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By Heritage Auction Galleries on Saturday, February 23, 2008Filed Under: Featured, Patterns
Photos and descriptions used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries
As World War II got underway, it quickly became obvious that massive quantities of copper and nickel were needed for the war effort. As a major industrial user of both metals at that time, the U.S. Mint began to look for alternative compositions for the cent and nickel coinage. In 1941, the three operating mints coined 1.1 billion cents and 300 million nickels. Eliminating copper from the cent coinage, reducing copper from the nickel coinage, and eliminating nickel from the nickel coinage would result in a savings of more than 4,000 tons of copper and 400 tons of nickel, based on the 1941 coinage.
Several companies were involved in development and testing of experimental compositions as replacement for copper in the cent. Much of the experimentation involved various plastic materials, hard rubber, and even tempered glass. At the same time, the Mint was looking into various metallic alternatives, including this white metal piece and zinc coated steel patterns, the latter currently unknown.
Patterns struck inside the Mint utilized the existing Lincoln cent dies, while the outside companies were provided with special dies feature a female head facing right for the obverse, and UNITED STATES MINT inside a wreath for the reverse. (more…)
Photos and descriptions used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries
[Editors Note] This coin was auctioned at the Heritage Long Beach Signature Sale #460, lot 2162 on February 14, 2008. Purchase price $161,000.
The famous “Abbey Cent” has a continuous provenance back to the 1840s, perhaps the longest and most desirable provenance for any existing copper coin.
The rarity of the 1799 large cents is obviously due to a low production of coins bearing this date. Mint records provide no help in determining the mintage of cents dated 1799. The original records show that 904,585 cents were actually struck in 1799, but it is now recognized that nearly all of those coins were dated 1798. Current rarity estimates suggest that fewer than 1,000 cents exist with the 1799 date, including all three varieties, although only a small percentage grade better than Good. This survival suggests that the original mintage was probably in the ballpark of 30,000 to 35,000 coins, assuming a 3% survival rate.
Authentication has always been a problem for this date. Many pieces exist with the date altered, usually from 1798. In most cases, careful study of the variety guides will reveal not only the date of the altered coin, but also the variety. Many electrotypes and other cast copies also exist, some crudely made and others extremely deceptive. The introduction of third party grading services two decades ago has eliminated most of the counterfeits from numismatic circulation. (more…)
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