A Panama - Pacific five piece set in the original box ... sort of

Many people think that the Panama - Pacific sets were only issued in the copper frame. Thanks to Heritage for letting me borrow this picture.



While that was the classy holder, they were also issued in more modest leatherette holders like this one.




These sets were priced at $200. Since that close to two month's income for many families, few people could afford this set.

Here is a "virtual Panama - Pacific set" in the box.




I dare say that there are virtually none of these sets still around in the original box. The vast majority of these coins, especially the $50 gold pieces, have been certified.

Back in the 1970s, five piece sets in the original copper frame did show up at major auctions from time to time. The last raw that I can remember sold for $27,000. The coins will cost you a lot more today.

 

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I asked a dealer if I could hold (study, view, lust over) an octagonal, (slabbed) in his inventory at a coin show 6 or 7 years ago..........That was the closest I'm ever going to get to owning one of these coins.

 

I know a dealer in Florida who cracked out an NGC details $50 one, sent it to PCGS and it came back counterfeit! The dealer then resubmitted to NGC and it came back genuine details again. Then he quickly sold it. Very quickly.

 

Special case in which the coins given to the exposition's president, Charles Moore, were placed.

 

For the REAL rarity, they also had a copper framed double set that had two of each coin to display both sides of each coin. Those were $400 each. Considering the whole mintage of the round $50 was only 483 and they were sold individually and in the sets, I suspect very very few of them went out in double sets. I have seen two of those sets over the years, one of which still had the coins in it. I haven't seen one in probably 15 years or more. I would not be surprised if none of them exist any more.

 

The estimate was that six or fewer of the double sets were made. According to Andrew Swietek (sp), the empty double set copper frames are worth $12 to $18 thousand. It would interesting to know how many of them still exist.

 

According to Dave Bowers, that frame once housed the first octagonal $50 gold that was struck at the ceremony that was held at the San Francisco Mint.

 

You mean Anthony Swiatek?

There was an empty frame that sold a couple of years ago on Heritage for $18k. An empty frame! That just blows my mind: https://coins.ha.com/itm/commemorat...t/a/1271-5198.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515

I watched that auction and drooled because they also sold each of the coins that was originally in the frame (its a real shame that collection was broken up).

 

Yea, that's who meant. I can't spell odd proper names, and I don't feel like running off the find the book he wrote every time I want to use his name. More authors should be named Smith or Jones.

The economics of situation dictate that these sets do get broken up. If the coins in the set are nice, it's easy to break $200 thousand or more. If you have a few of the coins, especially, one of the $50 gold pieces, you don't really want another one at the Heritage auction price.

My round $50 gold came from Sarasota Rare Coin. There are some people with serious money in Sarasota, and sometimes they sell there big coins to them instead of going to auction. I don't what my coin might have been housed in when Sarasota bought it, but the piece was raw. They took up the road to NGC to be graded. It's now an NGC MS-64 (the wrong grader in the opinion of the "PCGS wiennies" with a green CAC sticker. I think that it's nicer than my octagonal piece which is a PCGS MS-64 CAC.

 

Since you already have the big ones, you should buy an original frame and crack them out. Return them to their rightful home!

 

If and when these sets come on the market the closing is more than the actual coins as an individual lot. Rare indeed.