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1964-1965 International Nickel Company 25 Cent Test Pieces. (Total: 58 coins)
Auction 1216 | Lot: 6783 | Jan 12, 2015

Sold For: $7,050.00
(1964) Detaclad Explosion Bonded Franklin Quarter, Three Square Planchets, Hand-Written Note, and Photo Album.
Auction 1186 | Lot: 4934 | Jun 9, 2013

Sold For: $4,993.75
Undated (1863-68) Postage Currency Ten-Cents, AW-668, Unlisted in Judd, Unlisted in Pollock (Tentatively Attributed as P-401a), Unique, PR 60 Corroded. The obverse is the type used to coin pattern varieties P-390 through P-401 and P-715 through P-719, dating 1863 and 1868 respectively. The reverse appears to be struck from a regular issue dime reverse of the type used circa 1863 through 1868. Struck in aluminum with a plain edge. Weight: 12.0 grains. Diameter: 0.696 inches. Die Alignment: 360 degrees.
This pattern was originally listed in the 1913 Adams-Woodin reference as AW-668, although not photographed. From a design standpoint the piece most closely resembles the Postage Currency patterns of 1868 but it lacks the six-pointed star above the N in ONE and it also lacks the date in small digits below DIME, thus making this essentially a regular issue reverse. Adams-Woodin listed it as an R.10, meaning they believed 13-15 pieces existed. This has not proved to be the case, however. Two generations passed and this piece was offered for sale in Cairo in 1954 as part of King Farouk's vast holdings, lot 1815. It was grouped along with nine other nickel and copper patterns of 1868 with the cataloger having no clue as to the coin's true rarity.
The piece is accompanied by a special flip made for Sol Kaplan which reads: FROM THE PALACE COLLECTION CAIRO EGYPT. It was mistakenly attributed by Kaplan as a Judd-646 and a handwritten price on the envelope reveals an asking price of $35.00. Two more generations passed with the coin apparently never leaving the collection Sol Kaplan sold it into in the mid-1950s. In the meantime, seven editions of Judd came and went and the current Pollock reference went to press with neither author being aware of this piece's existence. Andrew Pollock has examined the piece and given it the attribution listed above of P-401a. Many coins are called rare, but this is one that lives up to all the images that word conjures. A pattern that has been forgotten (PCGS# 60489)
Auction 175 | Lot: 7264 | Aug 5, 1997

Sold For: $3,795.00
Circa 1859 Dickeson "1805 Half Eagle Restrike" MS60 Minor Corrosion Uncertified. (PCGS# 62401)
Auction 444 | Lot: 2777 | Aug 12, 2007

Sold For: $3,220.00
1877 $50 Reverse Hub Trial For the Half Union, Judd-Appendix A, Unlisted in Pollock, Unique(?), PR60 Uncertified. Lead. Irregularly square, measuring 43 x 41.8 mm. In 1854, influential California merchants requested the mint strike round $50 gold coins similar to the $20 in a letter to Treasury Secretary James Guthrie. California Senator William M. Gwin prepared legislation authorizing both $50 and $100 pieces. In 1877, William Barber engraved dies for two obverses and a single reverse for the $50 denomination only. This unique reverse hub trial is an incuse impression of Barber's famous half union. It only has the eagle, scroll, arrows, and laurel branches of the design, lacking the glory of rays, motto, and outer legends. This unique piece first appeared in the collection of Philadelphia coin dealer Stephen Nagy, one of the "Mint insiders," a member of a numismatic dynasty that included William Idler and Captain John Haseltine. In 1958, it appeared in Abe Kosoff's ANA Sale in Los Angeles.

Trial strikes such as this are one of the rarest items in all of numismatics, and they are of the greatest importance as they trace the progress of the artist's design before it was complete, and hub impressions were made long before the first full scale patterns could be struck. This piece shows some chalking of the surface, but the overall impression is bold. A very valuable piece of mint history and an early chapter in the development of the 1877 fifty dollar patterns.
Ex: Stephen Nagy; 1958 ANA (Kosoff, 8/58), lot 2032, flip accompanies. (PCGS# 61890)
Auction 336 | Lot: 2260 | Jan 10, 2004

Sold For: $2,645.00
Undated $50 Fifty Dollar Die Trial, Judd Appendix-A (1982 edition), unlisted in Pollock, delisted in 2003 edition of Judd, Unique, PR60 Uncertified. This is a uniface impression of a boldly modeled standing eagle that is holding three arrows in its right (facing) talons and an eight-leaf olive branch in the other. Struck on a thin piece of tin with copper plating over the impression. Some of the original mint red still is evident around the eagle with darker brown patina over the highpoints.

It was Dr. Hewitt Judd's opinion that this piece was a die trial for the $50 patterns of 1877. The size and robustness of the design clearly suggests a coin of considerable size and grandeur. Little of this piece's previous history is known, and apparently Andrew Pollock as well as the new editors of Judd have decided that its fabric is not consistent with an unequivocal product of the U.S. Mint. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating piece for study purposes.
Ex: 1958 ANA Sale (Kosoff, 8/58), lot 2051; Rarities Sale (Bowers and Merena, 1/01), lot 634, flip accompanies. (PCGS# 61890)
Auction 336 | Lot: 2261 | Jan 10, 2004

Sold For: $1,380.00

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