A MYSTERY UNITED NATIONS GOLD PATTERN

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V20 2017 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 10, March 5, 2017, Article 28

Tom DeLorey published a great article in the March 2017 issue of The Numismatist, the official journal of the American Numismatic Association. It's about the discovery of a previously documented coin that hadn't been seen by numismatic researchers. Some 50 years following its initial publication, specimens have surfaced. Tom's article titled Burden of Proof details the journey to corroborate the facts, involving help from multiple researchers, institutions and online archives. Here's a short excerpt. -Editor

In 1951 numismatic author Richard D. Kenney published a trial listing of “Unofficial Coins of the World” in The Coin Collector’s Journal, listing apocryphal issues from such non-coin-producing entities as Patagonia and the Republic of New Mexico. He wrote many other excellent numismatic articles in the 1950s, including the seminal work on “so-called dollars” in 1953, and had prepared an expanded “Unofficial Coins” manuscript before his untimely death in late 1956. The numismatic firm for which he worked honored his expressed wish that the manuscript be submitted to The Numismatist, which in 1960 began soliciting artwork for the article from a wealth of collectors, dealers, numismatic societies and museums. The first part appeared in the June 1962 issue with an “Author’s Preface,” plus an “Editor’s Preface” by Elston G. Bradfield.

Nineteen unofficial issues, some of them in related groups, were included in the first segment under the subhead “International,” after which the rest of the catalog was published at irregular intervals into 1964.

Today the subject matter is the nucleus of a large and very popular book Unusual World Coins (ANA Library Catalog No. C87 .B7u 2011), edited by George S. Cuhaj.

Kenney began with the Eutopia dollar of 1886 and the Bickford dollars of 1897. The U.S. talents of 1896 were followed by Thom as Elder’s Henry Hudson daalders of 1909 and Brian Boru crowns of 1910. These U.S. collectibles were succeeded by the truly international Esperanto spesmilos of 1912 and Kenney-13 — the mysterious “United Nations 100 Dollars 1922.”

There was no illustration, just this cryptic note: “Apparently a gold and/or silver League of Nations pattern based upon a plaster cast in the cabinet of the American Numismatic Society, New York, N.Y. Attempts to locate a specimen have thus far proved fruitless.”

The U.N. Specimen
The piece apparently remained unknown to the numismatic world until February 2016, when a man walked into a coin shop in the Atlanta area with seven examples of what later turned out to be Kenney-13, struck in gold.

The store owner showed one to former ANA Governor Bill Fivaz, who sent pictures of it to authors and U.S. coinage experts Q. David Bowers, Kenneth E. Bressett and myself. None of us were familiar with the piece, so I shared the photos with noted numismatist David T. Alexander. He suggested looking in Kenney’s works, where I found it thanks to the new digital archives of The Numismatist.

Much study remains to be done, but the article posits some interesting and plausible theories. Excellent work. If any readers have information concerning this item, please let me know and I'll pass it along to Tom and his team of helpers. -Editor