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1694 CAROLINA ELEPHANT TOKENAlan V Weinberg writes: "Coattailing on my recent Stacks Bowers "Baltimore" auction review wherein I contrasted a red Unc 1954 cent at almost $20K with a few lots later, a choice Unc 1794 half dime at a few thousand more... "John Agre of CoinRaritiesOnline appropriately compares his 1694 Ex-JHU/ Garrett elephant / Proprietors colonial token at $49,750 with a recently auctioned Franklin half dollar at more than double that price. "Again, I say is there something wrong with our numismatic price structure? "I don't think "supply and demand" covers this. The concocted "Registry Set" ego-based concept does." Here's the item description. I've highlighted the note Alan refers to in italics. -Editor 
 Hodder 2-F, W-12120 variety, with the bold second O over E in PROPRIETORS. One of our favorite issues, with a charming elephant on the obverse mated to a reverse offering support for the "LORDS PROPRIETORS", the eight members of the English nobility who originally received a charter from King Charles II to establish the colony of Carolina in 1663. And this is a rare type, estimated by us to be R-5+ with around 40 known in total, but as many as half of those are either impaired or in very low grade. At the other end of the spectrum, our own census research reveals just a couple of uncirculated survivors, the PCGS MS62 BN Ten Eyck-Ford specimen, and this lustrous, chocolate brown piece ex-Garrett long recognized as finest known. The PCGS pop report is consistent with our findings, with 19 total graded to date, including this piece as POP 1/0, followed by the MS62 coin, with the next highest as AU53 and 13 of the PCGS population in grades of VF or lower. In all, an amazing opportunity to acquire the finest known example of a rare, desirable and historic colonial issue for less than half the price of a toned Franklin Half Dollar in a recent auction. Ex Bowers and Ruddy's October 1980 sale of the Garrett Collection, Part III, lot 1316; earlier acquired by John Work Garrett in 1923; earlier the collection of Col. James W. Ellsworth. To read the complete item listing, see:
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
 Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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