I like the coin type commemorating Israel's 10th anniversary. What made this interesting is the PCGS holder and packaging it comes in given the limited edition nature. I don't collect holder types, yet the combination here was interesting. The coins themselves were minted as a proof like issue as part of the Danny Kaye order as described below. I saw two being offered by same seller, so took them both. Found this reference online "The PCGS Regency Holder is one of the most rare versions of the PCGS holder. For a short time in the early 1990s, PCGS had an optional premium holder available for a significant extra cost. This premium slab, known as the Regency slab, was large and green with a larger label as well. This larger label allowed for the addition of a couple of lines of text which were customizable by the submitter. This large Regency slab ultimately proved to be quite unpopular at the time given the added cost and the large size of the holder which did not match other PCGS slabs and did not fit in any of the PCGS slab boxes. PCGS estimates that less than 700 of these special holders were ever produced, more than half of which were Israeli coins holdered by the Danny Kaye Estate. These two 1958 Israel 5 Lirot have been graded MS66 by PCGS and come from the Danny Kaye Estate. These coins are part of 1,000 coins given to Kaye by the Israeli government for his work with the United Children's Fund (UNICEF). Of these 1,000, 363 coins were acquired and submitted to PCGS for grading by dealer Randy Karlin in 1995. These coins were given "Specimen" designation by PCGS, because though uncirculated, they received special treatment at the Israel mint from the use of proof dies in the production process. Normal uncirculated coins of the 10th anniversary 5 Lirot series are often marred by heavy surface markings which are not apparent on coins from the Kaye estate. These coins are #181 and #360 out of 363. Danny Kaye, born in 1913, was a popular comedian and appeared in several notable films such as Hans Christian Anderson in 1952, and The Court Jester in 1956. Kaye died in 1987. "
No, I believe you're mixing them up with the rare and also-coveted NGC black slabs. I've seen these Danny Kaye PCGS Regency holders around. Amazing to think that the plastic here is worth three figures in its own right.
I believe this is the original wooden box the coin came in pre slabbing. These can be find in such original boxes at times on ebay.
Because they weren't trying to spell "specimen". You see, Danny Kaye was, in addition to being a popular comedian, also an Italian astronaut. You try it. Say "spaceman" out loud, in a cheesy, pseudo-Italian accent. Baaaahaha! I crack me up. Actually, you can chalk it up as yet another slab error. Kinda funny. I've seen funnier, though. Like a "1921-D" Pilgrim half in an ACG holder (someone thought the designer's initial was a mintmark). Or a SEGS holder that said "damaged by FedEx" or "damaged by UPS" on the label (I forget now who had allegedly done the damage, but SEGS wanted that known on the coin label!)
I found another only this is a PR-63 with a series of 59 (never knew the Danny Kaye series had true proofs) ... only 2,000 proofs were made for this type.
