Walter Breen
1894
Cent. [2632] Normal date only. Golden to brown, usually. In much speculative demand because of pressure on unc. coins.
Five Cents. [2632] Normal date. Always available for a price.
- Plainly recut 4, scarcer.
Favored, if that is the appropriate word, with much speculator activity because of the mintage of ONLY 5.4 million business strikes. 0 joy, 0 bliss, 0 rarity, 0 hogwash. And so one of the four largest proof mintages from 1890 through the end of the series was pushed up to $125 listings and auction records, like the cent, long before the neighboring dates caught up.
Minor proof sets. [2632] Most of these have been broken up and divided among hoarders of cents and hoarders of nickels.
Dime. [972] All proofs seen so far have 4 free of truncation, but as some business strikes have the 4 touching truncation it is possible that this kind of positional variant may also exist on proofs. Always available at a price, but the growing unavailability of business strikes (mintage 1.33 million) save in About Good or cleaned Unc. has contributed to date collector pressure on the proofs. A hoard of nearly 100 specimens was broken up in New York in the middle 1960's; many were handled by Lester Merkin and Q. David Bowers. Many of these have rounded rev. borders.
For the 1894 S dime see Branch Mint Proofs, below. Quarter. [972] Very popular and too often offered badly cleaned. Same comment on die varieties as to the dime. A peculiarity of proof and nonproof coins of this denomination, ca. 1893-1909 and possibly later, is the frequent appearance of a peculiar knife-rim ("wire edge") following the curvature of flutings or reedings on edge, even on coins not outstandingly well struck up: collar failure? dies minutely too small?
Silver Dollar. [972] Low mintage of business strikes and lower availability initiated intense date collector pressure on proofs, resulting in auction records of $575 to $630.
Unfortunately, many proofs have been cleaned to death. VAM -: Date far r., left base of lover space, closed 9. Rev., reused on 1895 coins, has two spines slanting down to r. through two lowest outer berries on left branch (which fade); tiny bar joins two outer leaves next to stem nearest U, at the angle where they meet.
Silver proof sets. [972] Most were broken up long ago, to accommodate collectors needing the silver dollar. Some have since been reassembled. Garrett's, $3000.
Quarter Eagle. [122] *B-1. Centered date to left, left base of 1 very close to r. edge of dentil, r. base of 4 r. of center. Microscopic wart on chin (fades). Rev. scattered die file marks around perphery of shield. The deceptive early strikes are from B-2 dies: date high, left base of 1 left of center of dentil. Popular, as only 4000 regulars were coined, so that date collectors have put pressure on proofs. Garrett:519 brought $2,000; Ullmer:387, $1,900.
Half Eagle. [75] Date slants up to right, 4 unusually close to truncation, left base of 1 center, r. base of 4 over r. edge. Rarest proof half eagle 1892-1907; seldom available. Garrett: 517, cleaned, $1,900; Ullmer: 467, hairlined, $2,500.
Eagle. [43] Low date slanting up, left base of 1 r. of left edge, r. base of 4 over center. Rev. Four stripes thin, feathers incomplete below 2nd red stripe. Very rare. High water mark, 74 ANA:926, $10,000! Few earlier records, notably Wolfson: 774, KS2/60:2743, S 10/70. Garrett's brought only $3600, but it was not well struck up on eyebrow, coronet or upper stars.
Double Eagle. [50] Date about centered, left base of 1 and r. base of 4 over r. edges of dentils, 4 farther from border than 1. Not quite as rare as the eagle, but many of the couple of dozen survivors are cleaned or nicked up. (1) SI. (2) ANS. (3) Eliasberg. (4) Garrett's, $6,500. (5) Boyd, WGC. (6) Atwater: 1286, Dr. Green:763, Amon Carter Sr. & Jr. (7) Baldenhofer:1578, probably to Wolfson: 963. (8) Neumoyer:2684, nicked and scratched. (9) KS 2/60 set. During the 1960's several others were playing Musical Bourse Tables.
Gold proof sets. No more than 43, possibly under 40 made, mostly broken up. Besides the two in the complete sets below, Garrett's was dispersed at a total of $14,000, and another was KS 2/60:2981-84.
Complete proof sets. SI, from Mint, from Coiner Feb.7, at only $39.40 (face $39.41). Also ANS, from Mint, Brock, Morgan, as usual. Others may survive. I suspect, in particular, that the Clapp-Eliasberg coins from now through about 1907 represent complete sets directly from the mint. No auction records.
1895
Cent. [2062] Several minor varieties.
- Repunched 895. Very rare. NN 51 :749. Is this a proof-only variety?
- Recut 9. Merkin 11/65:173.
- Normal date. This is the one usually found.
Brilliant golden to brown when not poorly cleaned.
Five Cents. [2062] Normaldates, minute positional varieties only.
Minor proof sets. [2062] same comment as to 1892.
Dime. [880] Without repunching on date. Auction records $230 to $325, explainable by a more intense version of the story given for 1894, which see; lower business strike mintage also has something to do with it.
Quarter. [880] Same comment as to 1894. Date heavy.
Half Dollar. [880] Several minor varieties.
- Normal date. The one usually found.
- Upper serif of 1 plainly repunched. 1974 GENA: 1648.
The majority of these have been poorly cleaned. A "one-sided proof" was in "Gilhousen":1107.