Owner Comments:
Lyman Allen #7.03 (KM #165) - Mintage: 10,000 (estimated survival 5,042)
General
Ten Centavo coins were not minted for general circulation by the Philadelphia mint in 1904, but 10,000 uncirculated seven coin sets were ordered by the well known numismatist Farran Zerbe to be sold at the Philippine Exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in1904. Supply far exceeded demand for these uncirculated sets, and only 3,254 were sold at the exposition. The remaining 6,746 sets were shipped to the Philippines where another 500 were sold by the Treasury. The 6,246 unsold sets were ultimately broken up and released into general circulation. The mintage for this coin is the smallest in the series, save for the five Proof coins, however their survival in uncirculated grades is quite high due to their having been released in a special set. The U.S. mint even acknowledged their special nature by identifying them as "proof" coins. Their relative survival calculation is also different than others in the set, coming in at just slightly over 50%
This coin
This particular coin is a lightly toned example of this rare date and given the high state of preservation, it was most likely part of one of the sets that was purchased by a collector. Also, given the toning, it was probably stored in the original packaging for a long period of time. It looked really nice as a raw coin, so I was expecting it to grade well, but I was quite pleased when it received a grade of MS66.
Varieties
None cataloged for this year.
Date acquired: 8/4/2019 (Raw coin)
Date graded: 9/24/2019 (Self submitted to NGC)
References
- Shafer, N. "United States Territorial Coinage for the Philippine Islands." Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman Publishing Company, 1961.
Rev. 11/3/2019