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1883 Hawaiian Eighth $1 NGC PF66 BR

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:4,000.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
1883 Hawaiian Eighth $1 NGC PF66 BR
1883 Hawaiian Eighth Dollar. NGC graded Proof 66 Brown PQ, KM-4A. Struck in Copper. Wonderful lovely blue toning on both sides a most exquisite coin and sure to delight any sophisticated buyer. It is hard to imagine how this coin survived the vicissitudes of time so well as this specimen has, the coin is extraordinary both in terms of its technical excellence and also for sheer aesthetic beauty. Pop 1; the finest graded in brown at NGC.

Humorous anecdote: Late in the 1880s, Hawaii's King Kalakaua decided (with the support of his ministers) to form a navy in an attempt to forge an alliance of the Polynesian archipelagos which had eluded outright colonization up to that time. This effort culminated in the deployment of the Kaimiloa, the only vessel of the short-lived navy of Kalakaua. Imagine the Keystone Cops and you get an indication of how well this venture fared.

In 1886, the Hawaiian government purchased for $20,000 a 171 ton former British steamer Explorer, "engaged in the copra and guano trade," Renamed Kaimiloa ("the far seeker"), repaired, refitted, and armed with six small brass cannons and two Gatling guns, the little steamer was placed in commission in March 1887, "for the naval service of the Kingdom." The ship was put under the command of Captain George E. Gresley Jackson, who was the principal of the Industrial and Reformatory School, and two dozen of the older boys in that institution were place on the Kaimiloa to be trained as seamen. "A nucleus of experienced seamen was added to the complement of the ship together with a detachment of marines recruited from the King's Guard. Of the officers, only Captain Jackson had good technical qualifications, and his were heavily discounted by his devotion to John Barleycorn." [Meaning that Jackson was a drunk.]

(Any further account of the misadventures of the Kaimiloa in Samoa that year we'll leave to the readers' imagination.).
Estimated Value $8,000 - 12,000.
Ex. the famous Muribachi collection; Auction '82 (RARCOA's session), $5,250; From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection.

Our item number 153759