Is there some kind of provenance to prove it is the first? Or it's just the first published of this kind? I don't understand. Is this the M variety? A mintage of 150. NGC says $90. Seems low for 150 coins.
Yes, this is the matte type. Mintage was reported, but I've collected Franklin Mint as a sideline for 40 years and have not seen another. Some of the 1975 and 1976FM mattes are extremely rare and apparently scarcer than the reported mintage. Some other examples are the Guyana 1977FM matte 5 and 10 dollars, and the Jamaica 1975-77 FM matte 10 dollars (and likely the 5 dollars). Nobody I have talked to has seen more than one of any of these; there are many other examples. The best that anybody knows, and was reported at the time is that these were specimens released to the Central Banks of the respective countries; the problem is that many were high face value coins at the time and did not contain any precious metals like the examples cited and so may have simply been scrapped. I also have not been able to confirm that the Banks ACTUALLY received any of these coins. I welcome any discourse and hopefully others can contribute. Google searches yield nought of course.
