What Makes This Coin Unique?

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I have no idea if is unique. They were struck in proof only, 5000 of them.

 

Not sure without research. But a wonderful looking specimen!

 

50 pounds...it weighs a lot

 

ha ha ha

 

Just looks like a normal proof coin to me. Although reverse looks really really good for having been minted in 1821.

 

No other coin has a British monarch on the obverse and a Napoleon on the reverse.

 

Unique means only one exists.

 

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Napoleons-Exile-on-St-Helena/

 

There's also a St Helena with King George combined with a commemoration of the Boston Tea Party, so these kooky combinations aren't exactly unique.

 

adjective

1. being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else:
   "this discovery was unique in history" · "original and unique designs"
   

 

Universal Rarity Scale Number of Coins
URS-1 1 known, unique
URS-2 2 known
URS-3 3 or 4 known
URS-4 5 to 8 known
URS-5 9 to 16 known
URS-6 17 to 32 known
URS-7 33 to 64 known
URS-8 65 to 125 known
URS-9 125 to 250 known
URS-10 251 to 500 known
URS-11 501 to 1,000 known
URS-12 1,001 to 2,000 known
URS-13 2,001 to 4,000 known
URS-14 4,001 to 8,000 known
URS-15 8,001 to 16,000 known
URS-16 16,001 to 32,000 known
URS-17 32,001 to 65,000 known
URS-18 65,001 to 125,000 known
URS-19 125,001 to 250,000 known
URS-20 250,001 to 500,000 known

 

You are not referring to the uniqueness of the coin, but simply its universal rarity scale. A coin with a British monarch on the obverse and Napoleon on the reverse is really unique because it is unusual.

 

The SBA was the first time ever an actual woman appeared on any U.S. coin, does that mean those are unique?

 

I'm simply saying that "unique" means something different in the coin world.
Nothing against your coin. Enjoy!

 

Yes. One of the qualifiers for “unique” is. “…not typical; unusual…”.

One of 6 qualifiers listed at dictionary.com, it is #5. None of the others apply.

Regarding SBA…at that time it was “…not typical; unusual…” but now is no longer so…imo…Spark

 

The first actual woman to appear on a US coin was Queen Isabella, on the 1892 commemorative quarter.

Susan B. Anthony was just the first actual woman to appear on a circulating US coin.

And are SBA dollars unique? Kind of weird to say that about a coin where over a billion of them were minted.

According to Oxford English Dictionary: unique means "being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else."

Language evolves but if words don't have an agreed-upon meaning, how can we even meaningfully communicate?

Yeah I know some people use "unique" to mean "unusual." Some people also use "literally" to mean "figuratively" instead of the opposite of "figuratively." Doesn't mean I have to accept that as a valid meaning. I know I only get one vote out of the millions of English speakers as to how the language is used, but I'm sticking to it. Someone has to.

 

If we're using "unique design" as the standard, the list of coins is a mile long. Since Napoleon was exiled to St Helena and died there, it's not really that odd of a combination. It's a cool coin and I like the reverse.

 

Agreed 100%. But here’s the deal. The inference in this thread is it bears on the value, and that’s just not the case, I’m pointing out, anymore than it’s the case in the “unique” SBAs.

 

Well that's the difference between rarity and scarcity; scarcity takes demand into account. I have coins rarer than a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, but aren't nearly as valuable... because the demand for them isn't anywhere near as high. Or as one person on this site once said: "A mintage of two is still too high (to make it significantly valuable), if only one person in the world wants one."

I admit maybe I'm a bit pedantic when it comes to the definition of "unique" but it's a pet peeve of mine when it's used to mean "unusual" or "special." Semantics aside, I'm certainly not against highlighting interesting designs; it's just that calling everything special is essentially the same as saying nothing is. I just don't like the term being overused.

I certainly don't have anything against this particular coin (other than it tends to be a bit overpriced IMO, but products of most modern mints these days are, so this isn't much worse than many others). It is a nice design.

P.S. Correction on my part, I think the SBA dollar might not have a total mintage of over a billion, but it's close (1979 alone they minted about 3/4 of a billion but there was a huge drop-off after that due to lack of demand for it). Point is it's certainly not particularly rare though.