1
73
bid online at
(800) 978-COIN (2646)
|
Session Two - Sunday, June 1, 2014 Approx 12:00 PM
L
OVELY
G
EM
P
ROOF
1878 T
WENTY
C
ENTS
384
1878
.
PCGS graded Proof 65
. Proof only year. Nice blue
and lilac toning. Only 600 minted. Here's a lovely coin, both
sides fully Gem in quality with smooth, virtually unhairlined
surfaces. Though not carrying the Cameo designation, we
do notice some light frostiness on the raised portions. A
coin whose PCGS Proof 65 grade is also justified, the sur-
faces with strong contrast between mirror field and razor-
edged devices. Naturally toned, we can easily see this coin
fitting into a top-quality collection.
The 1878 is the final date in the brief, Twenty-Cent series
which ran from just 1875 to 1878. It is also one of two
Proof-only deliveries of the Type, the mintage amounting to
just 600 pieces, as we've already mentioned. While not as
rare as the Proof-only 1877 in an absolute sense, the 1878
is pretty much as difficult to find in the highest grades.
Pop
27; 12 finer, 11 in 66, 1 in 67
. (
PCGS # 5306
)
Struck at the zenith of America's "Gilded Age," this twenty-
cent piece appeared during an era of industrial growth and
labor unrest. Because most Americans spent long hours at
their jobs in the late nineteenth century, upwards of 10 to
12 hours a day, six days a week, few had the freedom or
the wherewithal to devote to coin collecting. Hence, the
small Proof coinage figures of the 1870s. Today, a hundred
twenty-six years later (a mere clock tick in the span of
human history), we have adequate leisure time to enjoy
reliving the past; and coins like the Gem offered here pro-
vide a string through time binding that earlier Gilded Age to
our own "Age of Discontinuity" as the social commentator,
Peter Drucker, termed it.
Estimated Value ........................................ $7,500 - 8,000
L
OVELY
1878 T
WENTY
C
ENT
P
ROOF
385
1878
.
PCGS graded Proof 65 PQ
. Only 600 minted.
Lovely toning on both sides. Unfathomable depth of reflec-
tivity is seen in the fields under the color with fine, but
noticeable frost over the devices. The centers on each side
are really quite well impressed from the Proof dies, with the
devices being struck carefully and with determined force by
the dies so that all design elements show boldly. Although
the Western silver producers were selling large amounts of
silver to the mints at a decent price in the early 1870s, due
to the acquiescence of the Mint Director, Linderman, it
never seemed quite enough. Nevada Senator Jones
attempted to improve the situation by introducing legisla-
tion for a twenty-cent piece, producing the absurd claim
that storekeepers in the West were shortchanging custom-
ers on the grounds that no five-cent pieces were on hand.
There were plenty of half dimes yet in circulation in that
area, but no one bothered to mention that fact. At any rate,
Congress did authorize the new coins, but they failed as a
superfluous denomination when two dimes would suffice.
Pop 27; 12 finer, 11 in 66, 1 in 67
. (
PCGS # 5306
)
Estimated Value ........................................ $7,500 - 8,000
