Do you have a "White Whale" ?

Thought that this be an interesting thread....how about posting your White Whale and a little tid bit of how long you chased after it.

Mine is actually two ,and it has eluded me for a decade. The 1858 half dime is ranked 75/77 mintage of 3,500,000 struck. However god only how many shows in the last decade I haven't been able to cherry pick an 1858 over inverted date, or the doube date varities.
I have found some varities that are like R- 5 and couple R-7's. Much harder to find than a common date coins.....
I have told dealer friends about the 1834 inverted 3 variety.... found in their inventory, but the inverted date,and repunched date has eluded me.
Some say just go buy one! Bite your tongue....im a picker...and like Mel Fisher quote " Today is the Day"....I do believe that I nailed one of the two.....but stay tuned as it isn't in hand yet.....and the inverted date 1858 is still in the wild waiting to be captured. Arggggg

So I will up date this in a couple of days as soon as the rpd-001 Breem 3090 1858/1858 hits the mail box.
Meanwhile... what's been driving you nuts?

 

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I’ve been chasing my white wake for 7 years now. I just can’t find the right looking coin at the right price. I only need the one to complete my set. One day hopefully.

 

This has been a WW for me. Sold some other things to finally be able to purchase one. It is hard to weigh 'want' against 'need'.

 

For me it's a 1976 P bicentennial quarter, MS and totally and completely fully struck with all details and preferably not contact marked up.

I've been searching for decades actually. Basically a solid proof type strike but on a for circulation coin.

I have "nice" ones in P and D and I am sort of satisfied with the D, but the P is my white whale that I'm likely never going to find without paying an arm, a leg and a lung for. But so far I'm not happy with the top pop pictures of PCGS or NGC. There is better out there somewhere, I KNOW it!

Hahahaa. Clearly my white whale....

 

I've had several white whales over the years. 1802 S-226 large cent. It's supposed to be about the most common of the 1802's. I was the last variety I needed for by set and I spent three years trying to find one. Found several of the 238 and 240's which are the rarest of the 1802's but could never find the 226.Finally after three years one turned up in an auction and I was ready to go to three times catalog to get it. Got it for 1.5X.

1796 S-113 was another one. Now that is a rare one, not super rare, and I didn't expect to cherry it, but over a 7 year period it just would not show up even in sales of fairly extensive large cent collections. Most of the 96 draped busts would be there including the rare ones but it would always be 111, 112, 114, 115.... Finally got one at a sale about 3 years ago.

In my Conder tokens, the last piece I needed for Essex county was D&H 3. Now it's supposed to be rare, about an R-5, but it did tend to show up in lists from specialist dealers. Over a 5 years period I must have purchased at least half a dozen D&H 3's, every single one of them turned out to be misattributed D&H 4's. then one day at a show a very nice one turned up unattributed in a non-specialist dealers stock

 

I can somewhat understand why one cannot not find something that is rare...but those who have larger mintages ...it must just be luck....on the coin gods screwing with you!

Rare specimens do surface at time with older collectors dying off.....I know of two cases this year where a dealer friend got 2 huge collections due to covid losses.
For my friend it was a doubled edge sword loosing a customer ,yet getting the spoils....so to speak.
I particularly dont like hearing of a loss for many reasons....most of all the lifes work of another collector now being broken up.... but again the circle of life ,allowing all those specimens to again be released to find another collection to become a part of....only to begin the circle once again.
Our hobby has given me such pleasure since the age of 7.My only wish is when I do pass is that my coins do find another collector who will enjoy them as much as I have in my lifetime.
There are so many things that do divide us....but the passion and love of this hobby is the glue that bonds us! That to me speaks volumes about how important this hobby is to so many of us...And how we the keepers cannot allow it to die along with us.

 

My White Whale has been the 1942 Uruguay 1 Peso
I've searched for many years for one in a MS grade and decent price.


My last White Whale I finally found at the NYINC show a few years ago..

 

I recently put together an IHC collection in mostly AU, but with a few very nice XFs and some UNCS (plus a couple of proofs, just for fun). The last coin that I needed was "the right" 1882. Very common in all grades, but the right coin eluded me until a couple of months ago.

 

For me it was finding a doubled die and I did,took a while-1972 ddo-003.

 

yup, an american coin pre 1800...i have a ew for,ones, even one from the 1400's from france that is an error (double or triple struck and o/c...and recently bought (do not have yet) from great collections a ct copper error (clip) will post in errors when she arrives...but , yeah, really want, but cannot afford a 1799 or earlier

 

It's been so long (1967-68) since I was in Uruguay. I wasn't a coin collector back then, but I did have a plastic bag with a bunch of Uruguayan coins. My EX decided that because her love letters were in the bag too, she decided to throw away all of my coins from Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. I think I'm going to start over collecting from 1966. Any ideas of the best way to look? Thanks for your entry. A lot of good memories (bad ones too).

 

check this one paddy! https://www.ebay.com/itm/1230667368...hGe64yCRmw2-8kEGIEYqLfdgx_wpnAHUaAiq5EALw_wcB

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304206388488?hash=item46d41d1d08:g:5O4AAOSwuh9hY564
this one is ms-63 and bidding ends in 40 hours, 22.50 right now

 

I've had 2 for many years... earlier this year I managed to land my 1895 morgan... the 93s i'm still hunting for lol

 

Great.. Added to my watch list! Thanks!

 

Mine was this:

It was more about cost than scarcity. Finally won an auction at a good price.

 

I had a crack on this piece, but I stupidly listened to someone who told it was too expensive. It was not cheap, but I had the money. Since then I have only seen one offered, and it was badly damaged and of no interest to me. There are about dozen of these known in silver and three more in white metal, which would be second choice far down the line for me. I don't care for white metal medals.

This is the 1801 Thomas Jefferson presidential inaugural medal by John Reich. I believe that this piece will be a "white whale" for me forever.

 

Arggggg not my Whale but it is sometimes difficult to read digital images ,esspecially on coins that have lots of wear.
But again sometimes one must turn a down around and look the positives! Well the mail man rang twice today....I got a nice 1858 circam specimen, as well another 1850 half dime.

1850 mintage 955,000

So just did the attribution on the 1850 Obv. 5.1 Rev. D.1 V-5 R-4 im very pleased to say the least.

 

I've been looking for two proof Jefferson nickels for quite a while to complete my Jeff nickel proof collection -- 1939 (reverse of 1940) and 1940 (reverse of 1938). Hard to find any for sale (occasionally see one on Stacks & Bowers or Great Collections, but they're usually bid at extremely high price). I'll settle for PR 65 for each .. don't need PR 67 or 68.

 

I received a pm from a member here who shared this with me.... It's pretty cool and I appreciate you sharing it with me....I hope you don't mind that I posted it.
A member named Greg which I appreciate that he took time to pm me and share.
The signature is spot on having held Breen items before his signature is easy recognized.