Going back to 1996 and the 25th Anniversary of The Standard Catalog of World Coins quickly approaching, I asked Clifford Mishler here if it was at all possible to have, say, a $5.00 coin struck for this gala event, perhaps in copper-nickel, that we could use as a giveaway item with each catalog purchased.

Well months went by, and one day Mishler showed up at my desk much to my surprise with an artist's sketch. The sketch was okayed and some months later he dropped off the coin. Well Mishler has this habit of going all out when he is in charge of a project, and he dropped off this Liberia 2-1/2 ounce proof struck in 0.999 fine silver $25 coin. He thought it might be a good sell to our SCWC catalog owners and World Coin News' subscribers, but sales were rather slack.

A few years later the remaining stock was distributed to all of  Krause Publications employees at a Christmas party. Well I thought this was rather unusual, but it turned out to be one of the more popular keepsakes that was ever handed out. Of the 400 or so given out here I would guess about only 100 have been turned in for their bullion value and remelted. But as silver hit $20.00 ounce the coin is worth twice the face value of $25, so we might see a few more surface for cash.

It is listed as KM #323 and the illustrations should appear once again in the forthcoming 36th edition of SCWC. It is currently illustrated and listed in NumisMaster at $65.00. This is one coin I am very proud of being involved with as I have been working on the SCWC series for almost 34 years now.