Some of you might remember me posting this coin in the past. http://www.cointalk.com/t135913/ I just received word that it has been encapsulated by NGC. I was hoping for a little higher grade but as long as it is encapsulated a genuine it's a good thing. This is a really scarce coin with just a handful of pieces surviving. There are so few pieces out that this particular pattern number is not in the latest US pattern book tho other similar pieces are. (hence the reason no Judd number on the slab) It has however been cataloged as J-2188 at http://uspatterns.com/marwasdesons.html (I will post better pictures this week) Better Pictures
Dutchman, I'm pretty new to this, but why do you think NGC graded that as MS62?? To my untrained eye I would have guessed 64 or 63 for sure. Just wondered what would be holding it down. DC
Congrats on the grade. I have seen photos of these and think they are really interesting pieces. Can't wait to see the better photos!
I think they are interesting, but I don't consider them to be true patterns since they may not have been struck by the Mint. they loaned the dies out to other firms who were doing testing on different alloys or producing pieces to test vending equipment etc. In some cases I believe the were mis-used by these outside firms to create fantasys. For example the Mint has said that no outside testing was done in 82 on the Cu plated cents yet there are pieces using these dies on Cu plated cent blanks and not dime sized dies which the mint had produced. And a couple of them are off-centers. Not likely something the Mint would produce, but definitely something that might be made on a whim by an outside firm.
I tend to agree. I call it a pattern because it does in fact have a Judd number and these test pieces tend to get lumped in the same category... and the same books. I have emailed Andy Lustig about this piece in order to see if they might have any more information about population on this piece. It does appear that just a couple of these survived.
I think it's more than just a couple. Unless it's been the same ones over and over I've seen at least a half a dozen. I believe there are also at least two different reverse dies. there is a difference in the placement of the legend and the tree over Mt Vernon.
I'm referring to this specific Judd number. They have been using this nonsense die since the 60's on all sorts of test blanks as you know.
