Hello all. I said Hello! LOL. It's Wednesday Ya'll and I have a doozy themed thread for you. I's called "White Whale Wednesday!". The Great White Whale is one(s) that has eluded you for so long. If you have finally harpooned that sucker, post pics. If not describe it and tell us why it's so hard to find--that'll be fine. (Thanks for helping @longnine009!). For me? It has to be a few. A $20 Gold Piece (common year). Finding a Half Cent metal detecting or a Civil War Token. What's your "White Whale" of a coin? Tokens and Medals also welcome!
It took me about a decade to metal detect one of these.. Spanish Half Reale - 1789 Now I need to detect the 1, 2, 4 and 8
Coingratulations! When did you find that one? I dug a few half-reales, one 1-real, and one 2-reales. A friend dug a nice 4-reales piece near Saint Augustine, Florida. I've heard of 8-reales coins being found, but have never seen it happen personally.
I have written about this before, and it is still featured at the top of our home page. The 3" silver 1909 Hudson-Fulton medal eluded me for quite a while. Only 100 were made for ANS members. I found this one on eBay, highly cleaned but still 1 of 100. And then, as these things tend to happen, a better one showed up less than a year later. So now I own 2 of 100. Who knows how many actually still survive.
My White Whale is a Black Horse, also known as 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Cavalry tokens are my favorite and Black Horse is the Godfather. I only saw one on Ebay, in 20 years and a sniper beat me out of it. This is the only image I could find on the interwebbie and it's the reverse of VN590a. The obverse would be: NCO Club// (Sega diamond)// 1St Sqdrn. Tokens are a different world from coins. In most cases the history, story and rarity are way more important than the grade. In fact a R9 or10 that's pretty and Unc. is a red flag that a horde may have come out. Sorry, it won't hot link; you'll have to clickie if you want to look at it. https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/...-horse_1_e83fc35a8609d1f69595d43bd6da8813.jpg
Most of my "White Whales" are still hiding in the deep. But I did manage to acquire these two. I was the only bidder on both of these and thus, paid less then $15 each. I guess the current supply and demand ratio is 1:1 Both piece are, to the best of my knowledge, unique. Frank Ford Berry Check Greensburg, Indiana J.M. Boeh 8 Quarts (strawberries) Wathena, Kansas
I’ve been looking for a specific coin for 8 years now and I can’t post a photo of it as I’m still looking. Lol
The Great White Whale for me is the 1802 half dime. It's a "white whale" because only about 30 to 40 are known. The grades have been way too low for the prices I could afford. The high grade pieces are beyond my abilty to pay. The piece that might have fit was in a dealer's inventory for over a year. I couldn't quite afford it, and the price was too high anyway. I figured it was worth about $125,000. He wanted almost $160,000 and would not come down. Finally it went to a Heritage auction where it sold for $129,000. I had no idea how high it would go in an auction, especially Heritage. Many years ago one was available for $139,000. I could have bought it at the time, but it was damaged on the revese. I figured it would not have graded had it not been an 1802 half dime. Later I think it sold at auction for about $139,000.
This is just too coincidental Sal. In my registry set named "The Atlantic City Set of Jefferson Nickels" I often give the coins names. My 1950-D which everyone knows is the key date to the series is named "The White Whale!" The description below is what you will find in my Registry set. "Name: The White Whale (Homemade & 2020 Upgrade) Mintage: 2.6 Million Full Step Availability: 10% Date/mm Information: The lowest mintage of the series was widely hoarded and Bowers remarks "Although Mint State coins are very common today, most are rather dull or uninspiring in appearance, often struck from worn dies and lackluster. For a sparkling gem with sharp steps the adjective scarce can truly be applied. Coin Description: Stunning luster combines with near flawless surfaces and light champagne toning and one of the best strikes I have ever seen on a 50-D which results in absolutely hammered razor sharp steps. This coin represents the pinnacle of what is available for this date/mm. The typical premium gem 50-D is mushy, often lack luster, and even when they have full steps, the steps are always rather weak and just get there. This coin's steps can be seen full with the naked eye, they are that strong. Comments: This coin represents my 8th attempt to fill this slot in my registry set. The first 7 attempts were various MS67 and MS67 5FS coins. Most were either lack luster, poorly struck, or down right ugly. The 1950-D may not be difficult to find in mint state grades, but obtaining a specimen that fits in a high ranking registry set is a difficult chase indeed. At the outset of my endeavor to complete the Jefferson series, I knew I would need fantastic coin to represent the "so called" key date of the series. After 7 failed attempts to fill the slot, I began to consider the ever elusive 1950-D, my white whale. Well in this story, Ahab (Lehigh) wins. I present the "White Whale" of the Atlantic City Set of Jefferson Nickels. In the 2011 Heritage FUN Sale, I obtained my first MS67 5FS, and I was so elated that at the time, I declared that coin my White Whale, but alas the coin had what some would call satin luster. Let's be honest, the thing was so flat and uninspiring that only an aficionado of technical grading could appreciate it. But I kept up the façade that I was happy with the coin and kept it in my set. In 2019, I found an MS67 with beautiful cobalt blue and antique bronze toning that resided in an old fatty slab that predated the 5FS designation. I was confident that it was full steps so I sent the coin to NGC for designation review and sure enough, the coin came back MS67 5FS and that coin represented this set last year. My brother had taken up coin collecting again in 2019 and was building an impressive Franklin Half Dollar collection on his own, so he started buying mint sets on eBay in an attempt to cherrypick some nice full bell Franklins. He decides to buy a random 1950-D mint set that someone had assembled in one of those capital plastics holders. He hands it to me and asks me what I think. Well, I wasn't too impressed with the Franklin, but when I got to the Jefferson my knees buckled and I almost dropped the entire set. Gazing back at me through the loupe was the finest 50-D Jefferson Nickel I had ever seen. I was Ahab, searching the 7 seas in search of my White Whale, meanwhile, my brother, completely by accident, has it fall right into his lap. So I sent it to NGC knowing full well what grade it would receive and I told my brother, when that coin comes back MS67 5FS, I am gonna sell mine, and you are gonna sell this one to me. He agreed that $500 was a fair price for his little brother to finally get his White Whale." To me, it is stories like this that really make coin collecting fun. Documenting a great and successful hunt and reliving years later is the absolute best.
My white whale is probably gonna be out of reach for awhile. 1909 VDB Matte Proof Lincoln. Maybe if I complete the MPL set without the VDB first, I'll sell the rest of my collection to get one... maybe.
I'm Starbuck. We're on a doomed ship and the search for our white whales has decended into "madness". I have a wife and children back in Nantucket and we're burning our profits to stay warm! (I've come to appreciate that story in my older age.) Harpooned this one in November from the US mint on my cell phone. Pure luck everything went through without a hangup, within the five minutes available to get one. Sent it to NGC and got a 70. Not as rare as an 1802 half dime but they did go in a hurry and it never got lost in the mail. For now there's 7500 less of them than there should have been. I called it the white whale for me before this thread was started.
