It’s wintertime and this time of year many turn towards their coin collecting. Here in Pennsylvania we have had quite a bit of snow recently and whiling one’s time away numismatically when it’s 10 degrees outside is as good as any. I am helping coach my Fifth-grader’s basketball team and right now they are 5-0, but Saturday’s score of 15-14 was too close for comfort.

We are now just getting the third issue out. I have decided due to the lack of material that we will commence being a three-issue Club. Unfortunately we have no choice, and in fact are struggling to even obtain enough meaningful material to issue just three journals per year. I am concluding that Indian cent collectors are not prolific writers. On the positive side, this will allow us to maintain current membership fees for a longer period of time. However if we do elicit enough material during the year, we will issue a fourth issue.

And again, if you have material to share with the club just a reminder our new editor is Frank Leone at the below address. And we desperately need fresh articles!!! In our renewal survey we found readers really enjoy the “Whattizzit?” column and the personal biography column—how you got started collecting coins, how your interests formed, your favorite coin, etc. I would love to have members send their unknown “Whatizzits?” in to Frank to let us get a shot at unraveling their mysteries.

It seems as of late anything unusual in coins, a la exonumitica, is very hot. Love tokens, Civil War Tokens on Indian cents, encased Indian cents, and anything just “different” has invigorated collector’s interests. One item not in my collection but I have always wanted to own is an Indian cent struck on a “wrong” planchet, one other than intended for a cent. But the longer I wait the more expensive they become. One of my personal favorites is the 1906 Indian cent featured on our last issue’s cover-- this piece was struck on a $2 ½ Gold blank… what a great coin! The closest item in my collection is one that I would like to feature in this President’s letter.

Several years ago a collector (who may have even been a Fly-In member but I don’t recall) bought a nice high-grade Indian cent from me on eBay. After the transaction expired we exchanged a few emails, and as I recall the gist of the communications were if I had any other premium Indians for sale. I mentioned that I had a choice 1880 Indian piece holdered by PCGS as MS65RB and that a couple other Fly-In members, Vern Sebby and Sheldon Freed, had seen the piece and had expressed an interest, but I decided to keep it as it was quite choice for the grade. The only way I would part with it would be as a trade and asked if he had anything different or unusual of interest, “any errors” I asked.

He then proceeded to unravel a tale that at first seemed a bit incredulous. The gentleman was from Upstate New York as I recall. He attended local auctions and hit the few Coin Shops in the areas. But it was at some estate auction where they were auctioning off a can or a some rolls of Indian cents which he purchased at a reasonable wholesale Roll price. After taking them home for study he came across an unusual 1890 piece which at first he felt must be a counterfeit. He related to me that it looked more like a copper-nickel piece from the 1860’s but was thin like a normal 1890. It also was severely mishandled, as if someone had tried to cut it into two pieces, like the Secret Service does when they abduct a counterfeit hoard. Here’s where the story gets a bit fuzzy, as I can’t recall if it was he or I that thought of the possibility of it being a Pattern, but as I recall it was him. Regardless, with the damage and all, coupled with the fact he paid less than a buck for the thing, he felt it was worthless. So he was ecstatic when I offered him a trade for the 1880 Indian cent sight-unseen.

Keep in mind, even as an advanced Indian cent collector I am by no means an expert in Pattern issues, especially after 1864. But I’ve learned the lesson that it never hurts to have too many reference books. I grabbed my Judd and Pollock books and quickly found the following reference for 1890 in Pollock:

Pollock 1971. Copper-Nickel. The dies used to coin regular-issue 1890 1c pieces. Plain Edge. Rarity-8. AW-172, Judd-1758.
(1) Spink, March 1983, Auction No. 3, Lot 752, described as grading Fine and having cuts (my piece???). Lot realized $130.00. ?

I then performed a non-destructive chemistry on the piece and obtained the following results: