is the highest # known.

 

Wow! So interesting! Is this piece considered expensive because it is believed to be the last one engraved? ... Or have there been ealier engraved, higher grade pieces that sold for far more?

-Brian

 

Very cool piece.....

 

It is expensive because it is historic and there are only about a half dozen known. I don't think the number on the coin has much effect on the value because it is not really so must the Xth one released as much as it is the Xth one engraved. (Yes I know it says released) Still I would imagine the lowest number known (which i think is either 2 or 3) would probably garner more interest than #12.

It is really hard to compare values based on the number because these come on the market very rarely. If a low number comes up and sells high, is it because of the number? Or is it because none of then have appeared on the market for 20 years and you may never have another chance at one of them?

One problem you have with these is that the engraving is very simple and in a common font. It would be very easy to fake. Take a 21-D and this picture to your local jeweler, do a little artificial toning to hide the fresh cuts and "discover" #14!

 

Interesting piece, VERY interesting piece! Though, the OP brings up a point...how can it make it into a slab? It is, afterall, post mint damage...the coin was struck, then engraved. If I took a 1921-D and cracked it out of an MS63 slab, and engraved it, sent it back it, it would be bag city.

The point conder101 brings up, about the ability to fake one due to the common font would scare me off, even if I did have the money. Whatever....I still think it's a cool piece!!

 

How did it make it into a slab? If you will notice it is in a genuine slab, not a graded slab. The coin is genuine with PMD but since it is genuine it qualifies for the Genuine slab.

 

What I don't understand is that the mint did the damage, so it is not really PMD, so it could be debated why it is just genuine and not graded, although it would need a details grade, which is why PCGS made it genuine...

 

Very cool! Reminds me of that trick where you take 3 chickens, number them 1, 2, and 4, and release them in a building or space where they are not supposed to be and have everyone search for number 3!

 

Concluded... It would not be POST-mint-damage (PMD) but DURING-mint-damage (DMD). It was done BEFORE it left the mint, judging by the quote "...released from the mint". It was engraved BEFORE it left the mint, was it not? Thus, it is not PMD. But yet, it is in a 'Genuine' slab...? I dare anyone who is bored at work one day to call up PCGS for a few questions needing an answer.

-Brian

 

Wow...so they were trying to pull the old "first strike" routine even back then! Funny how they could pull from a bin of over 20 million coins the exact first 100 pieces minted. Thats amazing hand-eye coordination if you ask me.
Guy

 

they mispelled released... 3 "e"s... "reeeased" did anyone else notice that?

 

I did, you gotta wonder, was the engraver knocking a few back?

 

Post mint damage can, and does, happen at the mint. Anything that happens to a coin after it leaves the press is post mint as it happens after the actual minting process. If a coin fell off the line at the mint, got caught under the wheel of a bin and got scratched so bad that it was hardly recognizable would that be acceptable as "part of the minting process"? As for the "first minted" in this case they probably fed the planchets manually one at a time for the historic occasion of opening a new mint.

 

The Denver mint opened long before 1921, this was only their 1st striking of dollars.

I remember reading about these coins decades ago in NN or CW.

I can't recall any other coin where the mint has done this.

Do the other known ones have the spelling error ?

 

I found a bit on these, the price seems too high on ebay.

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=9029

 

On the occasion of the first striking of silver dollars at the Denver Mint in 1921, the first 100 coins were set aside for special handling. A Mr. C. W. Cowell apparently had some connection to Thomas Annear, superintendent of the Denver Mint at the time.

The first two coins were not engraved and were sent to US Mint headquarters in Washington DC for inspection and assay. Those two coins were subsequently given to the two Colorado senators. The Sentors donated one to the Colorado School of Mines and the other to the Colorado Historical Society. Both of those coins are presently unaccounted for, and there is no way to positively identify them other than being an early die state.

The next 10 coins were purchased directly from the Denver Mint by Mr Cowell. He had them engraved (outside the mint) so as to identify them. Cowell originally had plans to get #3 through #100 engraved. But the engraving (by hand) proved to be arduous and error-prone (spelling errors). So only #3 through #12 were engraved. The coins #13 through #100 were not purchased by Cowell and they were likely mixed in with regular issue coins and released into circulation as any other.

The 10 engraved coins were consigned by Cowell to a B. Max Mehl auction of December 1923:



In the 1980s and 1990s a couple these sold at various auctions in the range of about $3,000 to $5,000 each. Coin #12 was in the inventory of dealer Julian Leidman when it was stolen, and then later recovered. It was offered for sale for a time. They don't appear very often. Two of them were sold in different Heritage Auctions in 2014:

#9 April 2014, $11,867.50
https://coins.ha.com/itm/morgan-dol...4-5045.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

#3 June 2014, $13,512.50
https://coins.ha.com/itm/morgan-dol...6-4715.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Since the 1923 Mehl auction, all but one of the 10 engraved coins had made a recorded appearance somewhere. Coin #7 had been missing since 1923, until it turned up in a Colorado coin shop last year (in 2022). Here it is:

 

Very interesting coin plus the information on it, thanks.

 

given the 2014 prices and the special nature of number 12 I think $20k is fair