Hey guys, So after months of unintended anticipation (I wanted to send the coin off to make sure, and the coin shop I took it to gives a cheaper price if you wait to send coins out with a larger batch, and they don't get many of these...), I give you the story of my luckiest find to date :smile Although I lately make my home in the frigid Midwest (well, now in June it's pretty great, but I refer here to the other 11 months), I am originally from the humid climes of Southern Mississippi. In those parts, coin shops are few and far between- some of my fondest childhood memories during my first phase of coin collecting was visiting a store called "Cohen's Coins" in New Orleans, but that trip came just once a year. In any case, this past Christmas I found myself back home to visit with family and, having recently been re-bitten by the coin collecting bug, I found myself wondering where (or if) in the years since someone within driving distance might have set up shop. As it turned out, there was a single place- a local antiques mall where nearby flea market peddlers left their wares on consignment. So, of course, at one point running errands I decided to slip away from the wife and family and stop-in to see what this antiques mall had; after exchanging greetings with a few of the owners who had known me as a kid (just to reiterate, I had never been inside this store before; this is, to be sure, a small town). The coins were mostly what you might expect- lots heavily worn and overpriced v nickels and indian cents, a few almost humorously obvious counterfeits (at least someone had the decency to right "NOT GUARANTEED" on the 1885 trade dollar! Still, at 8 bucks, maybe not a bad deal!), some no-value foreign coins, a few random tokens. Still, as I always do, I picked up a few things that caught my eye; with the price of silver going up so much that time last year, there were some Foreign coins no one had taken the time to reprice like a sterling Australian crown, and there were a few nice Indian Cents. There was also a particularly interesting and intricate token that caught my eye; Let me be clear- I am no collector of tokens of any sort: I barely know a hard-times token from a Chucky-Cheese token. But for whatever reason this particular one- it had a nice color to it that looked original (not gold, but maybe gilded) and even though it was tiny (smaller than a dime) it had lots of really impressive intricate detail- and this for something struck in what appeared to be 1939, as part of the Golden Gate Exposition (thanks, loupe!). And, hey, for two dollars and fifty cents, what did I have to lose? I went home and, as I often do in these situations, did a little "Googling." Nothing seemed to be coming up when I searched for "PACIFICA," the name written in all caps on one side of the coin. I finally ended up with a string that looked something like "Golden Gate Exposition 1939 token PACIFICA statue," and found this page: <http://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Golden_Gate_Exposition.html> As it turns out, then, this was a very particular type of token- a "so-called-dollar", which like many collectors I had heard of but never actually seen. And, as it turns out, as far as so-called-dollars go, this was a particularly well-known and scarce one. These were created by a San Francisco Fine Arts Dealer/Appraiser and miniatures maker by the name of Jule Charbneau; he made 2500 of these coins out of gold, 500 out of silver; they sold poorly, despite their oft-noted detail, and the vast majority were melted at the close of the fair. The reverse shows the statue of "Pacifica" constructed for the exposition, and the obverse manages to squeeze in the golden gate bridge, a major thoroughfare, an airplane, a boat, a motto, and a date, even- at less than 1mm high, the engraver's initials. From what I could tell, this was a subset of the silver token that was sold gilded- probably why it had ended up in a $2.50 flea market coin slip instead of melted. This particular variety, as it turns out, was described as an R-7; only about 10-15 known; at that time NGC, which is the only major company that certifies them, had only certified 9. There is no price list for this type of coin, just auction records, and one of these last sold in 2009 for nearly $1000! But, wait, who was I kidding? A) I wasn't even sure if what I had was real (Were these counterfeited? Were similar versions made at the Golden Gate Exposition with different details?) and, B) Even if this WAS real, which I suspected, it's very "originality" or "old-looking-ness" might be a problem-it had luster but didn't look "blast-bright," so who knows how it would come back? For some coins that seemed to be the difference between an AU and a lower MS, and who knew how tokens were graded? So, in December, I sent the coin off to NGC (or actually, dropped it off at the coin shop and said "just send it out when it's cheapest and let me know when it gets back"- I didn't want to think about it or get my hopes up). I literally almost forgot about it until last week, when I got a call saying they had gotten it back...In an MS-63 holder!!!! :yes: Could not have been happier to own the 10th HK-487c certified by NGC. I think that's probably my dumb luck quota for at least the rest of the year, but I can at least acknowledge it as such and try to make up for it by doing the research on the back end! Here are some pics (just for a sense of scale on the close-ups, these are indeed about the size of a gold dollar or half dime): I probably couldn't dream of putting together a collection of something like this, so now I just have to figure out what to do with this little fella; but that is, as they say, a "champagne problem." Moral of the story: There is still some treasure out there to be found if you have a good eye and don't mind doing a little research! Happy hunting!
What a find! I am always searching around, I hope one day I come across an opportunity like that. That is very nice.
Incredible indeed! What a day you must have had when it came back in an MS63 slab! Best find of mine was an Antoninus Pius A.D. 55-56 Bronze AE As that I sold at the Long Beach, CA Coin Expo for $60. That was a year or so back... And not nearly as impressive as your find. -Brian
That's a beautiful token cannon. You would never have a problem selling it because there are a lot of So-Called-Dollar collectors out there. It may have been "dumb-luck", but don't forget, you saw something in the piece that was interesting and appealing, so just as with "normal" luck you made your own dumb-luck. Congrats on your pickup. Bruce
That is quite a cool story, and quite the neat little token to go along with it. What intricate detail.
An most excellent write up Cannoncoins. Thank you for sharing your interesting story and find with us!
Hey guys, thanks for all the comments and "likes" :smile It's really nice to have a community to share the occasional coin-related "good-news" (or bad news!) with, so thanks too to all the folks that make this forum work! If anyone has any questions on the coin or charbneau dollars, it is a newfound and incredibly narrowly defined area of expertise for me- at least as far as what is published on the web. If there are any so-called-dollar experts out there lurking in the mist, I would be glad to pick YOUR brain for any additional info or advice on "next-steps" with the coin; a reply here or a PM both work great. Thanks again!
My best find was a corroded 1871 Shield Nickel that I got in a dealer bargain bin for two bucks. Obviously the dealer couldn't read the date, but I could, with my trusted loupe. I later sold it on eBay for $75. Congrats on your find, though! :thumb: I wish I could find stuff like that.
that is an amazing story that I enjoyed reading! I hope can get that lucky to find something like that!
Way to go! I love hearing stories like these, especially when they're well written and entertaining. You are one lucky SOB! Congrats. That is a really cool find. Lance.
You suck! Same slab, same grade, $920 hammer price. http://coins.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=1132&lotNo=9609 Although that one appears to be 10kt gold.
Nice Find, Merc Crazy- I think I may have seen that auction earlier in the search; I think I actually saw that one up for auction in an earlier catalog where it was described as mis-labeled- this token(because it's gold) has to be the HK-488 according to Hibler and Kappan (the "H" and "K" behind the "HK"); 487's are all silver- gilded, not gilded, and counter-stamped with "40" (those are the c,a, and b, respectively). Like I said, limited expertise! There were apparently so many experimental varieties made by Charbneau that no one is really sure how many there are- there are actually 2 that were made out of Platinum, and the gold ones come in 3 different varieties themselves; although I guess this means I can subtract "1" from the number of my variety that have been "correctly" attributed by NGC! Thanks again for all the positive comments guys (even the hopefully well-meaining "you suck," which I'll take in stride!)
The "You Suck" is given as an award on another major coin forum... It's more about envy than anything else, that is a crazy deal you scored on.
Because I can't seem to edit my original post, I just wanted to correct a detail that someone pointed out to me when I put this up on my eBay page last night- the NGC Census actually lists 6 of these (5 before mine, 6 including), although in the post I refer to "9," which is the estimate of those that have been identified, including uncertified, using auction records as well. On a side note- Jeff Shevlin, who is writing a book on Charbneau dollars, has suggested that this might be the gilt copper and misattributed (the gilt copper is HK-490) which would be fine an dandy with me- NGC has only certified 1 of those! To be continued...?
Absolutely gorgeous! It is good to see a fellow treasure seeker find something rare and valuable. PM sent
