Cert #8625 29583037

Coin Number 86

This is one of the key dates to the series with a tiny mintage of 2,521 pieces. This one is far and away the finest known of perhaps 40 to 50 pieces in all. John Dannreuther notes the history behind this coin as follows from the Heritage catalog: “We last handled this coin 25 years ago in the October 1995 Long Beach Sale, when we sold the Warren Miller Collection. At that time, we pieced together the story of this coin, and we present its story here once again. This extraordinary coin first entered the marketplace in 1972, when a man entered the New York offices of Manfra, Tordella and Brookes. He opened a small chamois pouch and showed Paul Nugget an 1858 eagle. The coin was presented face-up, and because it had such mint bloom Nugget naturally assumed it had to be an O-mint. To quote Nugget, “It was beyond comprehension that an 1858-P could be presented over the counter in such a superior state of preservation.” Obviously, he bought the coin. He then placed it in the collection of Frank Bohren. When Bohren died, his trust fund consigned the coin to Auction ’80 where it realized $115,000. It next passed to an unnamed intermediary, from whom Andy Lustig eventually purchased the coin. Andy placed it with Warren Miller, who kept it as one of the cornerstones of his extensive collection of Liberty tens; later to the Palakika Collection at $276,000 on May 10, 2007.” This coin remains an outlier of phenomenal condition that simply can’t be touched by any other example of this date.

Ex Simpson/Hall/Miller