Possible Discovery: 1985 FM Barbados 100 Dollar (U) Uncirculated Specimen

Happy Saturday y’all!

I recently found the below coin on eBay - unusually enough it was not in the usual holder of the like-dated proof coins and looked a bit different to my hopefully practiced eye.

it is a beautiful design IMO with the nymph Amphitrite depicted and struck by the Franklin Mint in 1985 - this coin has many traits of the (U) uncirculated FM pieces, but is not recorded in Krause in the way the 1983 coin is. That itself is not necessarily a major issue since records at the FM were and are rather poor.

I will show some pictures and see what readers think:


The pictures are as follows:
Picture of my own proof with the new coin obverse and the reverse
Pictures of proof encapsulated and then closeup of my proof
Picture of obverse of my purchased coin
I then took a picture of the Heritage archived (U) 1983 Barbados coin, which may have some distortion.

In case the reader has not gathered, the key difference between proof and (U) uncirculated is the device contrast to field on the former and lack mostly thereof on the later. The uncirculated coins are quite prooflike as I have tried to show on this and other posts with the exception of the poor Guyana coins.

 

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That is nice. FM coins where the first coins that I collected. Still have all my Proof sets/ proof gold issues.
John

 

I always liked their Norman Rockwell "Boy Scout Law" series.

 

Think she may have had a bit more going on than the average Boy Scout might manage! LOL
The TPGs frequently get confused by these coins, not to mention the mattes of later years prior to unanimous adoption of the PL (U) types such as those of 1976 or 1977.

 

Looks like a regular uncirculated but you're right that the Franklin Mint records were poor.

 

If it is uncirculated, then it is a first. I would put in that category but know that even at the Franklin Mint (where they did seem to manage their die quality on the proofs, year in and year out regardless of the country) there is the possibility that frosting on the devices could wane with strike. As you no doubt recall, even the PL (U) gold coin strikes received excellent care, as did most lesser metal coins - Guyana excepted as we have seen for whatever reason - and so things like fineness of detail or edge sharpness do not clearly separate the Proof from the PL (U) uncirculated strikes.