April 2025 - South Suburban Coin Club - 1890's US Proof Coinage

I had a really fun time at the South Suburban Coin Club.  I cannot remember the speaker's name (Eric?), but he is well versed collector who is also a member of the Denver Coin Club.  I have spoken to him a number of times and heard him present at the Denver Coin Club as well.  The topic was definitely early US mint issues and I am thinking it was cents.

On Tuesday night the topic was 1890's proof coins from the US Mint.  Proofs were infrequent issues with mintages around 1000 for silver coins and around 50 for gold coins.  The speaker had put together an 1898 collection at no small cost and brought the coins in and passed them around.  They were amazing.

Coins include:

1C - $1100 (PCGS 25292227; PCGS retail, mintage 1795)

5C - $1763 (PCGS 25394910; HA lot 3299, Sept 17, 2015, mintage 1795)

10C - $1822 (PCGS 33163585, HA lot 3814, Feb 5, 2016, mintage 735)

25C - $8813 (PCGS 32793539, HA lot 3942, Jan 6, 2016, mintage 735)

50C - $2750 (coin facts, mintage 735)

S$1 - $6,325 (NGC 2141416-005, HA lot 5934, April 29, 2011, mintage 735)

$2.50 - $7,750 (coin facts, mintage 165)

$5 - $18,800 (PCGS 25685994, HA lot 4391, August 12, 2015, mintage 75)

$10 - $19,200 (NGC 1727763-001, HA lot 4700, January 24, 2019, mintage 67)

$20 - $14,100 (NGC 4177701-001, StacksBowers lot 90706, August 3, 2016, mintage 75)

He currently has the #1 NGC 1898 Proof Cameo Beauties, with Gold

https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/387624/

One of his favorites is $10 gold with orange peel effect on the obverse.  This is an indication of the first coins off the dies when copper comes to the top of the planchet due to high annealing temperatures.  Another favorite was the $2.50 gold that he owned as a kid, sold while married to his first wife, and bought back after getting divorced.  Overall it was an 11 year effort culminating with the final purchase in 2019.

Aside from the cost of accumulating a proof set, these coins obviously do not come to market often, especially the gold issues.  A collector must be patient.

I was able to match coins to auction lots for 7/10 issues; some of the other coins may have been purchased in private transactions, but overall $70,823 plus estimated $11,600