Grade this Great Harvest Campaign Cherrypick

I stole this. Seriously. I think nobody knew what it was, but I did. I never thought I would have one of these, and I think there are still less then 200 accounted for. In Adna Wilde's write-up on these in 1987, there were 140 known. I think I read something that that number is now in the 160's? I really have no clue. But this one is mine.

I'll be sending this off to NGC in a few weeks, but in the meantime, what would you guys grade it?

***There is a partial rim hit on the reverse at the you in UNITED - would that detail grade it?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Are you sure NGC will grade it with the counterstamp?

 

serious question, not trying to be difficult, counterstamp collectors, how do you know it wasn't stamped yesterday in someone's garage?

 

That is it, Got any info?

 

Xf45

 

Aren't these stamps considered damage to the coin?

 

+1 @ 45. That rim ding doesn't look too bad from the photos.

 

No, they're a part of their history. Google it.

 

Here is one from heritage https://coins.ha.com/itm/commemorat...4-4388.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 - never knew about these.

 

Yes, both NGC and PCGS will authenticate, grade, and slab the Great Harvest Stone Mountains. PCGS also lists them as a variety in coinfacts.

It's a good question. That's why you need to know what you're looking at, and then have it authenticated.

https://www.google.com/search?q=192...ome..69i57.20416j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

I'll stick with XF 45; again great find!
And no need to tell others about these as it'll become harder to cherrypick them.

 

This so many people think they’re damaged let them keep thinking that

 

I posted this on another forum as well, and someone asked 'what is it?'. Now that I have one, I don't mind sharing the info on these, so here's a cut-n-paste of what my reply was to that question:

In a nutshell -

There were so many Stone Mountain commems minted, that they were having a hard time selling them all (they never did). There were over 2.3 million that were actually struck*, and offered for sale at $1 each (2x face). Sales were slow, as such a large quantity hindered the collectibility of the coin from a collector's standpoint, and the combination of cost and appeal mostly to the southern states made the general public not so interested in it (as the case with a number of early commems).

So they came up with a number of different marketing schemes. One was the Great Harvest Campaign, which targeted 13 southern states and DC, by counter-stamping coins with the state and a 'serial number'. Best I can glean is that each state was given 1000 serial numbered coins (pure conjecture on my part), and they were offered at auction as 'one of a kinds'. Historical records show the average was in the $20-$30 range, but there is a report that one sold in Florida for $1,300. That's 1925 dollars!

From what I have been able to determine, it seems that after the initial auction offerings, these were essentially forgotten about. Then in the late 40's (or 50's), Adna Wilde Jr was given one from his grandfather's collection (who had already passsed), and Adna thought he had a damaged coin. With his sentiments, it (to me) solidifies that these were just a footnote in numismatic history. Many years later, he came across another one, and that made him think there was more to the coin and stamp then he initially thought.

Over the years, Adna came across, and in many cases, came to own, many more of these. Through his research he was able to document the existence of 140 of these, including the extra special SL and GL versions. Through my own research, I think there have still been less then 200 of these Great Harvest Campaign coins re-discovered.

If I were to make some guesses, I'd say there were 13,000 Great Harvest Campaign Stone Mountains produced. So where are they?

First guess is that they were put into circulation during the Great Depression. Even though the owner may have paid $30 1925 dollars for the coin, it was still 50¢ of spendable cash in 1932, which had the same buying power as $10 today. In those times, that could feed a family of 4 for a couple of days (bread, eggs, milk, flour, etc), which was way more important then having a shiny coin in your bureau drawer.

Second guess is that those stayed in circulation, which could make the counterstamp less apparent, especially if you're not looking at the reverse, or looking for it at all, so they could have just been overlooked. Keep in mind that from about the mid-40's onward, numerous commemorative coins were used in daily circulation. Chances of falling into the hands of a collector once in circulation decrease dramatically. Then came the end of silver coinage in 1965, and every dang silver coin was stuck in a jar for years and/or decades. Then in 1979, the Hunt brothers came along, and everybody sold all that silver that had been sitting in jars for so long. For melt. But melt value at the time was about $20-22 for a half, which was way more then a circulated Stone Mountain was worth numismatically.

So my guess is that most of these were forgotten, and then melted. We probably will never know if in fact 13,000 of them were offered, and we probably will also never know how many are out there still.

All I know is... I GOT ONE!

*net mintage after returns to the mint for melting is 1,314,709

 

I've wanted one since I bought my first Stone Mountain and read about them.

Great find and couldn't have happened to a more deserving commemorative collector!

 

I recently picked this one up on the Bay and think it is actually nicely toned, which for a Stone Mountain is somewhat rare in my experience.



I am curious about your estimates of original and surviving Harvest Campaign coins since I have not been able to find any reliable figures.

 

Most recent info I can find puts the estimated number of known Great Harvest Campaign Stone Mountain commems around 180 pieces (not including mine). That number has grown from 140 in 1987 (or 1988), so there is a good chance there are more out there, just waiting to be found.

Your Stone Mountain sure is pretty! You are aware that it is not a Great Harvest Campaign example, right?

 

Yes I know, but most SMH I see are discolored more than toned so I am just being proud. I have been searching for some counterstamped varieties and would take any I could find, but there hasn't been one show up for sale in over a year that I could find.

Also I would send the coin to PCGS. If you look at their population report you will see that they classify all sub-varieties in this series. To my knowledge NGC only considers them to be tokens. This one would be PCGS 525162 with 13 known graded outside of N grades. Most of the S.L. and G.L. coins N grade almost by definition.

But these are true rarities. Whoever did the photography did a great job. Very professional.

 

Very nice! Is always a pleasure to see folks appreciating history as opposed to trashing or trying to erase it.

 

Yeah, PCGS will be the way to go with this. I was going to go with NGC, but the more I thought about it, the more PCGS makes sense.

And thanks, I do my own photography, but I'm nowhere near as good as @jtlee321 - he's the man when it comes to numismatic photography!

 

I believe that might be high. From what I have read each state was given numbered coins corresponding to the number of places they were to be marketed, but how this was determined was not detailed. I guess it could have been a city, county, or maybe even locations where there were UDC chapters.

I have not seen any coins numbered close to 1000, so I think the average might have been closer to 400 each. Also confusing is that no coins from Missouri have ever been seen, and they added Oklahoma and DC. Oklahoma was big, but DC was probably a novelty for southern congressmen and very small.

But rare as noted by the PCGS census where there are several examples of a single coin being graded.