1264

1911 Electrotype Silver Dollar

Currency:CAD Category:Coins & Paper Money / World Coins - Canada Start Price:10,000.00 CAD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 CAD
1911 Electrotype Silver Dollar
SOLD
14,000.00CAD+ buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2016 Jul 22 @ 20:16UTC-4 : AST/EDT


Buyer’s Premiums will be added on all items as per the Terms & Conditions of the sale. Invoices will be emailed out following the RCNA Convention. Visit gbellauctions.com to view a digital copy of the catalogue for this sale.
1911 Electrotype Silver Dollar - This specimen sold in March, 2013, lot 1702 in a Dix Noonan Webb auction in England. It is an electrotype copy of the 1911 silver dollar by B. MacKennal. It is 35 mm in diameter and weighs 24.7 grams. It is 73% copper and 27% silver with traces of base metals. Most electrotypes of the Royal Mint were made by Charles Ready from 1880 to 1900 but his sons carried on after that. Electrotypes were produced for display purposes in museums, the Royal Mint and wherever the 1911 silver dollar was to be shown. It was probably made from one of two struck specimens known. One is in the Bank of Canada numismatic collection, the other in private hands. The Bank of Canada has electrotypes of the obverse and reverse but they are uniface specimens weighing 13.91 and 18.37 grams respectively. This specimen has an antique finish unlike the shiny Bank of Canada specimens. There are subtle design differences in the maple leaves and king’s crown. This specimen is the closest most collectors will come to owing the real thing.
George V, in crown and robes, facing left. The initials B.M. appear on the truncation of the bust. The legend is in Latin and translates as GEORGE V, BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING AND EMPEROR OF INDIA. The reverse was designed by W.J. Blakemore and taken from a previous design by the noted British coin and medal designer, Leonard C. Wyon. The reverse design has a crown at 12 o'clock, above a maple wreath which surrounds the legend ONE-DOLLAR-CANADA-1911. Another interesting fact about this special coin is that no other first-year George V coin has DEI GRA (for Dei Gratia, or By the Grace of God) in the legend. All of the other 1911 coinage is referred to as "Godless" because of the omission. This issue can best be described as a pattern, as it was a proposed coin with no business strikes ever produced. The two known Pattern Dollars, as well as the lead striking, were struck in London before the dies were sent to Canada. Major Sheldom S. Carroll, Chief Curator of the National Collection at the Bank of Canada stated, "When consideration was being given to issuing a Dollar coin in 1911, dies were prepared (in London) and trial strikes were made. Mint records do not tell us how many such strikes were produced. Until November 19, 1977 the only two known trial strikes were in silver. The lead striking was discovered shortly thereafter on November 20, 1977. It was sent to the Department of Finance in Ottawa for examination and had remained there in a brown paper parcel in the East Block of the Parliament Buildings for more than 65 years. No examples of the 1911 Dollar were known until 1960 when the noted London coin dealer B.A. Seaby obtained this coin from "an undisclosed source," but word quickly spread that the coin had been purchased from the family of Sir Willian Grey Ellison-MacCartney who was the Mint Master at the time the coins were struck. Seaby later discovered the second silver example at the Royal Mint Museum in London. That is the coin that is on permanent loan to the National Currency Collection in Ottawa. The Royal Mint prepared dies and a pair of Specimens were struck in silver, and one in lead. Considered the greatest, and most storied, rarity in all of Canadian numismatics, and one of only two examples struck in silver. The other coin is permanently housed in the National Currency Collection in Ottawa along with a single striking in lead...