Unusual Items: Martha Washingtom Die Trials
The Stacks 73rd Anniversary Sale upcoming on October 22nd has an items in the Patterns” section that many people may never have seen before: 1759 (1965) dime-sized die trial of Martha Washington
Reeded edge. Cupro-nickel and copper “sandwich” composition. Head of Martha Custis Washington to right, VIRGINIA arcs above, name low in right field, date below. Mount Vernon at reverse center, HOME OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY around. NGC MS-65 Finest Known
This coin is the finest of two examples certified thus far by NGC, the other called AU-58 by that firm, the PCGS population report does not show any with this Judd number. This design also saw the light of day in larger sized “denominations” which are eagerly sought by specialists in today’s pattern series and related areas. The present “dime” sized issue is seen far less often than the other “denominations.”
In May of this year Coin World had an article on Pattern and Experimental coins. Experimental coins are struck from any convenient dies to test a new metal, new alloy or new denomination; those testing a new shape; those testing a standard metal for a new denomination; and those representing changes in planchets for the purposes of combating counterfeiting.
Often the Mint tests compositions with what officials call “nonsense dies.” These dies may bear designs similar in format to designs used for circulating coinage but the designs are not being considered for regular production use, such as a pattern might be. Nonsence Dies are useful in testing things as metal flow and die wear, and the Mint has used various designs for decades. The Martha Washington Design is one of these Nonsence Dies.
Martha Washington “nonsense dies” were used to strike experimental pieces on a number of planchets including on a copper-plated zinc cent planchet; on a copper-nickel clad quarter dollar planchet; on a manganese-brass clad dollar planchet; and of course the above Cupro-nickel dime planchet. (more…)

1915 50C Panama-Pacific Half Dollar, Judd-1960 (previously Judd-1793), Pollock-2031, R.8, PR64 NGC. Die trial issue of the 1915 Panama-Pacific half before the S mintmark was added. Struck in gold with a reeded edge. This remarkable coin is one of only two pieces known and its illustrious pedigree goes back as far as Virgil Brand.
This piece is remarkably thick: 2.4 mm at the edge versus 2.1 mm for a regular-issue Panama-Pacific half dollar.
Editors Note: Every now and then we come across a numismatic items that we might have heard about but never seen, or in some instances had no knowledge of at all. This of course may be more of a function of our limited expertise than the fact that the item(s) is truly unique. So at the risk of being called a “dumb ass” (not the first time), we are going to create a new News category called “Unusual Items“. This will be an eclectic collection of the not-so-common items we stumble across during our daily search for worthwhile news and articles, and we hope that you will find this as informative and entertaining as we do.
There are two examples known, but the second is very different from this piece. The other contains both obverses and six different reverses. That piece is permanently impounded in the Smithsonian.
As we stated in our last Market Report, we were having trouble gauging where the market is. From our vantage point we see some very interesting happenings. It is still hard for us to see the exact direction the market is going. BUT we do NOT see it crashing or making a major overall adjustment right now.
What about rarity? This is the only example ever graded by NGC—in any grade!















