A 2000-P Sacagawea dollar / Washington quarter mule caught the attention of collectors, setting a record when it went under the hammer at Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Baltimore sale in March 2018.
Certified MS-67 by NGC, the recently discovered rarity drew aggressive bidding and realized $192,000 — a public auction record for this modern error. This new price record significantly surpassed the previous record of $158,625, set by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in their August 2012 Philadelphia ANA Sale.
This most recent error coin marks the fourth time Stack’s Bowers Galleries has handled one of these incredible rarities, beginning with the discovery example sold in their (Bowers and Merena’s) August 2000 Philadelphia ANA Sale of the Millennium.
While several further examples of this Mint error have been discovered in recent years, demand appears to be stronger than ever. The competitive bidding witnessed in the auction room suggests increasing desire among collectors to own one of these elusive errors, as 12 of the 17 known examples reside in the collection of error enthusiast Tommy Bolack.
These dramatic erros are thought to result from confusion in the Die Room of the Philadelphia Mint in the spring of 2000. A coin press operator was mistakenly given an obverse die for a Washington quarter instead of the new Sacagawea dollar, and many thousands were struck before Mint employees noticed the mistake. Once discovered, employees culled out and destroyed all the muled coins they could, although several escaped into circulation.
While there was some initial debate as to the authenticity and the legality of such an error, the U.S. Mint acknowledged the mulings as genuine on June 19, 2000, and they have traded freely among collectors ever since. This is contrary to the Mint’s stance on similar coins, like the 1974-D Aluminum cent and the 1933 Saint-Gaudens double eagle, examples of which the government has repossessed from collectors.
The record-breaking sale of this newly discovered Sacagawea dollar/Washington quarter mule, the fourth offered by Stack’s Bowers Galleries since 2000, highlights the firm’s expertise and continuing success in the numismatic auction market.
If you would like to take advantage of this record-breaking expertise, contact Stack’s Bowers Galleries at 800.458.4646 to speak with a numismatic representative. Visit the company online at StacksBowers.com.
If at all this may even be the case, I wonder if it matters more to the gent who owns 12 of the 17 mules that he hasn’t quite been able to entirely corner the market on them than it bothers each of the owners of the five other coins that one person has managed to single-handedly gain possession of 12 of them.
Same thing happened to me last night at store 7*11, somebody at there food packing room put their crummy chicken patty in the *gold wrapper that says *cheese burger, not once but twice, they say third time is a *charm, well *i didn’t want to break a tooth, hope the seagulls enjoyed the 2nd chicken patty i* tossed out the window, & *i wasn’t going back a 3rd, two *mule*error cheese burger gold*wrapper’s in a row! No dam satterfaction here, *i tell ya! But that’s a very*good take on the cheap’st base metal coin the *u*s*mint produce, the lucky *5… Read more »
The present owners of these seventeen mint errors can thank their lucky stars the Treasury “Gestapo” didn’t, at least not in this particular case for a change, rule against the original finders’ rights regarding the “legitimacy” of possession of these mules that eventually became the current owners’ property through auction purchase. God knows that the powers that be at the nation’s Temple of Wealth seem to have absolute discretion when it comes to deciding what defective coinage gets to stay out here among the public and what instead has to be surrendered and relinquished to the Mint’s furnaces. What a… Read more »
Finder, keeper! *If angels* were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on *government would be necessary. Quot from our *Constitution! *I say let *gods*angels, govern before our bread turns to crumbs. Non angels need not ah-ply, the angels will take care of u.*smile
well i* did say in one of my blogs above, that *i didn’t want to break a tooth, well i* did! Just can’t win*, but a trip to the dentist. I*ll sleep on it, just wish *i had my front tooth to put under my pillow, just hope the show is good.*smile
btw, just for my personal diary* which an’t *personal at all! But *i like to keep a record of things, just in case, tooth broke on a very old stale box of *raisins, because my cupboards are almost bare, *i like to know where all my money is going, if not food? So much for a bedtime *snack, more than like*/y, but *i don*t think i* will, find the broken half of my*tooth, in a day or so! *I rather pay the copay at my dentist than glue back to the other half of my *good tooth,. Gross! 😀 😈… Read more »
Don’t forget to put that half a tooth under your pillow and if you’re really lucky by the next morning the [coin] tooth fairy will have spirited it away and have left you a nice shiny half ounce gold ducat in its place. 😆
Talk about synchronicity. I was just last night looking with some interest at a couple of recently released series of Austrian (Vienna Mint) coins that have as their common motif a quartet of angels, specifically the major ones: Michael and Gabriel and a couple of other such heavyweights whose names unfortunately just happen to escape me at the moment. Anyway, it’s all very nice 2017/18 coinage with some especially interesting, rather innovative designs.
The Austrian mint produces some amazing coinage. Nice to read that you are branching out and considering international mints. This site appears to only focus on majority American coinage, there is so much out there and numismatists / stackers need to spread their wings. More to coins than just American coins.
There was a time when I ONLY collected from international mints and had NO American coins in my collection, but after I came to this country to live here for good my acquisition habits turned more and more toward the U.S. Mint, eventually to the exclusion of the others. Now I’m having a foreign mint “re-awakening” of sorts as I once again am looking at all the incredible varieties of coinage product available around the world.
I fully agree. Possession is 9/10 of the law. If any government can prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) – in a court of law, that a specific coin was stolen than I understand its legal recovery / seizure. Other than that / they need to stay away from private ownership. The coin above states clearly “Liberty” / the powers that be need to go back to school and learn what the word means.
Exactly so. The problem here has been manifested in incidents where the U.S. government, for reasons and/or purposes of its own design, arbitrarily declared it was entitled to confiscate whatever coinage was in question simply because it had made the unilateral decision to do so. If that isn’t circular reasoning then I don’t know what is, but whatever the case, that is not in any way, shape, or form a demonstration of freedom and justice for all in action. 😡
Guess the reasoning is they were legally released to the public. Trying to get them back is too blatant an abuse of power. The ’33 and ’74 coins mentioned were never given to banks or legally to collectors.
Richard,
You make a couple of excellent points here. Hard as it is to believe, even for our ordinarily “happy to be overstepping its powers type” government, occasionally SOMETHING is just a bit too much.
Nice $1.25 coin! The first one was found by a collector in Arkansas from his bank in 2000. What good luck!
The Austrian Mint has a great series of new coin designs featuring Empress Maria Theresia in high relief. I used to own a very old silver coin of Transylvania with her portrait on it when she ruled that area. She was a fascinating woman for sure & apparently ate very well !!
Happy collecting everyone!
-NumisdudeTX
The math geek in me always wonders about the “$1.25” designation. The jokester in me says it should be 62.5¢ because it’s only one-half of each coin! 😛 😛
Seth Riesling,
Thanks for the heads up on those new coins from the Austrian Mint; I’ll have to check that development out pronto!
Munzen –
Good math! ( like the “new math” they teach kids now). In any case, with at least 17 of these error mule coins known & maybe more to be found – they are way “overpriced” IMHO compared to coins with less than 17 specimens extant.
Seth Riesling & Munzen,
It isn’t exactly that they are “overpriced” since these high numbers are resulting from public auctions, it’s more that they’re “overbid”. Just sayin’.
-1? That’s all? C’mon, Mute Stooges, even you Great Nothings can do better than that! :silly: