| Description: |
Silver. Reeded edge. Brilliant silver gray with delicate mottled cabinet toning dominated
by pale golden tones with intricate highlights of bright blue and deep violet; the reverse
shows pewter gray toning with subtle gold and violet tones. The devices are satiny, the
fields reflective but not deeply mirrored, the obverse showing greater reflectivity than
the reverse. Apparently struck only once, nicely detailed with a nearly full strike, the
most minor flatness on Liberty's knuckles and hat curls. Light hairlines on both sides,
tiny spot inside of stars 1 and 2, dark toning below D and L of DOL, spot apparently
removed at lowest arrowhead and noted for identification of this specimen. An
eye-appealing, glittering, beautiful Proof dollar. However, it is not the quality of the
coin that is the key point; the fame rests upon its rarity. The silver dollar series is
laden with rarities - but none compare with the 1866 No Motto dollar.
The 1794 silver
dollar, the desirable first year of issue, is a great rarity - perhaps as many as 150
survive but the number is likely less. The most famous silver dollar is undoubtedly that
dated 1804. Divided into three categories, a total of 15 exist: eight called Class I
(struck in the 1830s), a single plain edge overstruck Class II in the Smithsonian
Institution, and six called Class III (restrikes struck as late as the 1870s). Although
the 1804 dollar is an incredible rarity, there have been over a dozen different auction
opportunities to buy one in recent years, the most memorable being the $4.1 million gem
Proof Childs Collection coin, the finest known specimen and an especially desirable Class
I. The 1870-S dollar is also a classic rarity, with perhaps nine specimens known, with the
most recently offered example selling in excess of $1 million. Its original mintage is
unknown.
For many years, the 1866 No Motto dollar has been recognized as the key to
the silver dollar series. In 1949, the piece was misunderstood, and the Guide Book of
United States Coins (3rd edition) mistakenly listed it with a common date price. The next
year, catching the error, there was no listing of the coin at all - that line entry had
simply been effaced from the text. In the 1951 5th edition, the entry "1866 No Motto
Reverse" returned with but a single word of explanation - "unique." At the
time, the present piece was lost in the Brand estate and was unknown. Today, in 2003, it
is the only silver dollar listed in A Guide Book of United States Coins without an
estimated price or price history. Indeed, a generation of collectors has come and gone
without the opportunity to buy an example of this coin for any price, for none of the
"name" collections sold in our time has included a specimen. This is truly a
remarkable statement, considering the great preponderance of rarities (including the 1933
double eagle) that a strong market for rare coins has brought into the spotlight in the
last several decades.
Like other famous rarities, the famous 1913 Liberty Head nickel
being the prime example, the exact circumstances of striking the 1866 No Motto dollar are
not known today. It is presumed that only two pieces were struck to create numismatic
rarities, probably in the 1860s or early 1870s. The practice of creating rarities for a
ready numismatic marketplace created nearly all of the classic rarities placed in the
modern pantheon of United States coins: the aforementioned 1913 Liberty Head nickel, the
1804 Class II and Class III silver dollars, the 1884 and 1885 trade dollars, and other
famous but "second-tier" rarities such as the 1868 copper large cent, the 1879
Coiled Hair Stella, and 1880 Coiled and Flowing Hair $4 gold Stellas.
The 1866 No
Motto dollar was apparently once part of a set of three pieces, all dated 1866 with the
obsolete No Motto reverse: a quarter, half dollar, and dollar. The set - lacking the
dollar - entered the historical record and the numismatic spotlight in 1890 at the Robert
Coulton Davis sale. The R.C. Davis collection was consigned intact to the partnership of
H.P. Smith and David Proskey, doing business as New York Coin and Stamp Company, then a
brand new firm. The two known dollars both somehow ended up in the hands of Stephen K.
Nagy, the Philadelphia dealer, soon thereafter. The present specimen was sold by the
Chapman Brothers, Henry and Samuel Hudson on April 2, 1899 - coincidentally the 107th
anniversary of the signing of the Mint Act. This coin remained in the Brand estate until
1960, when it appeared after decades of hiding in the Fairbanks Collection sale, held by
Stack's in December 1960. The piece sold twice more in the 1960s, in the Samuel Wolfson
sale (1962) and Charles Jay sale (1967), and then sold for the last time at auction in
Stack's 1972 sale of the Winner Delp Collection. After transfer through two dealer
intermediaries, this coin ended up in a private collection in the late 1970s. It was
exhibited with great acclaim at the 1979 ANA Convention and at the Money Museum of the
National Bank of Detroit in the same year.
The other 1866 No Motto dollar, after
leaving Nagy's hands, enjoyed a place in several important collections before meeting an
apparently tragic end. H.O. Granberg, William Woodin, Waldo Newcomer, and Wayte Raymond
all owned it - it became the plate coin for the Adams-Woodin book (and later for all
editions of the Judd book) while in Woodin's possession. Colonel E.H.R. Green, with his
nearly endless resources, reassembled the No Motto set of quarter, half, and dollar, and
the set traded to F.C.C. Boyd, Abe Kosoff, and eventually to King Farouk of Egypt.
Purchased in the 1954 Farouk sale by Kosoff and Sol Kaplan, the set was broken up and the
dollar was sold to Lammot du Pont. The coin was stolen at gunpoint from Willis du Pont and
family in 1967 in south Florida along with other famous rarities, including the unique
plain edge 1849 Cincinnati Mining and Trading Company $10. That coin has never been
recovered; it is assumed lost.
The tragic disappearance of the only other known
specimen has left this example, for all intents and purposes, unique. It is the rarest
coin listed among federal issues in the Guide Book of United States Coins. It is the only
certified specimen, and the only one offered at auction since the King Farouk sale.
Without risk of hyperbole, this is among the most important and desirable United States
coins in existence.
Numismatists have not yet been able to pinpoint precisely which No
Motto reverse die was used to produce this issue. The die has few markers that would be
easily discerned in photographs - the dearth of quality photographs and the private
ownership of both pieces has left the exact nature of this piece shrouded in mystery.
After careful magnified study of the reverse die alongside the various pattern dollars in
this sale which also use a No Motto reverse, no matches were found to any other pieces -
not the 1851 to 1853 restrike dollars, nor the 1871 Indian Princess dollar, nor the
Liberty by the Seashore pattern of 1876. The only visible markers we can note are as
follows: the horizontal shield line third from the bottom extends to the outside border of
the shield on the left side, and the leftmost vertical line in the batch of vertical
shield lines third from left shows a raised "pimple" about two-thirds the way
from its top. |
