The Lafayette dollar was a silver coin issued as part of the United States participation in the Paris World's Fair of 1900. Depicting Lafayette with George Washington and designed by Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, it was the only U.S. silver dollar commemorative prior to 1983, and the first U.S. coin to depict American citizens.

The Lafayette dollar is interesting for several reasons. Some 50,000 pieces were prestruck in December 1899, using five different die pairs. As it was not legal to strike a coin in advance of the date shown on the dies, the Mint circumvented the question by stating that the coin really had no date (which brings up another question: was it legal to mint a coin without a date?). On the reverse of the Lafayette dollar appears the inscription PARIS 1900, which was not the date of the coin, according to Mint officials, but, rather, was the date at which a statue, also depicted on the reverse, was to be erected in Paris.

Another interesting thing about the Lafayette dollar is that only 36,000 were distributed. Most of the rest of the 50,000 mintage went to the melting pot, some of them not until the 1940s. Had collectors of the 1930s and early 1940s known that the Treasury Department had on hand thousands of Uncirculated Lafayette dollars there would have been a great rush to buy them, but no one was aware of this, and only after they were melted was the situation disclosed in a government report! What a numismatic shame.

With coin collecting enjoying a growth spurt during the mid 1930s, the sale of proof coins resumed in the spring of 1936. The Philadelphia Mint, which had been vexed by the textured and uneven fields of the newer coin types introduced starting 1909, abandoned the matte proofs of that period and polished the dies to a semi-brilliant finish. The first pieces sold, however, were not as fully brilliant as the Indian Cent proofs, and collectors registered their dissatisfaction. The majority of 1936 proof cents were thus subsequently coined from dies more aggressively polished. 

These early 1936 proofs actually possess greater detail, as the gentler polishing of the dies did not efface the shallower features of the design. The satiny or semi-brilliant proofs, sometimes called Type 1, are more scarce than the brilliant issues but not as popular with collectors. Fully red gems are in very short supply.

A partial collar strike is when the collar die (edge die) does not fully engage the edge of the planchet. The collar die's purpose is to engage the rim of the planchet so it doesn't spread out from the striking pressure (broad strike) and to impart edge reeding to coins like U.S. dimes, half dollars and quarters.

If a planchet is jammed and tilted in the coining chamber or the collar itself is damaged, then it strikes the wrong area of the edge, and this results in what looks like a dual rim, part of the coin to be spread out or both. Also, it can look like railroad tracks if the coin has edge reeding. This is called a railroad rim.

Most often a partial collar strike will look like a line running around half the coin's rim but more severe anomalies can occur and some will display half the reeding missing.

The following was posted by Brian.

Hey y’all. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas was the site of the 2016 ANA National Money Show last week and with over 500 dealers in attendance, it turned out to be quite a busy show for me.  

With Chris and Tom manning our booth, it was my chance to hit the floor. Now, this being the first show that I have truly worked sales, I must admit it was interesting and eye-opening for me. I got the customary “come back later” responses when offering our coins to view, but to my surprise they all actually meant it! Almost every dealer was happy to look at our wares; some quickly, some slowly, but all were impressed with the quality and diversity of our inventory (I made several sales too!) It was great to finally meet so many dealers that I previously had only spoken with on the phone.  It was also nice to branch out a little and do some business with dealers that Northeast has never done business with before. I’m told it may not have been the busiest of shows overall, but I made it a point to be busy anyway and it was worth it.

Not only did I attend the show, but prior to it I was fortunate enough to take in a two-day grading seminar taught by Rod Gillis and Sam Gelberd of the ANA. Finally, the mystery of coin grades and grading was much less of a mystery (see our February 25th blog post). You might think that two 8 hour days of coin grading would be tedious, but this was a fun class! We had laughs, we had some fierce competition between the teams, and great stories were shared by students and teachers alike.

And with that, I’ll end with a quote from my seminar that I really enjoyed: “We don’t really own these rare coins; we are merely their custodians for a little while.”

Here's some of the bounty I received from my grading class...

Here are some pictures I took of the impressive Dallas Cattle Drive Sculptures right by the convention center...

Racketeer Nickel

Because the first 1883 Liberty Head ‘V’ nickels did not contain the words ‘FIVE CENTS,’ and also because the coins are about the same diameter and look somewhat similar to the then-circulating $5 Liberty gold coin, some people took it upon themselves to gold-plate 1883 no-cents Liberty nickels and try to pass them off as $5 gold coins. Apparently, this was a somewhat pervasive problem at the time and the United States Mint soon added ‘FIVE CENTS’ to the reverse of the coin under the ‘V’ to ward off any further counterfeiting attempts.

There has been a story circulating for some time that a person named Josh Tatum was one of  the most notorious of the Liberty nickel gold platers. It’s said he was a deaf mute who gold plated hundreds of 1883 nickels. He would go into a store to purchase items that were 5 cents or less and then pass off his gold-plated nickels to the cashier. Without saying a word, he would wait for the cashier to return his change and would usually get $4.95 in return. Eventually, he was tried in a court of law for fraud. However, the charges were dismissed because he never actually asked for change and nobody could testify against him!