1921 $1 Chapman PR(PCGS#7342)

1921 $1 Chapman PR (PCGS#7342)

The November 2011 Baltimore Auction

拍卖行: Stack's Bowers

批号: 5288

等级: PR64

价格: 638,328

详细说明: 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar. Chapman. Proof-64 (PCGS). Any presentation of a ""Chapman Proof"" 1921 Morgan dollar is always an exciting event, made more exiting by the fact that we have not had the opportunity to offer one in many years. As a clandestine, unofficial U.S. Mint issue, more mystery than fact seems to swirl around their existence--in fact, the only items that we can be sure of is that they exist and were produced by George T. Morgan at the behest of prominent Philadelphia coin dealer Henry Chapman. Dave Bowers sums up the situation best in his Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia:  ""In 1921, Henry Chapman went to the Mint and had some mirror-surface Proofs struck to his order. This was done clandestinely by or for George T. Morgan, chief engraver, who had a little 'rare coin business' going on the side. Walter H. Breen reported that he has seen 'the bill of sale for 10 Proofs, Morgan to Chapman.' The original production of mirror-type Proofs must have been very small, perhaps just 15 in all (10 to Chapman, 5 to Ambrose Swasey...They were not officially sold by the Mint, nor were any Proof sets made that year."" The Chapman roofs are the only pieces considered to be fully mirrored proofs, the so-called ""Zerbe proofs"" being either prooflike business strikes or some sort of presentation striking. PCGS handles this situation the best, listing the Chapman Proofs with the regular proof issues, while categorizing the ""Zerbe Proofs"" as Special Strikes. Though rendered difficult to see from the toning gained through 5 or more decades of paper envelope storage, this specimen exhibits the tiny die scratches and other markers that identify the Chapman proofs at the microscopic level, the diagnostics outlined in the Bowers Encyclopedia. Though it is unclear exactly how many Chapman proofs were struck in 1921, it is clearly more than the 15 cited above, and as

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