Test Your Numismatic Knowledge: Rarities to the Fore

We give clues concerning five different American coin key issues and rarities. Some are just rare, others are fantastically so. How many can you identify? Get three or more right, and you are doing well. Get four right, and you are in the expert class. Get all five correct, and you deserve an enlarged photograph of an 1804 silver dollar! Answers are given at the end.

1. Long, long ago in the 20th century, Fort Worth, Texas, dealer used this rarity as the focal point of his nationwide advertising program to sell copies of The Star Rare Coin Encyclopedia. While many other rarities were mentioned from time to time, this is the one that had everybody scrambling:
   
   1. 1913 Liberty Head nickel.
   2. 1802 Half dime.
   3. 1822 $5 gold half eagle.
   4. 1870-S $3 gold piece.
2. Way back in July 1858, numismatist Joseph J. Mickley assigned this copper cent his "V.R." ("Very Rare") designation, the highest degree of rarity, this being the only cent with such a designation (in the half cent series the 1796 was so listed). The "Very Rare" copper cent was the:
   1. 1793.
   2. 1799.
   3. 1804.
   4. 1839/6 overdate.
3. This American classic was struck to the extent of, say, 2,500 or so pieces—few enough that it became a rarity, but a sufficient number that just about anyone could own one, although today it takes the best part of $5,000 to acquire a well-worn specimen. At one time Pittsburgh numismatist John A. Beck, who died in 1925, hoarded 731 specimens!
   1. 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent.
   2. 1884 Proof $20 gold.
   3. 1836 Gobrecht silver dollar.
   4. 1856 Flying Eagle cent.
4. This is another "popular rarity," one of which 11,250 were struck and of which a few thousand exist today. Many consider this to be the most beautiful coin ever struck for general circulation. The designer of this coin also created the sculpture of Diana, which is shown on the cover of the latest issue of Antiques magazine.
   1. 1907 (MCMVII) gold$20.
   2. 1913-S Type II Buffalo nickel.
   3. 1915-S Panama-Pacific octagonal gold $50.
   4. 1916 Standing Liberty (or Libertine?) 25¢.
5. This coin is common in well-worn grades and catalogues $12 VF in the latest edition of the Guide Book. However, in choice or gem Mint State it is worth thousands of dollars. In fact, in MS-63 it catalogues for $5,700, which means that you can buy 475 VF examples for the cost of a single MS-63! Anyway, it is a rarity in MS-63. The coin is:
   1. 1923-S Liberty Walking half dollar.
   2. 1896-O Morgan silver dollar.
   3. 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition half dollar.
   4. 1990-P Susan B. Anthony dollar.

Click here for the Answers!

From the Bowers and Merena website.