Source: http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=26507
The 1794 Flowing Hair dollar that recently generated a world record price for a coin sold in a public auction is an example of how a combination of factors including individuals with decades each of numismatic knowledge and experience, continuing research, one-on-one consensus building and astute marketing helped a coin jump from $264,000 in 1984 to over $10 million 29 years later.
It’s also a lesson in numismatic market cycles. When legendary dealer B. Max Mehl sold the Will W. Neil collection in 1947, this coin brought $1,250, an amazing bargain by today’s value even when 66 years of inflation are factored in. But the coin actually dropped in price from $264,000 at its 1984 auction by Stack’s to $209,000 in a 1986 auction by Superior Galleries. Now it’s making international headlines for the $10,016,875 winning bid by Legend Numismatics at the Jan. 24 Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction.
For eight years I had a front row seat for many events involving the Neil/Carter/Contursi 1794 dollar and served as a consultant to the coin’s owner, Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers. It was also during that time that building consensus among experienced numismatists and the accumulation of their expert comments added significantly more credence to the theory that this particular coin might be the very first silver dollar struck by the U.S. Mint.
There is no known contemporary documentation that this, indeed, was the first silver dollar struck. There’s no in-depth New York Times story from the scene about the Mint striking the first dollar denomination coins on Oct. 15, 1794, as the paper wasn’t founded until 1851. But theories about the significance of this particular coin have been around for decades.
For example, the description of the dollar in the January 1984 Stack’s auction of coins from the collection of Amon G. Carter Jr. stated: “The Carter 1794 silver dollar is a twin to the copper dollar (now in the Smithsonian Collection), both in surface and strike. It is perfectly conceivable that this coin was the very first 1794 silver dollar struck.”
Contursi acquired the coin for $2.5 million in 2002 in a private transaction with Kansas City dealer Jay Parrino.
“I remember viewing the coin in Jay Parrino’s house and was astonished when I saw it for the first time,” Contursi recalled recently. “I had a gut feeling I should buy this coin and take a chance because I was convinced it was a special striking. Two weeks later, I purchased it – for $500,000 more than Jay originally wanted two weeks earlier.”
In 2003 and 2004, arrangements were made by Contursi for more than a dozen numismatic experts to closely inspect the coin outside its PCGS encapsulation holder. The consensus of the independent experts was that:
• It is the earliest die state known (Die State I) in silver and a perfect match to the copper trial piece (Judd-19) that is believed to have been stuck first to test the dies.
• It was one of the first few made and may be the first U.S. silver dollar struck.
• It is unique as the only known surviving 1794 dollar with a silver plug to adjust the planchet’s weight.
• It is the finest known of the estimated less than 140 surviving 1794 silver dollars from the 1,758 that were minted.
• It has mirrored, proof-like surfaces indicating the planchet was specially prepared. • It has tremendous historical importance.
In 2003, Contursi brought the coin to the Smithsonian to compare it to the 1794 copper pattern in the National Numismatic Collection.
Dr. Richard Doty, Numismatic Curator of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, has emphatically said there’s no proof it’s the very first silver dollar, and has even joked on more than one occasion, that “we are moving from the realm of numismatics into that of theology.”
However, in a letter to Contursi following the side-by-side examination of the coin with the 1794 dollar copper trial strike in the museum’s collection, Dr. Doty wrote:
“The die states are the same on our copper trial and the silver specimen. Neither displays evidence of a die clash, which means at least that each was coined very early in the run. The silver piece shows some evidence of having been struck on a polished planchet, as does our copper trial. Our experience is that you don’t polish planchets for production-run coins; there would be no point. All of these points suggest that the piece was intended for presentation, which suggests that it was one of the first 1794 dollars struck.”
Then the research really began (after the visit to the Smithsonian), recalled Contursi, “as I recruited top, legendary numismatic researchers in the country. All the forensic evidence that was uncovered led back to this coin being the earliest die state known to exist, a proof or specimen striking and, most likely, the first silver dollar struck by our country.” So what did other numismatists think?
In 2003, Martin Logies, author of The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar of 1794 and who later would buy the coin from Contursi on behalf of the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation in 2010 for a record price of $7.85 million, wrote: “Of all the rarities I have seen or heard of, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the single most important of all, the very first silver dollar.
This is the coin that has it all: the very earliest of die states; the only proof-like presentation specimen known; the single finest quality of striking details; and the very highest state of preservation in existence – everything anyone could ever expect from a first strike.” The coin had been certified earlier by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation as Mint State-66. Contursi showed the coin to Professional Coin Grading Service, and PCGS agreed with him that it was a specimen strike and certified it PCGS SP66.
“It made my heart thump,” said PCGS co-founder David Hall recalling the first time he saw the coin in person. “It’s a gorgeous historical treasure. The strike is so sharp it leads me to believe it is the very fist impression of the die. It is easy to surmise that this is probably the first dollar struck in the U.S.”
The historical treasure angle is an important element in the story of this coin as well as its marketing. In news media interviews wherever the coin was exhibited across the country, Contursi would state:“This coin is to our economy and international trade what the Declaration of Independence was to our country’s freedom: a significant piece of history and a national treasure.”
On March 25, 2004, a news conference was held at the American Numismatic Association headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., to announce the findings of the research and the planned public display of the coin at the ANA Money Museum.
The day before the news conference, noted researcher John W. Dannreuther, Kenneth E. Bressett, editor of A Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red book) and Contursi met with an Associated Press reporter at the AP Denver bureau. Contursi brought the coin, along with two armed security guards.
Later that day, AP distributed a nationwide story that read in part:
“Currency experts say they have identified a 210-year-old silver dollar that could be the first one coined by the United States Mint ... Experts said it’s impossible to say for certain that the coin was the very first U.S. silver dollar struck, but its details are so crisp that it certainly was among the first. ‘Until someone walks up to me with a coin in an earlier state that looks better, I’d consider it the first,’ said John Dannreuther, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service.”
In an earlier written statement about the coin, Dannreuther wrote: “The condition of the coin is pristine. It was never in a bag or keg of coins, indicating that it was caught after minting and has had special care since its striking. The color is original and this indicates that for its 210-year ‘lifetime’ its owners (or, should I say, caretakers) HAVE ABSOLUTELY KNOWN it was special!”
Larry Lee, at the time the ANA Money Museum curator and the former curator of the numismatic collection at Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, Neb., stated: “It is easy to see why everyone is excited about this truly magnificent piece. It possesses every single aspect one would expect from a presentation specimen that was specially made as part of the striking of the first commercial silver coins for the fledgling United States of America.”
Bressett added a listing in Flowing Hair dollars section of the Red Book, “1794 Silver Plug (unique).”
Additional opportunities for researchers to examine the coin were arranged by Contursi at the 2004 ANA World’s Fair of Money convention in Pittsburgh where the coin was a featured exhibit.
In a closed door meeting with armed security guards present, the dollar was carefully removed from its PCGS holder and closely inspected “raw” by a dozen people including Dannreuther, Bressett, Logies and Brad Karoleff, then a vice president of the John Reich Collectors Society and editor of the club’s journal. They were especially interested in intensely examining the edge lettering.
At an educational seminar about the 1794 dollar at the ANA Pittsburgh convention Bressett, Dannreuther, Logies and Contursi presented their findings. A Sept. 7, 2004 Numismatic News story by Greg Reynolds headlined, “More support for first $1,” reported their comments about the edge lettering and the belief the coin’s early die state means it was the first struck or certainly one of the first struck:
“The most recent new finding analyzed by Bressett and Dannreuther is that it is the only 1794 silver dollar that has a specially imparted, smooth edge surface that matches the edge on the one known 1794 dollar die trial in copper. ... Bressett emphasized that the copper die trial and the Carter-Contursi 1794 dollar both have ‘deeply incised edge letters.’ Further, he and Dannreuther focused upon the smooth, sharp nature of the edge field. In response to a question that I asked, Bressett said that he had never before seen such edge lettering nor such an edge field on any U.S. coin from the 1790s.
“The other new finding was presented by Martin Logies and is documented in his book. He builds upon the past discovery that the Carter-Contursi 1794 dollar was minted from the earliest state of the dies ... If Logies’ proof is solid, and if it is reasoned that there is a low probability of an unknown or destroyed 1794 dollar having been struck before the Carter-Contursi coin, then Logies has shown that there is a high probability that it is the first silver dollar struck.”
In addition to being on loan to the ANA Money Museum from 2004 to 2010 and the 2004 display in Pittsburgh, Contursi exhibited the headline-generating coin at ANA conventions and other coin shows in Kansas City, San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver and Long Beach.
Although Contursi hasn’t owned the coin since May 2010 when he sold it “in a lackluster economy for a record $7,850,000,” he also said he’s happy with his role in its pedigree, its nationwide exhibits and the consensus-building opportunities for others to closely inspect it.
“All four of the coins featured on the Stack’s Bowers catalog cover, the four cornerstone coins of the collection including the 1794 dollar, were sold by me to the Cardinal Collection. It’s always good to see people profit from rare coins – in this case a profit of well over $2 million for the Cardinal Collection – while they also appreciated their beauty and historical significance,” Contursi said.