Walter Breen
Silver Dollar. *B-1. Base of 1 repunched. Rev. of 1858 B-2, now worn and repolished, though without the rust found on its 1876 reuse with pattern obvs. At least one other minor positional variety is possible. Garrett:277 brought $1,800. A few more of these are around (mostly cleaned) than of the smaller denomination, reflecting mint policy 1858-60 of coining more proof dollars in expectation of a larger market for this denomination (among souvenir hunters, etc.) than for smaller denominations or for complete silver-minor sets. The much criticized policy of Mint Director Snowden whereby he sold individual silver dollars at $1.08 apiece appears to reflect nothing more nor less than sales of individual proofs to the public, the 8¢ premium representing a proofing charge levied on individual dollars or on sets. Note that from 1861 on, according to the Mint Cabinet Accounts and Memoranda 1857-1904 notebook now in custody of the Smithsonian, even the Mint Cabinet itself was charged this same 8¢ premium for yearly proof sets above their face value!
Silver-minor proof sets. These were probably first struck prior to February 21, 1859. A notation of this date in the above mentioned Mint Cabinet Accounts and Memoranda 1857-1904 gives: "Feb. 21, 1859. $119.67 specie, U.S. Coins of 1859, and sundries". These evidently included a complete proof set of the year (q.v. below) and seventy-odd dollars' worth of unspecified coins, mineral samples, etc. Aside from that in Phila. Estate ex Hesslein, June 1923: 1470, the existing silver-minor sets appear for the most part to have been assembled from individual coins - a curious state of affairs, as it were attempting to make time run backwards, as many of the original sets distributed by the mint were promptly broken up, the individual coins going into denomination sets. It is thus as yet impossible to guess whether the V-1 or the V-2 half dime came earlier in the year, though examination of the half dime proof in the Smithsonian might give a clue. The number of such sets made is unknown as yet, though evidently of the order of magnitude of 60-70 - perhaps slightly more than 1858, certainly less than 100.
Gold Dollar. First feather incomplete; dentils apart except near bottom; polish near eye, below ear; bold date as on 5¢, low, 18 repunched. (1) SI. (2) kANS. (3) Lohr:972. (4) Jay:227, ex Wolfson: 41, left obv. field hairlines. (5) WGC:14. This or no. 3 may have reappeared in the 1965 PNG auction. (6) Melish: 1769, Sloss. (7) Philadelphia Estate, ex NN 12/12/40, with plainly recut date. I would estimate that not more than 15 survive, and this probably represents the majority of the original mintage. Cf. also S 2/71: 771 at $915 (Gilbert collection). NB: The copper and copper gilt Paquet type dollars are of far inferior workmanship to those of 1858; genuineness doubted, no gold known.
Quarter Eagle. Date low in field, whereas 1 is midway between bust and border on business strikes. New reverse hub: letters slightly smaller, spaced a little farther apart; arrowheads smaller. This hub appears on all subsequent Philadelphia coins of the design; branch mint reverses through 1865 are from the old (1840-58) hub because they are in fact leftover dies of previous years. (1) Smithsonian, from Mint proof set. (2) ANS, from Brock, Morgan proof set. (3) Atwater: 1963. (4) Amon Carter Sr. & Jr., same as last? (5) WGC, to "Memorable": 118. Either of the last two may have reappeared as Wolfson: 179, possibly ex J. F. Bell. It is doubtful if more than 8 survive, possibly less. One of these is ex Col. Cohen: 227.
Three Dollars. [35+] *B-3. Obverse same die as 1858 proofs. Rev.: Plain recutting on top of 1 and r. side of 9, repolished state of B-l. (1) Smithsonian. (2) ANS. (3) Eliasberg. (4) WGC:274 to "Memorable": 245, possibly same as next. (5) Wolfson: 283 at $1,200, reappearing as Grant Pierce: 1245 at $1,300, later C. Jay: 277, Ullmer: 212 at $9,000. (6) 1974 GENA: 1868, lower left obv. field nick. (7) Garrett: 397 at $10,000. The actual mintage is not known but was at least 35 as that number of examples was sold at the mint -per R. W. Julian. I have also seen several impaired proofs of this date. One is ex Col. Cohen: 233.
Half Eagle. Date low in field, smaller than in former years. (1) Smithsonian. (2) ANS. (3) WGC: 413, possibly reappearing as "Memorable": 360, Kern: 383? In the same rarity class with the quarter eagle, possibly a little rarer? One is ex Col. Cohen: 180; another (?) ex Morgenthau 418:62 (10/9/40).
Eagle. Date rather thin and low in field. (1) SI. (2) ANS. (3) WGC:664. (4) Atwater: 1437, possibly later Amon Carter Sr. & Jr. (5) Ex L. Merkin. (6) Kern: 507, Rapoport: 2095, Wolfson: 675, cleaned to death. (7) KS 2/60:2790, probably same as no. 3 or 5. (8) Ten Eyck:289, Clapp, Eliasberg?
Double Eagle. Date low in field. New obverse hub: JBL much further to left, not below curls; 6th star points to left side of denticle, more of Y shows but without recutting, 11th star farther from curls, etc. There are also differences in shape of truncation and in some details of lower and back curls. Working dies from this obverse hub continued through 1876. (1) SI. (2) Ten Eyck:314, Clapp, Eliasberg? (3) ANS. (4) WGC :862, possibly reappearing as "Memorable": 685, possibly ex Parmelee: 1302. (5) Atwater:1251. (6) The specimen in the first Bell sale, 1944. Any of the last three might have been the coin sold as Wolfson:869, and/or Menjou:1797. One is ex Morgenthau 418:364(l0/9/40).For long only four were believed to be known.
Complete proof sets. Struck around or prior to Feb. 21, by the line of reasoning given under Silver-minor proof sets above, in very limited quantity. (1) Mint Cabinet collection, now in Smithsonian. (2) Mint to R.C.W. Brock to J. Pierpont Morgan to ANS (1908). (3) Mintto L. G. Parmelee, broken up and resold as Parmelee: 1302-1306, H. P. Smith buying the coins in for unidentified customers. Daily records of gold coinage from 1858 through 1873, furnished me by R. W. Julian from the Archives, afford only slim grounds for conjecture. It is barely possible that the odd 13 (of 1513) double eagles minted Jan. 22, 1859 might have been proofs: no more twenties were coined prior to the date when the mint cabinet obtained its proof set. Some 3398 eagles were minted on Feb. 16, which might have included 13 proofs; likewise 2793 half eagles, Jan. 22, same comment; 12,518 quarter eagles, Feb. 18, with perhaps 18 proofs. But when applied to the ones and threes this notion breaks down. Threes were first reported coined Feb. 25 and the mint cabinet had its proof before that date. Gold dollars: 24,535, Feb. 3, which might conceivably have meant 24,500 regulars and 35 proofs, but there is no supporting evidence; odd amounts recur in later months which could conceivably have included proofs of both ones and threes. If even as many as 13 complete sets had been struck, probably the unsold ones found their way to the Melter & Refiner even as did later unsold sets. Granting that hypothesis, the number originally minted might have been still higher: note the numbers of gold proofs minted in April 1860, based on some sort of expectation of sales based on previous years. Possibly, then, as many as 50 to 70 complete gold proof sets might have been made, with somewhat larger numbers of the quarter eagle, still more of the three and yet more of the one dollar gold; silver-minor sets in perhaps double the number of the complete gold. In which case the survivors would represent, as in later years, only a minority of the original mintage. But all of this is necessarily conjectural, pending discovery in the Archives of any sales records of proofs for 1859. A difficulty in the hypothesis of larger original mintages is that conditions changed after 1860: specie payments were suspended, fewer collectors were around and able to buy gold proofs, etc.