LOT Holabird-Kagin Americana  /  2012 December Americana & Numismatic Auction  / 

250

1839 Gobrecht Dollar. Judd 105

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:50,000.00 USD Estimated At:100,000.00 - 150,000.00 USD
1839 Gobrecht Dollar. Judd 105
IMPORTANT NOTE ON BUYERS PREMIUMS:

Lot 100 to 343 have a premium of 15%.

The rest of the sale is 19.5% as noted in the listing.

Lot Pick Up: Holabird-Kagin Americana,
3555 Airway Drive Ste #309,
Reno NV 89511,
Sunday - December 9, 10am-4pm
Gobrecht Dollars – The Queen of American Dollars
Fred N. Holabird
Gobrecht Dollars are among the most popular of all US coinage, inclusive of patterns. Their striking image of a flying eagle on the reverse marked a radical change in design of American coin, which wasn’t seen again on a regular issue US coin until the flying eagle cents of 1857-8. The overall rarity of the three dates and varieties has also brought deep imagination about coins into the minds of young coin collectors (like myself in the 1950’s) who later cherished ownership of a Gobrecht Dollar.
Over the years, little was written of the series, possibly because J. Hewitt Judd did such a good job describing the various pattern coins in Unites States Pattern, Experimental and Trial Pieces, now in its eighth edition, the latest edited by Dave Bowers. Numerous articles were written along the way, culminating in the 2009 publication Gobrecht Dollars by Mark Van Winkle with Michael Carboneau, James Gray and John Dannreuther. The scholarly work of this foursome exceeds by far most previously published work, and is the result of decades of study of the Gobrecht series, including that by Walter Breen and R. W. Julian. A comment by Dannreuther sums it up:
Mired in controversy and steeped in mystery from their beginning, Gobrecht dollars incite passion usually reserved for the King of American coins, the 1804 silver dollar or the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, two other mystery-soaked numismatic delicacies.
Gobrecht collector Julius Korein also summed it up perfectly:
The Gobrecht Dollar occupies a unique position in numismatic history. It was the forerunner of the reintroduction of the silver dollar in US coinage, ending the hiatus from 1804 to 1836.
Thus the affinity of Gobrecht’s silver dollars to today’s silver dollar collectors was assured a permanent place in coin collecting history.
The Gobrecht Story in Brief
Christian Gobrecht came onboard the US Mint system in a period of massive expansion. The US Mint had approved the construction of the first three branch mints at Dahlonega, Charlotte and New Orleans, all of which were completed in time for production in the beginning of 1838. With these new branch mints, Mint Director Patterson knew the demand for dies would dramatically increase. The period also marked a drastic change in production equipment at the Mint. With three new production facilities, a change was needed to modernize equipment in order to meet increasing demand of more circulating coin. New inventions, including the steam press, made coin production much faster and a much smoother process.
Gobrecht was brought in to assist engraver William Kneass, who suffered an untimely stroke in August 1835, and Gobrecht became the primary, if not only, engraver for the next four years.
Gobrecht made excellent progress on the designs and dies for the new silver dollar in 1835. Patterson was especially happy, consulting with Gobrecht regularly. But Treasury Secretary Woodbury had other ideas, and immediately put Gobrecht and Patterson onto his new idea of a gold dollar coin. After a few months of work, accompanied by Patterson’s strong dislike of the gold dollar concept and a Congress who had not approved such a coin, Gobrecht was back at work on the dies for the new silver dollar coin. The obverse was approved in April 1836, but the reverse design was not yet approved, with arguments of whether the eagle should have an open or closed mouth, and other vaguearities. By August, the reverse issues had been settled and the new coin was ready for striking.
Chief Coiner Adam Eckfeldt was ordered to prepare dies and strike the coins on the new steam press, but the new equipment was possibly too troublesome for a production run, and the new dollars were ordered struck on the old screw presses. Eckfeldt likely had other problems on his hands. The new equipment had been tested, but testing is a long way from a true production run, and Mint personnel simply were not yet ready or experienced enough for smooth operation of the new equipment.
The final new dies created a mini-controversy. Patterson was so enamored with the design that he ordered Gobrecht to place his name in the field above the date. Others in Treasury hated the idea, and the name was ordered moved to the tablet above the date, the only time a full name of an artist was ever used on US coinage. After the commotion was settled, 1000 dollar coins were struck in December 1836. 600 went to the Bank of the United States for public distribution, and the Mint retained the remaining 400 coins. Ostensibly, the new dollars were struck to familiarize bankers with the new coin, which was cheaper to manufacture than two half dollars or four quarters. The weight of all of the new $1 coins were made to the dollar standard of 1792, 416 grains, reflecting a silver fineness of 0.8924. The weight in 1837 was changed to 412.5 grains, reflecting a silver fineness of 0.900. The 1836 silver dollar with Gobrecht’s name on the base tablet is thus legal coinage, and the first silver dollar produced since 1804.
1837. More Gobrecht Dollars Needed
The Bank of the United States ran out of the Gobrecht dollars quickly, and asked Patterson for more. In March, 1837, another 600 were struck for them, but using the “old” 1836 dies. Patterson decided to change the coins somewhat so that there was a difference between the two different coins, since one was in 1837 made with 1836 dies. He thus ordered the coins struck with a different reverse die alignment in reverse of the normal. In short, if the two coins are laid side by side, and flipped over in the same manner, the reverse on one is right side up, and on the other is upside down. Today, numismatic scholars have assigned die alignment numbers to the different reverse orientations and reverse die patterns as Alignments 1 through 4.
1838. Patterson Makes Three Separate Requests for Gobrecht Dollars
Patterson requested 50 silver dollars in July, 1838. These were made of the December 1836 dies, since no new dies were on hand. A few days later, Patterson requested 25 more, apparently made with an 1838 date, according to Julian.
1839. New Coiner Franklin Peale Orders 300 Dollars Struck
While 300 Gobrecht designed dollars were struck in December, 1839, there appears no reference to their ever formally being placed in circulation, though some of those that remain today are circulated. It is not clear if all 300 dollars were struck with the 1836 dies or with new 1839 dies. Some have speculated that some of the 300 pieces may have been dated 1838. All 1839 dollars are either Alignment III or IV.
After this date, the Mint changed the reverse. With a new coiner, old arguments about the eagle may have resurfaced, and a new design was emplaced.
1850’s. The Restrikes.
In the mind 1850’s, new Mint Director James Ross Snowden began building the national coin collection aggressively. He traded for coins the Mint cabinet needed, and ordered coins struck for collectors in order to obtain great rarities that had not been collected by the Mint over the years.
Julian postulated:
Although no written records survive to confirm the supposition, it is almost certain that Snowden ordered the Gobrecht restrikes to be made in such a way that he could determine if the piece were original or not.
There is much technical discussion of the restrike period and of the comparisons of the 1836 and 1837 strikes (using 1836 dated dies) with the 1838 and 1839 strikes. Please see Carboneau & Gray and Dannreuther’s papers in Van Winkle’s Gobrecht Dollars.

The Coins
1838 Gobrecht Dollar. Judd 84
This great rarity comes in Alignments III and IV. The Alignment IV coins are now thought to be original strikes, according to Dannreuther in Van Winkle. The Alignment IV is thus possibly much rarer than the Alignment III, but there is no population study published. Bowers reports 28 total inclusive of both die states.
Die alignment IV, eagle level. No stars in reverse field, reeded edge, silver. NGC3010041.001 “PF 64”. No die cracks in reverse lettering at MERI or ONE. Small (light) die crack at the top of the letters between TE of UNTIED under 20x. Also, there is an apparent remainder of the bottoms of the letters of Gobrecht’s name in the tablet above the date, showing what appears to be the base of letters with serifs, as if the name was incompletely removed from the die. This coin is in a plastic holder, and needs to be removed to further study the fine details.


1839 Gobrecht Dollar. Judd 105
This spectacular coin comes from a major western collection. It was acquired by our collector in 1979 from Walter Breen after he acquired the coin from or after the 1975 ANA sale by Superior Coin, lot 1045. Our client who has had the coin in a safe deposit box ever since. The coin was listed as “Proof”.
Breen said the coin was one or two or perhaps three known. In so doing, he was quoting the original authors of works on American pattern coins. Perhaps the first work of major importance was by none other than Edgar Adams and William Woodin (1913). Adams is known to all of the U.S. Private gold coin collectors for his fabulous treatise on Pioneer Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States. In Adams’ work, United States Pattern, Trial and Experimental Pieces, 1913, Adams and Woodin list the 1839 Gobrecht with no edge reeding, Gobrecht name removed from the base, plain fields (no stars) on the reverse, made in silver, as a Adams-Woodin 83, as a rarity 14 (2 to 3 known). He cited the two specimens he found in the Wilson collection and the HO Granberg collections. Two other similar pieces were described, both with reeded edges in both silver (R3, 100-300 known) and copper (R13, 4 to 5 known). J. Hewitt Judd came along in 1959 and completely rewrote the US Pattern book, assigning a completely new numbering system, wherein he assigned this coin “Judd 105”. Breen assisted with research for the first edition, and Abe Kosoff added an assist in research and valuation for the seventh edition (1982). In this important work, Judd and Breen found that 300 strikes were made of the silver reeded edge variety (Judd 104), and it is this variety that is seen the most. The number of strikes made of the silver plain edge, and the copper patterns is unknown. Restrikes were made later, in 1859, in some cases adding stars to the field on the reverse.
In 1994, another thorough work was written by Andrew Pollock III, published by Bowers and Merena. Pollock looked into die alignments and rotations. Pollock lists the Judd 105 as a Pollock 117. Because of the extreme rarity of the coin, he was unable to ascertain the die alignments, of which four different alignments in 1839 Gobrecht Dollars had been found. Pollock suggested that the Judd 105 might have either Alignment 3 or 4 or both. In his writeup of the coins, Pollack took the trouble of listing the known pieces, and listed what he believed were five different pieces. Each of the five were photographed in auction catalogs, and from these photographs, Pollock determined that the coins were indeed different pieces. The piece in this sale is “(5) Superior, August, 1975, ANA, Lot 1045, Proof.” Pollock felt the piece was resold by Pine Tree in September, 1978, Field Collection, lot 885, Proof.
In 2003, Whitman publishing combined forces with exceptional numismatist Q. David Bowers and published “An Official Guidebook of United States Pattern Coins ; Experimental and Trial Pieces, America’s Rarest Coins” (considered the Eighth Edition.) He rated the Judd 105 as a low R7 with 7 to 12 known, with a projected value of an MS 65 specimen in excess of $100,000. No explanation was given for the rise in number of specimens known. At this time, it became difficult to ascertain the difference between coins that had been submitted for grading with one grading service, broken out of their holders and resubmitted to another grading service for possible upgrade, and so forth.
In 2009 a masterful work was published on Gobrecht Dollars by Mark Van Winkle, an experienced numismatist of the highest caliber, assisted by some of the best in the numismatic field: Michael Carboneau, James Gray, John Dannreuther and Saul Teichman. A discussion of that work headed this section.

Physical description of the coin in this sale:
1839 Gobrecht Dollar. Judd 105. Die Alignment IV, eagle level, no stars in reverse field, plain edge, silver. Die cracks and very weak, barely discernable die cracks along the tops of the letters of MERI of AMERICA and ITED of UNITED under 20x. Not visible with normal hand lens. Weight: 410 grains (gram scale conversion)
This coin is known in both Alignments III and IV. The Korein example has Alignment III. Dannreuther opined that the Die Alignment IV dollars were made in 1839. There is no published data on physical characteristics of the known specimens of J-105, nor is there a published photographic comparison made to ascertain which coins were resubmitted to grading services (this would be wishful thinking, of course) such that an actual population count could be ascertained.
A number of years ago the owner asked us to use PCGS’s “walk-through” grading service at an annual ANA convention, and it was returned without grade. Subsequent years have shown that rare and valuable coins need time for proper identification and analyses, and this may have played a factor.


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