By David Ganz for Numismatic News

The 1838-O half dollar is a genuine rarity, with only 20 pieces struck and the fate, 170 years after striking, of just about a dozen known pieces in existence leaves some unaccounted for. I’ve liked this coin for many years and made it a centerpiece of my new book that Krause is publishing in July, “Profitable Coin Collecting.”

More than 50 public auction sales of this coin are of record, some over a hundred years ago. The Mickley sale in 1867 by Woodward saw the coin offered as Lot 1782 and the selling price of $2.75. The same coin was acquired by J. P. Clemens and when Edward Coogan sold his collection in 1878. Lot 159 contained the same coin and brought $15.

Frossard sold his own collection Oct. 2, 1884 and Lot 400 in that sale featured an 1838 New Orleans half dollar which brought the “enormous” price of $63 only to find an early case of economic recession in the coin field so that by the time Lorin Parmalee sold his collection in 1890, the coin stepped back to $23.50.

Thomas Elder sold the Wilson collection in October 1908, and Lot 346 featured the very same 1838-O half dollar. It resounded to a $570 mark. In the span of 40 years, the coin rose in value from $2.75 to almost $600 – weekly wages in the United States at the time averaged about $6.

In the 1950s, the Anderson-Dupont sale by Stacks yielded a $3,500 price realized for an impaired proof specimen. That coin would be resold nine times in the succeeding half century and form the basis of the mystery that has existed for almost 20 years.

The unknown answer: an August 1989 sale as Lot 202. What was the price realized?

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Ponterio & Associates conducted a 2,400-lot auction of world coins April 25-26 in conjunction with the Chicago International Coin Fair. Total realized by the sale was $1,397,253.40.

Top price reported by the firm was $40,000 bid for a gold Brazil 1832-R 4,000 reis, Standard Catalog of World Coins No. KM-386.1. Sale catalogers said this issue had a mintage of 610 pieces. They graded this one extremely fine.

A highlight of the roughly 550-lot Mexican coin section was a Revolution Guerrero Suriana two pesos of 1915 with reeded edge, KM-665, graded very fine, that brought $17,000. A 1741-MF eight escudos, KM-148, described as uncirculated, hit $15,500.

World gold, about 325 lots offered, also included a Brazil 1828-B 6,400 reis, KM-370.2, which catalogers said had a mintage of 423 pieces. They graded it extremely fine and it sold for $13,000.

Among more than 800 lots of world crowns and minors, a Belgium 1946 five francs, KM-130, with Dutch obverse legend DER BELGEN, EF, went for $5,000. A German 1925-E 50 pfennigs, KM-41, called almost uncirculated, sold for $2,500. Read Full Numismatic News Article

Designs for 2009 First Spouse gold coins and bronze medals were considered at the Citizen Coin Advisory Committee meeting April 22.

Images of the First Spouse coin designs viewed at the meeting can be seen on Page 23, identified by codes used by the committee.

For the Anna Harrison coin, CCAC preferred designs AH-O-02 for the obverse and AH-R-02 for the reverse. First Lady Harrison was a supporter of education and an avid reader, and the reverse design reflects these attributes.

The committee selected LT-O-04 and LT-R-03 for the Letitia Tyler coin. She suffered ill health and spent most of her time on the family’s plantation caring for their eight children. She died in 1842, about a year and a half into her husband’s Presidency.

President John Tyler wed again while in office, in 1844, marrying a woman named Julia Gardiner. For the Julia Tyler coin, the CCAC singled out designs JT-O-03 and JT-R-01. The reverse design shows President Tyler handing the First Lady the gold pen he used to sign papers annexing Texas to the United States, an action she had helped achieve. Read Full Numismaster Article