LOT Heritage Rare Coin Galleries  /  2006 October Dallas Signature Coin Auction #428  / 

1847

1915-S 50C Panama-Pacific MS68 PCGS. The Panama-Pacifi

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:5,500.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1915-S 50C Panama-Pacific MS68 PCGS. The Panama-Pacifi
<B>1915-S/S<50C> Panama-Pacific MS68 PCGS.</B></I> Mintmark repunched north. The Panama-Pacific commemoratives of 1915 are known as the first commemorative coins struck at a U.S. branch mint, but while the half dollars were coined in San Francisco, <I>exactly</B></I> where they were coined is a thorny question. The Act of January 16, 1915, which authorized the production of the half dollars, stipulated that they were to be "coined or finished and issued from the machinery to be installed as part of the exhibit at the United States Mint at said Exposition ... " Q. David Bowers, on the other hand, asserts in <I>Commemorative Coins of the United States</B></I> that no half dollars were struck on the grounds of the exposition. He cites the concerns of the San Francisco Mint's superintendent, who worried that so many resources would be put into the exposition exhibit that the regular coinage would be neglected. Instead, the Mint exhibit demonstrated the coining process by striking medals. Regardless of the location, of the approximately 60,000 pieces struck, 27,134 were sold and escaped melting.<BR> Of that population, the present example is truly one of the elite. The prohibitive rarity of Panama-Pacifics in this grade allows this remarkable piece to be traced to a previous Heritage sale, the St. Louis Bullet Sale of November 1993. The cataloger wrote that "... this coin is a breathtaking revelation. The small marks one is accustomed to seeing on the arm of Liberty ... are simply not there." The strike is superior, and the lustrous surfaces shine beneath rich toning, which largely consists of peach, olive-brown, and red-violet, while a thin ring of cyan runs through the legends on the reverse. A minor planchet flaw between the U of UNITED and the oak branch on the reverse is noted as a pedigree marker. This piece is tied with just one other coin for the finest certified by PCGS, and NGC has no examples at this level in its <I>Census Report</B></I> (9/06).
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