Are the 1892 Columbian half dollars sold in leather holders the earlier strikes? I read that companies put their orders in advance to get a hold of large quantities of the coins to sell to the public in their own packaging. One bank offered them to its employees, Remington typewriters bought the first 1892 proof strike for $10,000 at the time, and there are numerous other examples. So, if these were ordered in advance by various companies, are they expected to be among the first several thousand struck? Or, is that not the case if all of the coins were struck, and the orders were shipped out "randomly" from the total pile? Another reason why I'm asking is because the leather holders seem to have had its leather tanning move onto the coin itself, creating a dark tone. For some if not most of the coins, is that toning concealing a superbly struck or proof-like surface? An example pic of the leather holder I'm referring to is shown below. Thanks in advance!
I mean that could be the case but because coin dies get changed during production it's entirely possible for proof like coins to appear at any point in the mintage when a new obverse die and a new reverse die end up getting paired together at the same time. It's also entirely possible that one die's life is much longer and thus you can have a coin with one side being proof like and the other completely normal. A really good example of this happening can be found by looking at the 1965-67 SMS coinage. Since dies got swapped as needed and not exactly in pairings to produce the highest quality coins there is lots of examples of coins with only one side showing some cameo or resembling a proof coin at all while the other side is completely normal uncirculated looking. Also although I'm not sure what die maintenance the mint was using in 1892-93, but in general even a used die if it was repolished it could then produce proof like strikes again for the first few coins struck when placed back in service. So in all proof like coins can pretty much show up at any point in a mintage. Also in the past where die strength wasn't as good and maintenance wasn't as sophisticated very few coins even off new dies would exhibit these characteristics as the surfaces responsible for causing the effect present on the dies would wear away very fast.
Good question , but I suppose given the rough treatment these coins got they were minted and put into bags and then shipped in no particular order . A good way to tell is if you could see a number of these packs and see what condition they are in , and also the condition of the strike itself . But if you really want to know a detective job of looking up mint records might show some light on these coins !
Highly unlikely for several reasons, one of which has already been explained. Here is another, those leather holders were almost certainly produced and sold by some 3rd party either at the exposition itself, or even after the exposition was over. You kind of answered your own question. But there's more to it than that. Even though some of the coins are dated 1892, the exposition did not open until May 1, 1893 and ran until Oct. 30, 1893. So the '92 coins, 950,000 of them, were definitely made before the exposition opened. And it's quite possible, even likely, the 1.5 million '93 coins were as well. The question then becomes when were all those coins shipped to the exposition officials, and was it all it once or broken into several shipments ? But either way it's a pretty safe bet that at least a large percentage of them were shipped long before the opening. That means the coins had to have been stored, probably in a bank someplace nearby. And then once it opened, they were shipped in smaller quantities to the exposition itself, likely on a daily basis. Add all of this up and there's a multitude of ways, times, and places where the coins were mixed and matched and distributed in no certain order.
Yeah, I read up on a lot of the history behind the Chicago World Expo, mostly because that's my hometown . IIRC, from the US Mint Report itself, it states that all of the 1893 minted coins were made of "medallic" quality. I'd think that would also apply to the 1892 year Columbians, too. Being that this is the very first commemorative piece by the US Mint, and as a celebration of the discovery of America, I'd think that they intended it all of the coins to be struck well (or at least better than business strikes coins, and of similar likeness to medals issued at the time). And, looking at a lot of examples available for sale, the unc offerings certainly have crisp devices.
It's been a long time so I may be mistaken, but I think that's only because they were struck on a medal press. Medal presses are stronger, able to strike with more pressure than regular coin presses. That would result in coins with a good strike, but it really wouldn't affect the coin's surfaces or make them Proof-like in quality (since that's one of things you asked about). Only the dies could do that, and even then only if they were specially prepared (highly polished).
