Click to enlargeJ540/P605

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.

John Dannreuther in his silver proof encyclopedia notes that the reverse used is one of the 2 from 1865.

Photos of both pieces courtesy of American Numismatic Rarities.