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Message:: [QUOTE="cpm9ball, post: 900485, member: 24633"]You are probably thinking of the "No S" proofs that were struck by the Philadelphia Mint. There is an account of this by Tom Delorey in The Authoritative Reference on Eisenhower Dollars by John Wexler, Bill Crawford and Kevin Flynn. According to Tom, on August 12, 1974, the Philadelphia Mint struck Proof specimens of the three different Bicentennial designs in 40% silver for display at the upcoming ANA Convention in Bal Harbor, Florida. Supposedly, complete sets were given to the three designers of the reverses as well as President Ford's Press Secretary, but the sets were not available for sale at the convention. Some time later, Tom was writing a follow-up story for Coin World on the different designs (Variety 1 & Variety 2) of the Bicentennial Dollars and he noted that the editor had deleted his mention of the "No-Mint-Mark" proofs from the story. When he asked about it, he was told by the editor that the "No-Mint-Mark" proof sets had been returned to the Mint at a later time and replaced with the regular "S-Mint-Mark" 40% silver proof sets, and they therefore no longer existed. Then, in the summer of 1977, Tom received at Coin World a lightly circulated 1976 "No-Mint-Mark" 40% silver dollar sent in by a reader who reported finding it in a cash register at the Woodward & Lothrop Department Store in Washington, DC. He noted that the amazing thing about the coin was that it had the Type 2 reverse which had never been adopted for the 40% silver strikings at San Francisco. He could only speculate that the coin was a prototype which some governmental functionary inadvertently spent in DC, but why it was struck in the first place is not known. Perhaps one day, others will surface. Jesse, you said that your copy of the Red Book mentions the existence of two specimens. My copy is the 2008 Edition, and it makes no mention of them at all. The only thing it does indicate is that there are no known specimens of the 1976 Silver Clad Variety 2. Is that what you meant? Chris[/QUOTE]

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