Great North Africa Ancient Selection From Cederlind

Amongst many other rare and exceptional offerings in the upcoming Tom Cederlind Buy or Bid same No. 148, I noticed a nice array of North African and related coinage. 

From the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Cederlind is offering a nice selection of eight pieces, including two very large bronze coins featuring the Diademed Head of Zeus-Ammon and a bold eagle facing left. These two coins are 47mm and 45mm with bold detail and VF grades, with estimates of $950 for each.

A nice run of Hannibal animal types from the Barcids in Spain is augmented nicely by an exceptionaly rare silver shekel-Didrachm with portrait of Hasdrubal, Hannibal's younger brother. Those interested in the coinage of Carthago Nova will find this coin most interesting, along with the final lot in this grouping, which features a transitional portrait silver shekel struck after the sacking of the city by Scipio Africanus. In order to get new coins into circulation quickly, old dies with Hannibal's portarait were reworked to resemble Scipio and this coin is typical of the result. The Hasdrubal coin is graded VF+ and estimated at $15,000, while the Scipio coin grades nearly EF with an estimate at $6000.

But if your interest lies with North African coins and your budget is more modest, you might consider a sharp little coin listed under the Dark Ages in Cederlind's catalog. This bronze Nummus of the Vandals in North Africa checks in at 10mm and grades EF with a circa time period of A.D. 500. With fantastic eye appeal and an estimate of only $750, this little gem would be a fine addition to any North African collection.

Error Dollar in Heritage Auction

With the U.S. Mint State Quarter program and again with the Presidential Dollar program there has been a great flurry of activity focused at detecting and capitalizing on error coins. Off metal strikes, missing legends, plain edges and extra corn husks, there are seemingly lots of them out there waiting for collectors to uncover in rolls, bags and pocket change.

Several books and websites can help you learn more about error and variety coins. KP published one last year, titled Strike It Rich - Eith Pocket Change by Brian Allen and Ken Potter. I really enjoyed this book and from what I'm told it sold gangbusters, so others must be finding it useful as well. Allen and Potter provided excellent close up images, clear explanations of differences and terms, plus many cross references to other books. Web based sources are noted as well for specialty clubs like Combined Organization of Numismatic Error Collectors of America known as CONECA - whose publication is nmaed Errorscope and the National Collectors Association of Die Doubling known as NCADD - whose publication is called The Hubb.

Some error and variety coins have relatively little value, but many are quite expensive. Recently at least one rare 1969S doubled die Linclon cent was found by a collector in a roll of 1969S cents. The coin was full red and graded MS 64 by PCGS the Professional Coin Grading Service, which makes it one of the finest know examples. Check out this great photo of the coin, provided by Ken Potter. An example found and sold in 2007 brought about $85,000 and this latest one brought about $125,000 at auction! 

Some of the State Quarter errors have sold in the hundreds, as have the edge varieties of the Presidential dollars. In fact, Heritage Auctions has a plain edge John Adams dollar closing in their Sunday night Internet Auction which currently is bid at $425 and has at least four active bidders and five trackers watching the lot.

There is certainly interest in error coins and the opportunity is there for wonderful finds if collectors obtain a bit of knowledge and keep a keen eye out for the unusual.

Three Wise Wilson Dollars

On July 16, 1920 the Manila Mint in the Philippines held a ceremony for its inauguration. Medals were struck for the occasion, under the supervision of Chief Engineer Clifford Hewitt, using dies cut by George T. Morgan of the U.S. Mint, just a matter of five or six years before his death. Today these medals are known as " Wilson Dollars" and are typically sought by collectors of Philippines coinage as nice additions to their numismatic holdings.

The design sports a portrait of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, with legend: PRESIDENT. OF. THE. UNITED. STATES. on the obverse and a depiction of Juno Moneta kneeling with scales, guiding a nude youth on the operation of a coining press on the reverse, with legend: TO. COMMEMORATE. THE. OPENING. OF. THE. MINT. and MANILA P.I. 1920 in the exergue. The youth is feeding planchets into the press.

These medals were struck in three compositions, with 2,200 pieces struck in silver, 3,700 pieces struck in bronze and just five pieces struck in gold. Many of the bronze and silver pieces were tossed into Manila Bay, making high grade, quality examples tough to find today. Even lower grade examples bring reasonably good prices, as survival rates are not the best and sea salvaged pieces are often encountered. Of the five originally struck gold medals, noted Philippines coinage expert Lyman L. Allen noted in his 1997 reference, U.S. Philippine Coins, that only three are know to have survived.

Which makes it amazing that over the spring and summer months of 2008 at least one nice uncirculated example of each of the three metals, including two of the gold examples, of the Wilson Dollar have been offered on the market, making it possible for someone to have very quickly built a choice or brilliant set of these interesting and historical medals.

The first came up in March through the Philippine Mail Bid Sale XI presented by Cookie Jar Collectibles. This was one of the bronze pieces. It was graded choice uncirculated with 95% red surfaces and realized $1103. Stack’s offered an MS-61 graded Wilson Dollar in their January sale, where it realized $80,500. In April, Heritage offered a second example of the rare gold medal at auction during the Central States Numismatic Society Convention. This piece graded MS-62 and sold for a recorded $69,000. This same gold example was again offered through a Heritage Online auction closing Tuesday May 13th, where it realized $77,625. On June 7^th,Presidential Coin and Antique Company will offer a brilliant uncirculated silver example in its Auction Seventy-Eight as lot 208, allowing some savvy collector the opportunity of completing the grand uncirculated "Wilson Dollar" triumvirate over a slim three-month period.