1875 20 cent trial proof

I was scrolling through an old, digitized book the other day on the Internet Archive and came across an interesting picture. This appears to be a test piece or essay for an 1875 20-cent piece. I'd never seen one before, but I'm no expert in this area. Obviously it isn't the design that was ultimately chosen for circulation. There wasn't any information included with the picture and I wondered it anyone on the forum might know about it.

 

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Never heard, or saw this. But that looks like a Barber design.
Glad they went the other way. Hmm it says he was not the chief engraver until 1879. But it looks like his design to me.
Thanks for posting.

 

Before a coin is actually produced for circulation, there are a number of "pattern" coins made. These are proposed designs. A huge number are drawn on paper, some are modelled in clay, some are actually engraved and struck. The mint officials then look at the proposed designs and decide what they like and don't like about the design, and send it back for another round of design, refinement, and engraving.

What you show here is a "pattern" coin, a proposed design struck in very limited quantities. This design was obviously not chosen for production. These pattern pieces are often highly collectible, and often quite rare. Because of this, their prices are usually quite high as well.

Judd wrote the standard reference on these pattern coins. The coin you are inquiring about is known as "Judd-1392." If you want to see more about these in the Heritage auction archives, see here: https://www.ha.com/c/search-results...=1&Ntt=judd+1392&ic4=KeywordSearch-A-K-071316

 

You're close.... These were designed by William Barber. His son, Charles Barber, succeeded him in 1879.

There were, of course, no hints of nepotism

 

I did know they were father/son. I guess the design apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

 

Quick work and excellent information! I checked the Heritage site; the image I posted doesn't do it justice. Interesting that it was given the nickname "Sailor Head." I guess you can kind of image a sailor hat if you squint.

Thanks for the education!

 

If you;re interested in patterns, take a look at the http://uspatterns.com/ website run by Andy Lustig and Saul Teichman. Ton of info there.

 

Hello, I am not a collector and have little knowledge of coins. I do believe I have this coin though. I can not figure out how to post photo's yet. I will keep trying, would appreciate any knowledge or comments

 

I am going to go out on a limb and say you don't have this pattern coin.

 

Click on upload file next to post reply. Either pick from your gallery or take a photo.