2014 North American Coins & Prices A Guide to U.S., Canadian and Mexican Coins

722 Pages·2014·89.48 MB·English

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Organized by country, denomination and date of issue,

the reference provides a clear, detailed and easy-to- A
use resource to a vast array of coins so passionately m
collected by millions. The U.S. section begins with early e
Colonial coins and tokens of the 17th and 18th centuries r
and follows through to Federal issues from 1792 ic A GUIDE TO U.S., CANADIAN AND MEXICAN COINS
forward. Mexico’s listings begin in 1701 while Canada’s a
begin with its earliest unified coinage in 1858. n 23RD EDITION
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Inside you will fi nd:
• Pricing, descriptions and photos for the latest coin
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issues of the United States, Canada and Mexico
• A helpful photo-grading guide to aid in making i
informed assessments of coin conditions n
• A unique guide to identification and valuation of
error coinage s
• Graphs tracking the price performance of “key date”

U.S. coins &
For more than two decades, this thorough

reference has been providing unique, complete
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and authoritative information. Experience for
yourself why the 2014 North American Coins &
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Prices is the best guide of its kind on the market.
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2014 North American
Coins & Prices
A GUIDE TO U.S., CANADIAN AND MEXICAN COINS
2233RRDD EDITION
David C. Harpeerr,, EEddiiitttooorrr
Harry Miller, George Cuhaj & Thomas Michael, Market Analysts
The World’s Best-Selling Coin Books
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Copyright ©2013 F+W Media, Inc.
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ISSN 1935-0562
ISBN-13: 978-1-4402-3799-7
ISBN-10: 1-4402-3799-9
Cover Design by Jana Tappa
Designed by Sandi Carpenter
Edited by George Cuhaj
Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
Chapter 1: "A Small Beginning" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Chapter 2: The Grading Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Chapter 3: Get a Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Chapter 4: American Eagles Fly High . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Introduction to Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
U.S. Minting Varieties and Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
UNITED STATES
Colonial Coinage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Early American Tokens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78, 93
Royal Patent Coinage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81
Revolutionary Coinage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
State Coinage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Early American Patterns,
Early Federal Coinage & Issues of 1792. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
United States Circulation Issues, 1793-present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
50 State Quarters & America the Beautiful Quarters. . . . . . . . . . .163
Sets and Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233
US Commemoratives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .238
US Silver, Gold and Platinum Bullion Coinage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .274
CANADA
Issues of the Confederation 1858-present. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .288
New Brunswick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .463
Newfoundland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .466
Nova Scotia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .473
Prince Edward Island. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .475
MEXICO
Spanish Colonial Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .477
War of Independence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .510
Empire of Iturbide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .546
First Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .549
Empire of Maximilian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .593
Second Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .595
Estados Unidos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .619
Revolution Era Coinage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .693
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11
“A Small Beginning”
The U.S. Mint grew from a modest start
By Robert R. Van Ryzin
It was a “small beginning” but a signifi cant one. In July 1792, a site for the
new U.S. Mint not yet having been secured, 1,500 silver half dismes were struck
on a small screw press nestled in the cellar of a Philadelphia building owned by
sawmaker John Harper. Though some have since categorized these early emis-
sions of the fl edgling U.S. Mint as patterns, it is clear that fi rst President George
Washington – who is said to have deposited the silver from which the coins were
struck – considered this small batch of half dismes the fi rst offi cial U.S. coins.
It is true that this limited coinage, the fi rst since passage of the act establish-
ing the Mint on April 2, 1792, pales by comparison to modern U.S. Mint presses.
Today’s machines can churn out up to 750 coins a minute, striking as many as
four coins at a time and boasting yearly mintages in the billions. But it is also true
that these fi rst small pieces – struck from silver and stamped with a plump Liberty
on the obverse and a scrawny eagle in fl ight on the reverse – have tremendous
historical importance.
For within what Washington would declare in his 1792 address to Congress
as a “small beginning” were the seeds of a monetary system that has lasted more
than 200 years and has become the study and admiration of many.
Before the U.S. Mint
Collectors today can trace much of the nation’s development and learn of its
struggles and growth through its coinage: from a cumbersome system fi rst proposed
by Robert Morris, a Revolutionary War fi nancier and fi rst superintendent of fi nance,
to the refi nements tendered by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, which
fi rmly placed the nation on an easily understood decimal system of coinage.
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"A SMALL BEGINNING" 5
At first there was little coinage in circulation, except for foreign coins
that arrived through trade or in the purses of the first settlers. Despite a dire
need for coinage in the Colonies, Great Britain considered it a royal right
and granted franchises sparingly. Much of the Colonial economy, therefore,
revolved around barter, with food staples, crops, and goods serving as cur-
rency. Indian wampum or bead money also was used, first in the fur trade
and later as a form of money for Colonial use.
Copper pieces were produced around 1616 for the Sommer Islands (now Ber-
muda), but coinage within the American Colonies apparently didn’t begin until 1652,
when John Hull struck silver threepence, sixpence and shillings under authority of
the General Court of Massachusetts. This coinage continued, with design changes
(willow, oak and pine trees), through 1682. Most of the coins were dated 1652, ap-
parently to avoid problems with England.
In 1658 Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, commissioned coins to be
struck in England for use in Maryland. Other authorized and unauthorized coin-
ages – including those of Mark Newby, John Holt, William Wood, and Dr. Samuel
Higley – all became part of the landscape of circulating coins. In the 1780s this
hodgepodge of coinage was augmented by infl uxes of counterfeit British half-
penny coins and various state coinages.
In terms of the latter, the Articles of Confederation had granted individual
states the right to produce copper coins. Many states found this to be appealing,
and merchants in the mid-1780s traded copper coins of Vermont, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. Not all were legal issues; various
entrepreneurs used this as an invitation to strike imitation state coppers and Brit-
ish halfpence. Mutilated and worn foreign coins also circulated in abundance.
Included among these were coins of Portugal, Great Britain and France, with the
large majority of the silver arriving from Spain.
The accounting system used by the states was derived from the British system
of pounds, shillings and pence. Each state was allowed to set its own rates at
which foreign gold and silver coins would trade in relation to the British pound.
In 1782 Robert Morris, newly named superintendent of fi nance, was appoint-
ed to head a committee to determine the values and weights of the gold and silver
coins in circulation. Asked simply to draw up a table of values, Morris took the
opportunity to propose the establishment of a federal mint. In his Jan. 15, 1782,
report (largely prepared by his assistant, Gouverneur Morris), Morris noted that
the exchange rates between the states were complicated.
He observed that a farmer in New Hampshire would be hard-pressed if asked
to determine the value of a bushel of wheat in South Carolina. Morris recorded
that an amount of wheat worth four shillings in his home state of New Hampshire
would be worth 21 shillings and eightpence under the accounting system used
in South Carolina.
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6 "A SMALL BEGINNING"
Robert Morris devised a
complicated plan for a natioonnaall
coinage based on a commoonn
denominator of 1,440.
Morris claimed these diffi culties plagued not only farmers, but that “they are
perplexing to most Men and troublesome to all.” Morris further pressed for the
adoption of an American coin to solve the problems of the need for small change
and debased foreign coinages in circulation.
In essence, what he was advocating was a monometallic system based on
silver. He said that gold and silver had fl uctuated throughout history. Because
these fl uctuations resulted in the more valuable metal leaving the country, any na-
tion that adopted a bimetallic coinage was doomed to have its gold or silver coins
disappear from circulation.
Gouverneur Morris calculated the rate at which the Spanish dollar traded to
the British pound in the various states. Leaving out South Carolina, because it
threw off his calculations, Gouverneur Morris arrived at a common denominator of
1,440. Robert Morris, therefore, recommended a unit of value of 1/1,440, equiva-
lent to a quarter grain of silver. He suggested the striking of a silver 100-unit coin,
or cent; a silver 500-unit coin, or quint; a silver 1,000-unit coin, or mark; and two
copper coins, one of eight units and the other of fi ve units.
On Feb. 21, 1782, the Grand Committee of Congress approved the proposal
and directed Morris to press forward and report with a plan to establish a mint.
Morris had already done so. Apparently feeling confi dent that Congress would
like his coinage ideas, Morris (as shown by his diary) began efforts at the physical
establishment prior to his January 1782 report. He had already engaged Ben-
jamin Dudley to acquire necessary equipment for the mint and hoped to have
sample coins available to submit with his original report to Congress.
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"A SMALL BEGINNING" 7
Things went awry, however.
By Dec. 12, 1782, 10 months after Congress had approved his plan, Morris
still could not show any samples of his coins. He was forced, ironically, to suggest
that Congress draw up a table of rates for foreign coins to be used until his report
was ready. It was not until April 2, 1783, that Morris was able to note in his diary
that the fi rst of his pattern coins were being struck.
“I sent for Mr. Dudley who delivered me a piece of Silver Coin,” he wrote,
“being the fi rst that has been struck as an American Coin.”
He also recorded that he had urged Dudley to go ahead with production of
the silver patterns.
It wasn’t until April 23, 1783, that Morris was able to send his Nova Constellatio
patterns to Congress and suggest that he was ready to report on establishing a
mint. Apparently nothing came of Morris’ efforts. Several committees looked into
the matter, but nothing was accomplished. Dudley was eventually discharged as
Morris’ hopes dimmed.
Thomas Jefferson was the next to offer a major plan. Jefferson liked the idea
of a decimal system of coinage, but disliked Morris’ basic unit of value. As chair-
man of the Currency Committee, Jefferson reviewed Morris’ plan and formulated
his own ideas.
To test public reaction, Jefferson gave his “Notes on Coinage” to The Provi-
dence Gazette, and Country Journal, which published his plan in its July 24, 1784,
issue. Jefferson disagreed with Morris’ suggestion for a 1/1,440 unit of value and
instead proposed a decimal coinage based on the dollar, with the lowest unit of
account being the mil, or 1/1,000.
“The most easy ratio of multiplication and division is that by ten,” Jefferson
wrote. “Every one knows the facility of Decimal Arithmetic.”
Jefferson argued that although Morris’ unit would have eliminated the unwant-
ed fraction that occurred when merchants converted British farthings to dollars,
this was of little signifi cance. After all, the original idea of establishing a mint was
to get rid of foreign currencies.
Morris’ unit, Jefferson said, was too cumbersome for use in normal business
transactions. According to Jefferson, under Morris’ plan a horse valued at 80 Spanish
dollars would require a notation of six fi gures and would be shown as 115,200 units.
Jefferson’ coinage plan suggested the striking of a dollar, or unit; half dollar,
or fi ve-tenths; a double tenth, or fi fth of a dollar, equivalent to a pistereen; a tenth,
equivalent to a Spanish bit; and a one-fi fth copper coin, relating to the British
farthing. He also wanted a gold coin of $10, corresponding to the British double
guinea; and a copper one-hundredth coin, relating to the British halfpence.
In reference to his coinage denominations, Jefferson said, it was important
that the coins “coincide in value with some of the known coins so nearly, that the
people may by quick reference in the mind, estimate their value.”
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8 "A SMALL BEGINNING"
Thomas Jefferson
proposed that the
United States adopt
a decimal system of
coinage.
More than a year, however, passed without any further action on his plan or
that proposed by Morris. In a letter to William Grayson, a member of the Con-
tinental Congress, Washington expressed concern for the establishment of a
national coinage system, terming it “indispensably necessary.” Washington also
complained of the coinage in circulation: “A man must travel with a pair of scales
in his pocket, or run the risk of receiving gold at one-fourth less than it counts.”
A plan at last
On May 13, 1785, the 13-member Grand Committee, to whom Jefferson’s
plan had been submitted, fi led its report, generally favoring Jefferson’s coinage
system. The committee did, however, make slight alterations, including the elimi-
nation of the gold $10 coin, the addition of a gold $5 coin, and the dropping of
Jefferson’s double tenth, which it replaced with a quarter dollar. The committee
also added a coin equal to 1/200th of a dollar (half cent). On July 6, 1785, Con-
gress unanimously approved the Grand Committee’s plan. It failed, however, to
set a standard weight for the silver dollar or to order plans drawn up for a mint.
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"A SMALL BEGINNING" 9
These two factors led to new proposals.
On April 8, 1786, the Board of Treasury, which had been reinstated after
Morris’ resignation as superintendent of fi nance two years prior, tendered three
distinct coinage proposals based on varying weights and bimetallic ratios for the
silver dollar. The fi rst of these three plans (the one passed by Congress on Aug. 8,
1786) required the silver dollar to contain 375.64 grains of pure silver. The board’s
proposal varied from earlier coinage plans in that it advocated a higher bimetallic
ratio of 15.256-to-1 and differing charges to depositors for coining of gold and
silver. It called for minting of gold $5 and $10 coins, and silver denominations
of the dime, double dime, half dollar, and dollar. In copper were a cent and
half cent. The proposal came during the peak of state coinages and infl uxes of
debased coppers, which, as the board reported, were being “Imported into or
manufactured in the Several States.”
Concerned over the need to control state coinages and foreign coppers, the
board suggested that, within nine months of passage of its proposal, the legal-
tender status of all foreign coppers be repealed and that values be set at which the
state coppers would circulate. The board obviously expected immediate action
and ordered a supply of copper that was being stored in Boston to be brought to
New York in the hope that it might soon be coined. Their hopes, however, rested
on the positive and quick action of Congress, something that hadn’t occurred with
the other proposals and would not occur this time.
Opposition to the mint was beginning to surface. Several members of Con-
gress expressed their belief that the supply of foreign gold and silver coins in
circulation was suffi cient to preclude any need for a mint. They also argued that
the problem with debased coppers could be solved by contracting with private
individuals to strike the nation’s cents and half cents.
Several proposals were offered for a contract coinage. On April 21, 1787, the
board accepted a proposal by James Jarvis to strike 300 tons of copper coin at the
federal standard. Jarvis, however, delivered slightly less than 9,000 pounds of his
contract. The contract was voided the following year for his failure to meet scheduled
delivery times, but helped to delay further action on a mint. Concerted action on a
coinage system and a mint would wait until the formation of the new government.
Alexander Hamilton, named in September 1789 to head the new Treasury,
offered three different methods by which the new nation could achieve economic
stability, including the funding of the national debt, establishment of the Bank of
North America, and the founding of the U.S. Mint. On Jan. 21, 1791, Hamilton
submitted to Congress a “Report on the Establishment of a Mint.” It was compiled
through his study of European economic theories and the earlier works of Morris
and Jefferson, along with the 1786 report of the Board of Treasury.
Hamilton agreed with Jefferson that the dollar seemed to be best suited to serve
as the basic unit, but believed it necessary to establish a proper weight and fi ne-
ness for the new coin. To do so, Hamilton had several Spanish coins assayed to
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