Picked up this illustrated United States Coin Check List over the weekend. It's copywrite 1954. Leafing through this, I see that a previous owner checked the Proof column for the 1917, 1926, 1926-S, 1927, 1929, 1929-D & 1930-S Standing Liberty Quarters. Why do you think he checked these blocks? I'm sure that everyone knew that there weren't any proofs for this series. Just found this odd. This little booklet also cost $1.00 back in 1954. That seems like a lot of money for a check list during the time period. There is a sticker inside the back cover that says "Ray M. Janda", "My Hobby Coins", 6119 Delmar, Mission, Kansas. A quick Google check shows that Mr. Janda was at one time a Vice President of the Central States Numismatic Society.
IIRC, Cline claims that a (supposed) proof exists (or possibly a few?) and I believe images of one are available somewhere online. Who knows why the category was put in the checklist... maybe it was some sort of printing template since the same was clearly used for Barbers too. As for why the guy used it, we could only speculate, but there could be countless reasons.
Obviously he mistakenly used proof when he shouldn't have. Happens all the time on ebay, if you look up Walking Liberty Half Dollar Proof you will see some listed when that particular year, there wasn't a proof minted. The dude didn't know any better.
At first I thought that maybe he couldn't grade them properly so he just put a check in the Proof column to simply show that he had one for that date. But, the 1917 and 1929 entries show check marks for both Proof and Uncirculated. This sort of implies that he would know the difference between the two.
Maybe, but if this was his personal inventory, he could have used the space for anything since it looks as if the book has a PR column for branch mints as well as Philly (not to mention non PR dates and series). As for ebay, what else is dumb and doesn't happen there all the time?
The only proofs that are known are the 1916 and 1917 matte proofs. They are extremely rare as only five 1916 and ten 1917 examples are estimated as having been struck. Neither of these coins were official mint releases and are considered class two proofs.
While rumored none have ever really been confirmed. I believe Jay Cline says he has seen a 1917 and Walter Breen did write up a certificate of authenticity for one. But the piece Jay has seen has not been confirmed, and Walter was sometimes known to produce letters of authenticity for items that weren't what they were supposed to be when he was short on funds.
Since we don't know the skill level of the owner ( chk marker), my thought might be that he was using that column for what he considered a higher grade of uncirculated. Even today, many think they have a proof because of a very bright shiney coin, no reason to think differently then. "Unc" used to be thought of as bottom level MS today. Jim
Yes I know there are proof Buffs. I meant that there are proofs of other denominations of the era...why couldn't there be proof standing libs?
OK, I understand now. The reason that there shouldn't be any SLQ Proofs is that the mint didn't report making any. Also, none have been certified by NGC or PCGS.
The only confirmed overlap with proof regular coinage of other denominations would be the 1916 Lincoln cent, 1916 Buffalo nickel and 1921/1922 Peace dollars. All of these confirmed proof strikings were as matte proof coinage.
There are proof buffalos but not in 1917. The 1916 proof buffalo was produced early in the year, but the 1916 SLQ was not produced until late December too late for them to do proofs and no proofs were made in 1917. The unverified SLQ proofs are 1917 Type I. If they do exist they are most likely pieces struck to show the revised design for approval before they went into general production. There are proof 1921 and 1922 peace dollars but once again these were not intended for sale to collectors but more for internal design examination.
I have seen a 1917 that had a good argument of being a matte proof, but I don't think that it was a proof. I'm fairly convinced that there were a few produced in 1916 and 1917 and a bit surprised that none have been certified as of yet. I would wager that the controversy regarding the existence of these pieces will always keep one from being certified as a proof. Such a coin would just be considered an early die state example.
