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Sale 87
Lot 974
1854. PCGS graded Proof 64+. Lovely toning of blues and russets, the kind that develops over decades of careful storage. Furthermore the outstanding grade confirms that the surfaces are clean with scarcely any signs of handling. Only 15 minted, of which only seven are currently confirmed, with a few others likely tucked away in old time collections. As many as a dozen may exist today if they could somehow be accounted for. The best is PR-65, so this one is certainly one of the finest seen of this incredibly rare issue.
One of the most important features of this rarity is the presence of Arrows at the date. These of course were added in early 1853 to all fractional silver coins then in production to announce the 7% reduction in the silver content of the planchets. Only the silver dollar was left at the original standard out of traditons sake during this monetary adjustment. This all came about because of the California Gold Rush that began in 1848. After a few years the quantity of gold coming out of the ground from that state began to hit the market, thus the value of gold fell relative to silver (not found in large quantities in California). The price of silver rose relative to gold, and soon silver coins were worth nearly 7% more than face value in 1852. Naturally people gathered up all the silver coins they could and melted them for the profit. This disrupted commerce as merchants could scarcely make change for normal trasnactions. Early in 1853 the silver cointent of fractional coins was reduced back to level where melting was no long profitable. Arrows were placed at the date to announce this fact to the public s the melting of current coinage would stop. This was successful! The Arrows were ommitted in 1856. Thus collectors of type coins need to obtain one of these short lived Arrows coins. For collectors of Proof coins this is particularly challenging as so few were struck. When a delightfully original Proof like this crosses our desks, its time to step up and try to land it. Pop 1; 3 finer in 65 (PCGS # 4743) .
Estimated Value $13,000 - 14,000.
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