My "one that got away" story: the 1806 O-129 Draped Bust half discovery coin

(There used to be someone else's web page about this coin which I would link to, but that's gone to the Internet Graveyard, so let me retell the tale in my own post. ~RWS/"LM")

Around 2004 or so, I acquired this holed 1806 Draped Bust half dollar in a swap at the FUN show in Orlando.

As I recall, I traded a couple of Irish mint sets worth about $40 for it. I got it for my "Holey Coin Vest".





Image credit: Sheridan Downey, accessed from the John Reich Collectors Society R6 to R8 rarities gallery.

I later sold the coin in 2005 to Rich Sayre, aka "Cladiator" on the Collectors Universe forums, for $75. So, having had $40 of trade goods invested in the coin, I figure I made a modest profit on the transaction. (In fact, I nearly doubled my money.)

Rich later put it up on eBay, and he and I were equally flabbergasted when it skyrocketed to a low four-figure price (I forget what it closed for now, but it was in the very high $1,000s or low $2,000s). At least two people got into a bidding war over it late in the auction.

Why? Well, it turns out that it was a previously unknown die marriage. This was later confirmed and it became the discovery coin of the 1806 Overton-129 variety. Unique at the time. According to this page from the John Reich Collectors Society, there are two known. So another was subsequently discovered.

The sad story (for me):

At the time of the discovery, the 1806 O-129 discovery coin was speculated by some to be worth as much as $10,000, never mind the hole in it. I don't know what subsequent sales records for the known examples are. I doubt one ever fetched that much- particularly since that second example was discovered- but suffice it to say... I sold a coin worth thousands for the paltry sum of seventy-five bucks! Oh well. At least I've got the tale to tell.

That's how it goes in the cherrypicking game. Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug. I really don't mind all that much, and view it philosophically. I never would have discovered the thing on my own- die variety minutiae is not and never will be my cup o' tea. Congratulations to the discoverer, David Hatfield, as far as I'm concerned, as he had the specialist knowledge to make the discovery.

Rich and David later made a nice consolation gesture to me: they presented me with a copy of the Overton book, signed by everyone involved in the discovery. (I later sold it to someone who will use it- die varieties are still not my thing, and the book read like an algebra text as far as I'm concerned.) But more power to 'em. I respect the specialists who are savvy enough to spot stuff like this.

The happy ending (postscript):

In the next year (2006), I got my comeuppance. I was going through a bulk bag of Wheat cents and found a sharpish looking 1914. There was a little speck of gunky dirt below the date, which I removed, and lo and behold, there was a "D" mintmark hidden underneath! So I cherrypicked a 1914-D cent which subsequently graded XF40 at PCGS. I paid 3-5 cents for it and sold it for $700 after slabbing. What comes around goes around, and I had my chance to be on the luckier end of a cherrypick that time!

 

I reckon I can't complain. I did make a modest profit off the $75 sale, after all. LOL

 

If so, I won't act surprised, because in all of my years of detecting in NC and GA, I used to dream about that very thing!

Of course in order to do that, I've got to first get up and go back out with the detector again, which is something I almost never do anymore...

 

Thank you for sharing this. Fun how new stuff can still be discovered in our hobby.

 

(Belated reply)

Don't get me wrong. I’m glad there are folks like you out there, who love the minutiae. Y’all are the ones who advance our collective knowledge in the hobby.

I find this particularly true of the folks who collect Ancients. Sometimes in that field, the knowledge accumulated actually sheds light on the wider history itself- not just of the coins, but of the rulers and usurpers who struck them.

I learned a while ago that I’m just not one of those heavyweight scholarly types. I guess my interests are more superficial or casual than that. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m still an enthusiast, and do love learning more about stuff.

 

Oh, tell me about British trade dollars! I had a few I bought cheaply in the early 2000s, then later sold. Can’t replace ‘em now without paying ridiculous money. That situation is directly attributable to the growth of the market in China, where those trade dollars are as popular among Chinese collectors today as they once were with Chinese merchants a century ago.