Set to cross the block in Stack’s Bowers Galleries Official August 2012 Philadelphia ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction is the famously rare Sacagawea dollar / Washington Statehood quarter muling.
This remarkable error was first discovered in 2000 by Frank Wallis of Mountain Home, Arkansas, and that discovery piece was subsequently sold by Bowers and Merena at the August 2000 ANA Millennium Sale for $29,900.
The sale of that coin spurred national interest in the "misstrike," as it was dubbed by the U.S. Mint, and by autumn of that year several other examples had come to light, by which time a total of three different die pairs were recognized and described by David J. Camire, author and first authenticator of the variety.
The example to be sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries at the Official ANA Auction in August is attributed to Die Pair 1, and shows the characteristic die crack from the rim through the F in OF on the Sacagawea dollar side. The coin is a beautifully lustrous and brilliant Superb Gem, graded MS-67 by NGC, and displays lively rose and orange iridescence on both sides. Ranked #1 in the popular 2010 reference 100 Greatest U.S. Error Coins by Nick Brown, David Camire and Fred Weinberg, this lovely mini-dollar / quarter mule represents an important opportunity to acquire a highly coveted and rarely offered U.S. Mint error. Indeed, opportunities such as this are few and far between in the error coin market.
The coin will be offered as part of our eagerly anticipated Rarities Night session, scheduled for Thursday, August 9, 2012, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Complete catalogs for the Official August 2012 ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction are available by request by calling 800.458.4646, and online at www.stacksbowers.com.
Auction and lot viewing will take place in the Stack’s Bowers offices in New York City and Irvine, California, by appointment, and at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia August 2-12, 2012. Visit the Stack’s Bowers website for current schedule information and StacksBowersAuctions.com for information about the various coins and collections in the auction.
About Stack’s Bowers Galleries
Stack’s Bowers Galleries, a division of Fortune 500 Company Spectrum Group International Inc., was launched in January 2011, combining the extraordinary histories of Stack’s, the oldest rare coin auction and retail company in America, with Bowers and Merena Auctions, one of the world’s pre-eminent auctioneers of rare coins and paper money.
For more information about Stack’s Bowers Galleries, call 800.458.4646 or visit www.stacksbowers.com.
Wow!
Perhaps “Rewarding Mistakes” would be a better title.
Are there any estimates of how many may have entered circulation? Correct me please if I’m off-base, but given that the dies were locked in and presses run at fairly high speed, a lot of coins must have been struck before anyone discovered the mismatch. Unless all of them went into the same hopper it could have been difficult to retrieve everything that was produced.