Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1989

- Type II. Bison on straight baseline, exergue pronounced. By C. E. Barber, after Fraser. [1514?] Surfaces about as on Type I, fields less irregular, dull matte finish, borders as Type I, though usually with some traces of rounding on inner borders. However, proofs have more definition there than do uncs., which have instead what looks like the plain lip on Chain cents and Indian eagles.

Minor proof sets. Mintage unknown. Most were broken up to add nickels to silver sets. One with Type II nickel, from the mint June 27,1913, was LM 3/68:322.

Dime. [622] Normal date. Much hoarded. Auction records $160 to $210, depending on how badly cleaned and how many speculators were present.

Quarter. [613] Lowest Philadelphia business strike mintage of this design, therefore hoarded in quantity by speculators, unc. and proof. Auction records $450-$575. Usually cleaned.

Half Dollar. [627] Third lowest Philadelphia business strike mintage of this design. Vigorously hoarded; some of this date - as of 1914-15 - put up at auction and protected with artificially high bids during mid 1950's. Of late auction records have clustered in the $550-$625 range. Too many have been cleaned, as usual.

Silver proof sets. No more than 613 could have been made. As in 1910 only more so.

Quarter Eagle. [165] As in 1912, same finish. Less rare than 1912. Ullmer's went for $1,900.

Half Eagle. [99] Same comment. No recent auction records.

Eagle. [71] Identical. Ullmer: 517 went at $5,250.

Double Eagle. [58] Identical. About as rare as the 1912. Cf. S. A. Tanenbaum: 365, Baldenhofer: 1628; Geiss: 2063, ex Col. Green; WGC: 919, "Memorable": 740. Others are in Amon Carter collection and the usual museums.

Gold proof sets. Not over 58 made, probably fewer.Cf. lot 1401, B. G. Johnson material, 1951 Schulman sale.

Complete proof sets. As in 1908.

1914

Cent. [1365] Similar to 1913, very minute differences in grain of matte finish, possibly slightly finer texture. Often strangely and wonderfully iridescent or toned to rainbow shades.

Five Cents. [1275] Same design as 1913 II. Brighter matte finish, of finer grain. Disputed examples, which are numerous, can be decided by the same criteria described for 1913. Auction records around $400, e.g. 1974 ANA :461. Private sale records reportedly well above that. Many of those seen in bourse displays are of dubious authenticity.

Minor proof sets. None encountered in the last 15 years, probably most having been broken up long before. Mintage unknown, probably less than 1275.

Dime. [425] Subjected in recent years to intense hoarding and speculative activity, affecting only proofs; low reported mintage is the obvious reason. Auction records reported in the $300 to $400 range.

Quarter. [380] Same comment as to the dime. Auction records range from $320 to $575, the lower prices for too drastically cleaned ones.

Half Dollar. [380] Lowest reported mintage of Philadelphia business strikes of this design. Speculator activity has therefore been particularly intense. As the original two bags (nearly 2% of the original business mintage) have long since been dispersed, the speculators have been buying up proofs as well. One such individual in Norfolk, Virginia, is known to own about a hundred proofs of this date alone, possibly by now well over that amount. Other smaller hoards exist. A spurious glamor of alleged rarity has become attached thereto and auction records went into orbit in the 1960's. Record a then mind-boggling $825 in a Northern California convention auction in the fall of 1964, presaged by $625 at the 1964 ANA convention sale; $800 in Dr. E. Yale Clarke:429, Oct. 1975.

Silver proof sets. Not over 380 made, possibly fewer. These appear mostly to have been long since broken up on behalf of the speculators.

Quarter Eagle. [117] Coarse sandblast finish, darker than 1913. Under a microscope the facets appear larger than on 1913. Ullmer: 408 went at $2,200. Rare and not often available; much harder to find than earlier years of this type with the possible exceptions of 1909-10.

Half Eagle. [125] Identical comments. If anything, less often seen.. Ullmer: 483 brought $3,500. Cf. Atwater; S 5/68: 864, Delp: 808 (rev. hairlined).