I picked this up from eBay for $35. Coin Die alignment. I've heard these were quite rare. it was the first concept from the Gallery Mint. Any thoughts? http://home.earthlink.net/~smalldollars/dollar/page17.html
Neat but ugly design. I'm sure it's worth more than what you paid. Those can possibly be the new prototype "trial" coins of US. Nice find!
To someone who collects this private mint's products, it's probably worth a premium over bullion/melt, but otherwise it's just one more silver round IMHO. EDITED: to take back what I said. After taking a look at the website linked in the original post, it appears that the piece is struck in brass, not silver. Therefore, I consider it a novelty piece about on a par with New Orleans Mardis Gras Dollars, except that there aren't as many of them. If someone gave me one, I'd stick it in my exonumia binder, but I don't think I'd consider buying one. To each his own, and that kind of thing isn't my own.
I agree with Roy. Looks like you paid about $34 too much. Common sense people, just as your not going to get a $40,000 coin on eBay for $50. Your not going to get something "quite rare" for $35.
While not exactly rare, (by my definition of the word), they are pretty scarce. They only made 1300 or so of them and they are not all still around any longer. I used to own one of the year 2000 designs myself. And I paid considerably more than $35 for it. For those that don't know or didn't take the time to read, these were among the original designs submitted for what was to become the Sacagawea dollar. They were in today's world what patterns were in yesterday's world. My personal favorite of all the designs was the 2000. I always wanted to try and get a whole set of the proposed designs. Never could find them available though $35 - you bet :thumb:
There are people that specifically collect "Concept Dollars". By definition, these are pieces that were produced with the intent to show "what if ?". These pieces answer the question: what might a coin of a certain size, composition, denomination, and design actually look like in hand ? In other words, privately-minted patterns that were proposed or presented to the government as examples of potential legal-tender coins. While the collector base for these is somewhat small, typical mintages for them are low (similar to other pattern coins). I've actually produced several different Concept Dollars. A design I did was one of seven finalists in the official US Mint design competition for the reverse of the Sacagawea Dollar. I've minted various prototypes using that design. Mintages on the ones I produced range from 9 to 900 of each type. Most of mine have mintages less than 500. Mike Wallace has put together an excellent web site devoted to small dollars (including concept dollars): http://www.smalldollars.com
Actually, the 1995 Concept Dollar by the Gallery Mint Museum is the most prized piece of my entire collection. Not only were just 1,371 minted all told, but the dies themselves were hand engraved by Ron Landis and they were struck on an old timey screw press. All in all, a completely handcrafted piece. I received mine as a complimentary gift from GMM back around then, but $35 for that piece is a relative bargain in my opinion. Striker Token and Medal, the new name for what was Gallery Mint, Inc. will soon be offering the remaining stock of the 2000 Concept dollars, which had a mintage of 2,500 for each of two designs and the price for those will likely be around $35 or so. Both Ron Landis and Daniel Carr were finalists for the reverse of what became the Sacagawea dollar, and Landis also received the American Numismatic Association's Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture. So not only is the Concept dollar like a pattern, but one engraved by a contemporary master. In essence you have a work of modern art. Here's my collection of GMM items: http://www.hal-pc.org/~edi/gmm/tokens.html
I kind of like that obverse. Reminds me a little of the 1793 Half Cent, but facing the opposite way. And a WHOLE lot more affordable...
Concept Dollars VERY cool! I totally agree with Edwin (edix). Ron landis is one of today's great master die engravers, working directly in the steel (not on oversize plaster masters) using the traditional techniques. Those mintages are astonishingly low, and the fact that they are true pattern dollars submitted to the mint means that they are far more than simple private issue tokens. $35 was a fair price and a good score. Tom Maringer Shire Post Mint.
And let's not forget they were the first to put E Pluribus Unum and In God We Trust incused in the rim. We have to thank the late Joe Rust as well, the machinist at the Gallery mint Museum, who kept the machines running.
