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Silver. Reeded edge. Bright silver centers give way to rich halos of deep gold, violet,
and rose. Obverse extraordinarily similar to that of the Morgan dollar which followed for
general circulation in the next year 1878. Lightly cleaned at some time in the past, since
naturally retoned. The present specimen is perhaps No. 1 of the three pieces enumerated at
the uspatterns.com website. There No. 1 is listed as: "Farouk-Sotheby's 2/54?; Empire
Topics #3; Cox-Stacks' 4/62?; MARCA 5/87; B & M 5/92, was PCGS-62; Superior 2/05 (not
sold), NGC-63-cleaned." Accordingly, this particular specimen of this important
rarity possibly originated in the Sotheby's sale of King Farouk's Collection in 1954;
surfaces suggest that it is, indeed, a Farouk coin. As noted above, the presently offered
coin has long since recuperated from its light cleaning, and, even with that in mind, it
is still a major rarity among pattern issues. The present choice Proof is the only example
of J-1504 certified by NGC in the Proof designation; two other examples of J-1504 have
been certified by that firm, one of those was with a Cameo designation, the other with a
Ultra Cameo designation. We suspect more than one specialist will bid boldly for this
numismatic treasure.NGC Census: 1; none finer within the designation.From Bowers and
Merena's sale of the Somerset Collection, May 1992, Lot 1752; earlier Mid-American, May
1987, Lot 2125.
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