An Unlisted FM Coin Hiding in Plain Sight - the 1979-FM (U) Bahamas 25 Cents

The other day, I was perusing ebay to pass the time, and I noticed an auction that was about to end for a 1979 Bahamas 25 Cents in a Franklin Mint 'Coins of All Nations' coin card. One thing I instantly noticed about this coin was that it had a rather proof-like finish. This was unusual for two reasons:

1. Proof-Like FM 25 Cents are only listed for the years 1975-78.
2. The Royal Mint at the time generally made their coins with brilliant, lustrous strikes.

The seller's pictures were so blurry that I couldn't make out a mint mark in its usual position, but I was able to determine that the coin in the card was indeed minted by the Franklin Mint. Compare these two examples from my collection:

1979 (Royal Mint) Business Strike



1979-FM Proof

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Notice specifically the difference in the distance between the water from 4:30 to 7:30, on the Royal Mint business strikes, this gap is much wider. While the images were blurry, I was able to tell the coin in the card did not have the wide gap, and so it had to be a Franklin Mint issue.

At this point, I looked up the card and found a seller who had multiple cards at $6 each, with a buy two, get one free deal. This was much lower than the auction that was about to end, so I pulled the trigger and bought 3 cards.

Today, they arrived. Here is the full card:



And here is a closeup of the coin itself:

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The thing I find most interesting is that this doesn't appear to be a particularly rare coin. This card can be found easily on ebay and every example I've seen so far has this coin in it. Yet still, the coin isn't mentioned in Krause, numista, or any other reference that I regularly use. It does appear that I'm not the first person to come to this conclusion though, as this listing does properly attribute the coin.

I'll end by paging our local FM expert @7Jags and asking for his thoughts on this coin.

 

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I am not totally sure but I think the business strike had no mintmark and the proof did. Also i believe they were made of nickel so would be magnetic. But I am sure @7Jags can correct me

 

You are correct on both counts. However, this isn't a proof, but a proof-like coin, or Special Uncirculated to use the Franklin Mint's terminology.

 

I guess what is confusing me is an uncirculated, even if it is a prooflike example struck with the first strikes of the dies, is still a business strike and would have no mintmark as only the proofs had a mm. The one on the card clearly has the FM mintmark.

 

In the case of this coin and many other set issues from around the world, 'proof-like' is its own finish, rather than a descriptor for an early strike coin as it would be on a Morgan dollar, for example. If sent to PCGS, it would grade PLxx instead of MSxxPL.

 

Nice find! Lucky the Franklin Mint used a slightly different design, but any idea why they did?

 

Hmmm, last first: FM prepared their own designs based on original RM designs. Remember though that on practical dissolution of the FM minting, evidently at least some dies were obtained by the RM and used unmolested complete with FM logo on the 1986 and 1987 Cayman Islands coins - not all of them. I wonder if others went out for other nations and the FM obliterated.

Next: Proof(P) and currency (M)matte and (U)prooflike issues from the FM both had the FM mintmark/logo on them. The 1970 year is an example where the FM struck coins before the mintmark/logo on the coin(s).

Next: the records that are in Krause and reproduced in Numista and other sources on the internet have many flaws, additions, and omissions. So these can be found. Examples are (M) and (U) reported mintage numbers added on, substituted for each other & some appear to be projected mintages of coins that may never have been minted. Good discovery on this 25c coin - it had escaped my notice as I tend to like the larger dollar and up denominations when it comes to currency.
Schon (in Welt Munzkatalog) has it listed generally but they tend to do things like they did with this coin and just "seem" to say that uncirculated undesignated currency coins exist for Bahamas 25c 1974-1985, but again NOT clear at all because for the date these coins are priced to coin grade with including VZ, ST, and PP (proof in German) by condition. We have been trained in the USA that proof is NOT a coin grade but a method of manufacture.

A further problem is that for the 1974-1985 interval, it is not possible to tell if which type of uncirculated coin is struck for which year, or if they were even struck at all. Sum it up: Schon is NOT helpful in this instance.

Sounds confusing? It is, I will show a couple of pictures:


This picture shows the grades.

This picture the years.

So what am I saying? Well, as the OP has shown as an example there are sadly instances where we simply do not know when all coins were struck, if struck, or how many. I pointed up in another post the exact opposite of the 1989 $2 coin is listed with value in (U) uncirculated but is not known. Please let me know if you have one for sale!