  The famous 1866 "No Motto" dollar. This is a fantasy coin, reportedly deliberately struck for Robert Coulton Davis probably circa 1869 or in the early 1870s. Only two are believed to exist. 1) Possibly given to William H. Woodin by A. Louden Snowden as partial compensation for the two 1877 half union patterns he purchased from John W. Haseltine and Stephen Nagy, circa 1910; H.O. Granberg per the 1914 ANS Exhibition; Granberg-United States Coin 5/1915, Wayte Raymond, Colonel E.H.R. Green; F.C.C. Boyd via B.G Johnson 1/3/43 invoice; King Farouk (Sotheby's 2/54); Sol Kaplan and Abe Kosoff, Ben Koenig-Stack’s Fairbanks 12/1960, Samuel Wolfson-Stack’s 5/1963; Charles Jay-Stack’s 10/1967, Winner Delp-Stack’s 11/1972, A-Mark (Steve Markoff); New England Rare Coin Galleries (Jim Halperin); Texas Collection; American Numismatic Rarities 9/2003, American Numismatic Rarities-Kennywood Collection 1/2005, Bob Simpson part V-Heritage CSNS 4/22-25/2021 - PCGS63, illustrated above, click on the thumbnail image to enlarge. This coin was graded XF to proof in Eric Newman's notes. 2) PR66CAM. Robert Coulton Davis, Virgil Brand from the Chapman brothers on April 22, 1899 for $100 (journal #20657), Horace Brand, unknown intermediates, Abe Kosoff, Willis du Pont, stolen in the du Pont 1967 robbery, recovered in 2004, donated along with the quarter and half dollar to the Smithsonian in November 2014. It is illustrated below. To view the entire set, click here. According to the ANR 1/05 catalog, the obverse die was used to strike some regular 1866 "With Motto" proofs but the reverse was struck from an apparently unknown die. The mint had at least 2 "No Motto" reverse dies on hand in the 1870s. They are the so-called reverses of 1859 and 1862 according to Breen and were used to strike the following: 1851 silver restrikes and J132-J133/P159-P160 1852 silver restrikes and J134/P161 1853 silver restrikes and J154/P183 1871 J1132-J1132A/P1268-P1269 1875 J1420-J1422/P1563-P1565 1876 J1470-J1471/P1621-P1622 but they were not used to strike these. Your editor, Saul Teichman, examined the ANR sale coin and noticed a light raised die line slanting diagonally down through the first 5 white stripes and may represent another use of the B-3 reverse as described on some 1852 proof restrikes dollars on page 94 of Walter Breen's "Encyclopedia of United States and Colonial Proof Coins 1722-1977".Photos of both pieces courtesy of American Numismatic Rarities. |